Tales from the past (Read 8,546 times)

[hep]

Oct 17, 2012 10:14:52 GMT duncan said:

And a shot of the "chip shop" - 269

I used to pass it in Grindleford every Sunday but it disappeared
earlier this year

[Deleted]

1989 was such abusy year, that some matters that took place didn't work through until 1990.

In the late summer of 1989 the operations division was reorganised. The original garage based traffic system was abandoned for an area basis with Marketing Managers looking after the building of networks. From what I remember, they never did any marketing (that was our department) but three excellent managers (Gary Nolan, Richard Simons and John Swann) were detailed to lick the new SYT into shape. Reorganising any company involves staff reductions, and many former SYT stalwarts found themselves out of work. Some were happy to go and went on to good careers outside the industry, some went off with generous redundancy and early retirement packages but some were left angry and confused and went off to help other operators plot against their former employers.

It finally cleared the decks of virtually all the entire EB team that remained. There had long been a view that Terrier and other competitors had got inside knowledge on SYT's next set of plans and that sypathies were divided. I can't say for sure that it wasn't true, but I am am aware that we had 'spies' within Andrews and Omnibus.

During the summer of 1989 long faces were being pulled at the state of some of the MK1 Metrobuses. The back ends were literally falling off and the substructure supporting the engine was failling. The choice was to spend vast amounts of cash bringing them up to scratch, or, biting the bullet and going for new. Various manufacturers pitched up at Amos Road with their latest wares. Optare brough a Delta, Renault brought a Northern Counties brought a 'semi integral' Citybus, Leyland brought a Lnyx, but the one that caought everybody's attention was a Volvo B10M in the livery of Burnley and Pendle. Alexander had promised to re-stlye the front end, and the deal was done for 50 with Voith gearboxes.

January 1990 brought the integration of the acquisitions under the SUT banner. This was led by a, now, very senior Stagecoach manager. His first views on his new empire were 'this is low cost? If we take any more quality out, we'll be left with rust'.

More importantly, the MMC were now looking at the combined operation. They spent a week touring the company and the region. They were impressed with the facilities and services offered and were more than impressed with the fact that we had sold some of our buses to a competitor (Andrews). This was an arrangement beneficial to both parties as they left the bus in SYT livery, in full view, we undertook engineering duties for them, and it gave the impression of open competition. In fact, SYT was going to be 'stitched up' by Andrews in the long run and the directors, wrongly, didn't see them as a real threat.

Rather than concentrate on the battles to come, the company's board pressed on with its plans for an ESOP. It was an ever present conversation, but it took experience away from the main task of running the fleet and the impending imposition of the tram on the streets of the county.

The former Compass team had arrived back in Sheffield early in the new year. Some had taken to referring to themselves by rather grander titles than they actually had. One member had decided that the Dinnington group of services were being mis-represented in the company accounts and started his own analysis of the situation. SYT had plans to reorganise the network to the east in varied forms, but the 'Compass Tie Man' (he wore it every day!) made the bold statement that if his analysis was ignored, he would start his own service. SYT could not afford another Terrier situation and the individual was removed form the company with indecent haste.

The task of making engineering more accountable to the operations side of the business led to a radical reorganisation at the start of the year. Again, more jobs lost, but it did give a sense of providing quality to the fleet. Organised into Fleet Provision, Fleet Maintenace and Cleaning, it gave a vital shot in the arm to this part of the company. It certainly achieved results, with the fleet looking smarter and better cared for.

Halfway Garage was always on the hitlist to be closed. 1990 was no exception. By chance, I walked into Bob Montgomery's office to see a full report on the closure of the garage. Unfortunately the sums for halfway didn't add up.

Take service X55 for example. It was the garage's biggest earner, but suffered from being long and limited stop. If a bus was full at Occupation Lane Top, it could be assumed that the bus would have made a certain amount of money (e.g. 80 people at £1 = £80 in revenue). Compare with a typical service 75. It may have been full by Woodseats, but there would have been a continual churn of passengers along the route, meaning on its trip it could, at least, treble that amount of money.

The garage was also reliant on Derbyshire School contract and British Coal contracts that were drying up with the pit closure programme. The plan for Halfway was only partially completed. The fllet should have been standardies on MK2 Metrobuses, but as Halfway was under Rotherham for engineering purposes, they claimed thay had no real knowledge of MCW products. They conveniently forgot that they had had three Metrobuses at Rotherham in 1986! That part of the plan was abandoned.

