 | |
| Founded | April 1912 |
|---|---|
| Ceased operation | March 1995 |
| Headquarters | Evenwood, County Durham England |
| Service area | |
| Service type | Bus and coach |
| Owner | Wade Emmerson |
OK Motor Services was a bus company, which operated local and regional bus services in County Durham and Tyne and Wear, England. The company was purchased by the Go-Ahead Group in March 1995. Following rationalisation and rebranding, the OK Motor Services livery disappeared from the roads, as services were integrated with Go North East.
The company was founded on 6 April 1912 in Evenwood, near Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England, by Wade Emmerson. The first route ran from Bishop Auckland to Evenwood. [1]
The original name was Gaunless Valley Motor Services, with the name OK Motor Services coming from a consortium of operators who started to run from the area to the Great North Exhibition in Newcastle, in the late-1920s. The name OK was used and means as it suggests – the service was "OK".
The first garage was located in Evenwood, near Bishop Auckland, with an office being opened within Bishop Auckland Town Hall during the early 1930s. The site of the main garage was acquired and developed during the 1930s in North Bondgate.
A further depot was opened at Heaton, with further depots at St Helen Auckland and Shotton Colliery acquired, along with the business of F Lockey & Sons.
During the early 1980s, the company replaced OK Motor Services name with OK Travel, and introduced a simplified version of the eye-catching livery of dark red, light red and cream.
After deregulation, the company acquired two further depots. A depot at Team Valley was acquired to replace Heaton, with a further depot constructed in Peterlee, as a replacement for that at Shotton Colliery.
Go-Ahead Group had already made approaches to Wade Emmerson Sr., who ran the business, but the shareholders had no interest in selling it. However, Go-Ahead was advised that if the business did become available for sale, they would be given the first refusal.
Wade Emmerson Sr. died unexpectedly in August 1994. Wade Emmerson Jr., the company's majority shareholder, was approached by Go-Ahead, which expressed its continued interest in acquiring the business. He was also approached by other operators, including Northumbria Motor Services, but decided to enter detailed negotiations only with Go-Ahead. In March 1995, Go-Ahead Group acquired OK Motor Services for £5.4 million. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Following the acquisition, many of OK's staff, including the general manager, Charles Marshall, became employees of Go-Ahead. OK initially became one of Go-Ahead's locally managed subsidiaries, with Marshall remaining in charge. Go-Ahead later took steps to streamline the business, with several of the group's earlier acquisitions transferred to OK. [6] However, the local identities were soon abandoned, and the OK name disappeared.
The garage at Bishop Auckland was demolished, following closure by Go North East in March 2006, with a limited number of services transferred to Go North East's depot at Chester-le-Street, with most local services transferring to Arriva North East.
On 23 January 2012, the OK Motor Services brand was briefly revived by Go North East, following the introduction of new services OK Way 18, which ran between Coundon and Tindale Crescent, and OK Expressway OK1, which ran between Crook, Bishop Auckland and Darlington. [3] [lower-alpha 1]
On 10 August 2013, Go North East withdrew service OK1, as a result of a fall in passenger numbers towards the end of its 18-month trial. Service 18 was withdrawn in May 2019, with the route subsequently covered by an extension of service X21 from Newcastle, Chester-le-Street and Durham. [7]
In November 2007, a new OK Motor Services Ltd was formed at Companies House. The company remained dormant under the original owner but was acquired on 21 October 2014 by Tim Phillips, who had also previously formed a new OK Travel Ltd on 30 October 2012, under a different company number. Tim Phillips had acquired for restoration a Leyland Tiger (LFT 5X), originally purchased by OK Motor Services, with the company awarded an operator's licence on 25 May 2016. [8]
The company formerly operated from the following depots across the region: Bishop Auckland, [lower-alpha 2] Heaton, Peterlee, Shotton Colliery [lower-alpha 3] and Team Valley.
By 1994, the company operated 212 vehicles, with an average fleet age of about 11 years. In the preceding year, the company had bought a total of 47 brand-new vehicles. [6]
County Durham, officially simply Durham (/ˈdʌrəm/), is a ceremonial county in North East England. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne and Wear to the north, the North Sea to the east, North Yorkshire to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The largest settlement is Darlington.
Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England, with Sunderland to the north, Hartlepool to the south, the Durham Coast to the east and Durham to the west. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946. The act also created the nearby settlement of Newton Aycliffe and later Washington, Tyne and Wear.
Easington Lane is a village in the City of Sunderland metropolitan borough in the county of Tyne and Wear, North East England. Historically part of County Durham and located between Hetton-le-Hole, Seaham, Peterlee and Durham. It had a population of 4,044 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 7,193 at the 2011 Census.
Horden is a village and electoral ward in County Durham, England. It is situated on the North Sea coast, to the east of Peterlee, approximately 12 miles south of Sunderland. Horden was a mining village until the closure of the Horden Colliery in 1987. Main features include the Welfare and Memorial Parks and St Mary's church. It is connected to the villages of Blackhall Colliery and Blackhall Rocks to its south by a spectacular rail viaduct which spans Castle Eden Dene near Denemouth. Horden Dene provides Horden's northern boundary with Easington Colliery.
Shotton Colliery is a village in County Durham, England, situated north west of Peterlee.
Easington is a constituency created in 1950 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Grahame Morris of the Labour Party.
Arriva Southern Counties Limited, trading as Arriva Southern Counties, is a bus operator in Kent, Essex, Hemel Hempstead, and Watford in England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus.
Go North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead Northern. The company was the foundation of today's Go-Ahead Group, which now operates bus and rail services across the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, Ireland, Norway and Singapore.
Arriva North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus, which operates bus and coach services across the United Kingdom.
United Automobile Services was a bus company, which operated local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne & Wear, England. It provided bus services across a wide geographical area, stretching from the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north, Filey in the south, and Carlisle in the west.
The Northern General Transport Company was a bus company in North East England.
London Country North East was a bus operator in South East England and London. It was formed from the split of London Country Bus Services in 1986 and operated a fleet of around 350 buses from six garages, with its headquarters located in Hatfield.
The Durham to Bishop Auckland Line was a railway line originally built by the North Eastern Railway (NER) to provide rail transport access to coal mines in West County Durham. It closed under the Beeching Axe to passenger traffic in May 1964, and freight in 1968. Today it forms the major part of the 9 miles (14 km) Brandon to Bishop Auckland rail trail.
Horden is a railway station on the Durham Coast Line, which runs between Newcastle and Middlesbrough via Hartlepool. The station, situated 10 miles 74 chains (17.6 km) south-east of Sunderland, serves the villages of Horden, Blackhall Colliery and Easington along with the town of Peterlee in County Durham, North East England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Shotton Bridge railway station was a railway station built by the North Eastern Railway (NER) on the route of the Hartlepool Dock & Railway (HD&R) as part of a programme of works to modernise that line and link it with the Durham & Sunderland Railway (D&SR) so as to create a railway through-route between West Hartlepool and Sunderland. On opening, the station served the relatively new village of Shotton Colliery, which grew around the nearby Shotton Grange Colliery, as well as Old Shotton on the Stockton to Sunderland turnpike road, further to the east.
Media related to OK Travel (bus company) at Wikimedia Commons
