The idea of a bus company with operations all over the country is not a new one. Attlee's Labour administration took steps to nationalise the railway system in 1948, which had suffered from overworking and a lack of investment throughout the Second World War. With the railway companies came stakes in other transport companies, including road haulage, canals and bus companies: the latter including Tilling Group and British Electric Traction.
The 1950s are considered a golden era for bus travel, but also marked the beginning of decline. There was a huge demand for travel in the post war years as people took up leisure pursuits like never before. The motorbus also replaced tramway systems across the country – but increasing ownership of television and cars was to lead to a decline in passenger numbers. People would not visit the cinema as often when they had their own television, and why take the bus when you had a brand new car to drive? The conductor began to be dispensed with, the driver becoming responsible for collecting fares in an attempt to cut staffing costs, but this tended to lead to slower journey times.
Harold Wilson's first term marked the amalgamation of the government owned bus companies into National Bus Company (NBC) based in England and Wales, along with the Scottish Bus Group (SBG) serving Scotland – both nationalised companies belonging to Her Majesty's Government. Many local bus companies remained in municipal hands, but those in the big cities were merged under the control of the newly-created Passenger Transport Executives. A few pockets of independent bus operators remained, but most of the country was served by publically owned bodies.
The seventies were a time of public sector corporatism, perhaps best examplified by the troubles of super-conglomerate British Leyland and the rail blue era at British Rail. NBC introduced its own corporate ethos too. New vehicles orders were standardised as Leyland Nationals and Bristol VRs, with the majority of vehicles painted either poppy red or leaf green. This one-size-fits-all approach saw passenger numbers continued to fall as decline was managed and uneconomic services lopped off left, right and centre. Similar moves were taking place in Scotland at SBG.
Come the early eighties, and things were starting to change. NBC was allowing its subsidiaries to review their networks. Local identities were introduced to help promote and market the bus within the local community, rather than as a faceless corporation based miles away. Minibuses were introduced on some routes at more frequent intervals. Innovation was taking beginning to take place – but it wouldn't be allowed to flourish as it was.
In 1985, Thatcher's government decided to let bus services become a saleable commodity: anyone could run any bus service anywhere (outside London) to make profit, with local councils filling in the gaps by offering subsidies for unprofitable routes where there was a social need. Both NBC and SBG were broken up and sold off.
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