The fleet was rationalised and some engineering was transferred out and part of the site was leased to Stardes, a company specialising in transporting rock groups etc. It was always going to be a struggle for such a small garage, but to make matters worse, they lost their canteen and yet more redundancies.

The first new big buses arrived in May and were launched at the, yet to be completed Meadowhall Centre. They were joined by 50 new S56 minibuses with revised 'Beaver' bodywork. These were the best minis the company bought and the majority went to Herries, but half of them were soon on the move to Rotherham!

Bus Driver was a specialist software programme that could analyse the revenue and cost implications of a revised network. It was slow and time consuming, and the first one took seven months to implement. The North Sheffield scheme took parts of the Sheafline network and transformed them as part of the core network. This wasn't the first time that Sheafline had undertaken in SYT changes as some poorly performing SYT services had moved to Sheafline in January 1990.

[The Captain]

The "new" SUT empire operating under the Sheafline name was a work in progress, various odd buses were still on the fleet namely the awfull ex Lothian Atlanteans which were as rough as they looked and despised by drivers with no power steering and no creature comforts, RCN101L (an ex East Yorkshire Park Royal bodied AN68) which by now was a driver trainer and had its own instructor who went on to be Mainlines chief examiner before retirement (Brian Martin). There was the 2 Neoplan single decks and just about every variant of National you could get, MK1/2 long/short/podless and inherited Gardner re-engined Mk1s. Some of the ex SUT Mk2s had got sold on leaving just 97 SNS823W and 98 DMS 17V, the former in the odd SUT grey livery and 98 in an allover ad for the Dome. 2 Mk1s had been selected to be turned into Greenways although one was in bad condition so an ex Midland Red MK1 was bought for the project and ended up the better of the 2 (NOE 595R) the other CWX 669T. The AN68s were got shut of, and Mainline passed over 2 Marshall bodied AN68s 1811/1815 which had been on reserve, iirc one didnt last long at all and was replaced by 1817.

More Mk1 Nationals came from West Riding around the time of closure of the original Sheafline depot at Tinsley which had its own 38 bus allocation plus 3-4 SUT vehicles always on loan to cover for MT/engines etc. Buses generally got swept off and rears jet washed at the home depot and once a week would be tripped up to Charlotte Rd for a run through the wash. All the repaints into Sheafline livery whether it be from SUT etc or aquirred buses such as an ex London Country short MK1 were done at Tinsley right at the back of the depot-all sprayed. At SUT the paintshop there had been repainting West Riding MK1s into SUT livery before SYT put a stop to it, one of the painters went to Omnibus and became the resident Inspector on Arundal Gate holding back buses waiting for the next SYT/Mainline to appear. Repaints then got handled by SYT which included a reversal of the blue skirts/red roofs for red skirts etc as it didnt wear well and the notorious out pourings of oil on the Mk1s made the rears look shocking. Some even got blue skirts/blue roofs. The worst period was when Safeways had an ad campaign in Sheffield and it got plastered on the sides of some of the most rusty/paint worn examples and the national rep for Safeways came to Sheffield and saw them with his own eyes. Not the image he wanted or the public percieved either.

One Neoplan 101 E101 VWA had a bad accident in depot where the driver was trying to build air up and the doors shut releasing the interlock consequently shooting forward into a pillar-off it went to Plaxtons and had a Derwent front grafted on. Services generally all had the 4 prefix and were either tendered, poor performing SYT services 434/438/439 (ex 1/34/35/38/39), psuedo competing routes against SYT/Mainline such as the 424 Totley or competition against Omnibus and Andrews.

In 1994 Sheafline was split into 3 parts with the by now Charlotte Rd based Coachline/Nat ex unit moving to Rotherham and the other two parts Greenland and Herries Rd. Herries was then merged with Leadmill at the re-opened East Bank depot under the name Olive Grove (politics). The whole fleet had been numbered under the 800s series with the Marshall AN68s being 800/801 etc, yet another was replaced by 1820? before that was took back under Mainline control. The Neoplans went to Doncaster. By now it was not cost effective to keep the Nationals going, DMS 17V now Mainline liveried had been re-engined with a Volvo engine. It ate brakes, we are talking days not weeks between relines-and now it was Mainline engineering dealing with them and not Sheaflines own they could just not get there heads aound them. So more B10Ms were ordered to cascade Dominators and AN68s replacing Nationals.

The Greenland Sheafline unit before being absorbed into Mainline as a whole ran the 2 Greenways 805/806, early small tank Dominators on day work and 2400 Dominators on tendered all day work. The 287 Maltbys and some school work which interworked used 1900 Fastlines. B10Ms were only used Sundays and more and more Renault S56s were allocated to Sheafline route such as the 25 or 145/146.

[Deleted]

The original plan for the B10M's was to allocate the first 38 to Herries for the 53/75/76. Unfortunately, Herries had been built to a 1950's specification and the engineering aspects of looking after these buses pulled a few furrowed brows. Whislt single decks had been allocated to Herries, only one, Leopard 19, was actually on fleet at the time. The maintenance of that was undertaken using Hywema lifts at the top of 'A' Bay. The garage extension had been built to allow for 36ft buses, this was mainly engaged in MT work, and it would have been difficult to program general exams into the space available. It seems, however, when Sheafline moved in, in 1993, these issues were overcome. I recommend the captain's piece above about the history of Sheafline - excellent it is!

Parking was also a problem. Traditionally, buses in Sheffield had been 'herringboned' into the bays to permit flexible parking as required. To put it simply, the B10M's didn't fit and the Dairy Park could only accomodate 25 buses at its maximum. So, they went to Greenland and Dominators went to Herries in exchange. Sadly, the driving staff at Herries weren't to appreciative of this and other aspects of the North Sheffield scheme, and strike action was only averted at the last minute.

The last 12 were bound for Doncaster, but not for Mainline. They were to be sent to Dunscroft to operate on the Moorends and Goole corridor, converting it to high frequency express operation. A red, black and cameo version of SYT livery was designed, but at the last minute was changed to Mainline spec - more anon. The purchase of these buses would come back to haunt Mainline in 1994.

The main talking point from 1990 was the MMC enquiry. Unsurprisingly, they decided that the acquisition of five operators, if you include Groves, was against the public interest and would be anti-competitive. The main crux of the argument was that South Yorkshire represented a significant proportion of the United Kingdom. Whilst SY was a significant county, it only had 2.5% of the country's population and large parts of it were rural, especially the east towards the border with Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire. They had failed to examine the parallel relationship just up the M1 in West Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Rider, privatised in October 1988, had acquired the metropolitan operations of West Yorkshire RCC in May 1989 together with about 100 buses. They were also well on the way to taking the York operation off their hands and all the local competitors as well. The difference was that YR was now private and the Conservative government had the sale of the remaining PTC's top of its list of priorities. South Yorkshire had traditionally been at loggerheads with Westminster on transport policy, and this was now coming back to hit the operation.

It was pure politics. The government wanted SYT in private hands and the shareholders didn't. As with all things, the operating company was in the middle and suffered as a result. A convenient stick to beat the shareholders with was the SYT acquisitions and the continued enjoyment of the Local Government Superannuation Scheme, which the government had continually suggested could be withdrawn at the drop of a hat.

Doncaster Mainline hit the streets in the September of 1990, in what can only be described as an unappealing livery. It should have been red and yellow, but to stop a shareholder revolt, the main body colour was grey. That looked fine when it was newly painted, it weathered badly and looked dull after a short while. Doncaster had to wait until 1991 to get Eager Beaver fever.

Rotherham was next in November with a much more palatable blue and yellow version. Unfortunately, the decision was taken to add a red stripe - most unnecessary, but prescribed by the shareholders. This also came with a major route simplification which did a lot to put Rotherham firmly into the positive, financially. Eager Beavers had gone onto the 114 during the summer and onto the 130 when Meadowhall opened, but was now extended to Bramley etc.

Meadowhall had opened with great fanfare in September 1990 and as many buses as possible were diverted to serve the cathedral of shopping. The Meadowhall express services from Rotherham and Sheffield were to be operated by artics transferred from the City Clipper and the X91. The blue livery specifically had a blank rear section that should have been sold for advertising. Nobody came forward, and for the life of the blue livery, they stayed blank.

SYT and Rider had been working on Guided Bus projects and a metrobus was brought off the scrapline at Rotherham, renovated and put onto a short demonstration track at Midland Road. The line was to run from Heeley Bottom via the Midland mainline into the City. BR was to be asked to slew the line to one side and SYT would occupy the other stretch of track. It was all pie in the sky, and it was just another example of the directorates lack of grasp on the reality of the problems facing the company.

Finally, one of the more pleasant tasks undertaken that summer was to put together a fleet poster and fleetbook (they are still available on Amazon!) and that was a very happy two weeks running around the company taking photographs of everything we had.

[The Captain]

The other story about the B10Ms was that Herries Rds then manager Bert Middleton refused them point blank on the basis of previous experience with the Volvo Ailsas, and his opinion that he could run Omnibus off the road with what he had got. Bert, as those who knew him can vouch for-was not a man to be argued with so there were no B10Ms at Herries Rd.

What Bert did have done was have a select bunch of drivers, and hand picked Dominators for daytime "goosing" activitys. 2229/2467-2470 were crewed by the same drivers (Gordon Sharpe/Sniffer/Greek Eddie etc) and in the morning sit at Lane Top waiting for the Omnibus 72/76 coming up the hill from Ecclesfield and run in from all the way to City or in odd cases Highfields. In and afternoon and evening they would sit on the High St stop towards High Green and only move either once full or a Traffic Warden appeared-to be fair everyone was at it, only across the road Terrier plonked buses on the 52 stop and they never moved. They would just load up then transfer to the next one along with Eager Beavers stuck in the road. Along came the Sheffield City Centre enforcement order prohibiting such tactics, crew changes in sensitive areas and itemized each operators permitted services up High St.

Once the Barnsley Rd/Chapeltown/High Green bus war had got going both operators sought to level the playing field. SYT opened up the fuel pumps on some of its Dominators making them hard to catch if being chased by an AN68, Omnibus quickly found out why nobody ran buses in Sheffield with the G2 automatic gearchanging system, within 18 months quite a few AN68s had 1 or more gears missing-in fact it was a daily ritual to try your bus out before leaving depot and if you had 2nd/3rd and top you were lucky. If you had 1124 CRN124S then it was bad luck: it had crawler and top. So a conversion programme to make them semi auto was started. A kind Electrician from Leadmill Road depot came one evening and converted 1122 CRN122S and then it was road tested, storming would be a qood description!. That was it the rest would be done!.

I do remember an Optare Delta on loan to Omnibus trying to keep up with 2229 going up Firth Park Rd past the Library-no chance, but you couldnt see the Dominator for the black smoke either !.

Around 1993 Omnibus had got a considerable but varied fleet. 3 batches of ex Preston AN68s 1111-1119/1121-1130/1131-1140, with the newer T-reg versions based at Chesterfield, the 4 ex Hyndburn GM standards 604/643/645 and 688, 9 ex Portsmouth W reg AN68s 1345-1354 which were very tidy but could only do about 40 flat out, the batch of ex Brighton R reg AN68s 1065-1072 and a couple of ex Eastbourne 33ft V reg AN68s 1332/133 which were also very tidy and well suited to the 74 Carter Knowle Rd-Barnsley run. More buses were required for expansion, the aforementioned K-MAP B10Ms 235-237 registered in Brighton whilst shopping for AN68s, some rough V reg ex Eastern Counties Mk2 Nationals in Stagecoach livery 1082-1087 which had got more body filler in the rears than paint, and 3 DMS-V Mk2 Nationals 1018/1023/1025 which had been released by West Riding as being rather rough bodywise, also 1031 KWA 31W a former East Bank SYT National 2 which West Riding had acquired during the Compass bus exchange with SYT!. The 3 buses bought which caused the most trouble were some ex Southampton East Lancs Olympians. Not one was the same. 1678 A278 ROW had a TL11 engine (much groaning from those who had worked on them) 1680 A280 ROW with a standard Gardner and 1686 C286 BBP which was still in an allover ad for the local paper (Echo) and was to DP spec. It was abysmal climbing hills, Nice bus-just set up all wrong for hills. To cut a sorrowfull story short, 1678 was always broke down, and got sold on from Chesterfield depot, 1680 failed and ended up in the graveyard also at Chesterfield stripped, along with a lot of the NCK-T Prestons, 1139/1140 amongst them, and 1686 blew up one night at Burncross with no coolant in it-the alarm had failed. That very morning the gaffer was going up to Glasgow for spares anyway and enquired at Dunsmores yard for a 6LXB, a few hours of waiting and one was put on the back of the wagon. Trouble was it was for a Fleetline!, never mind Mike Sanigar at Andrews took it off Omnibuses hands. A bit of money was spent on the 3 Olympians and off to private owners they went.

Late 1992 saw some more motley AN68s arrive, mainly from Liverline. The better ones (!!!!) were ex Blackpool BFR-R reg 1102/1104. They were that good one attracted the Traffic Police in High St for oil leaks and the driver smoking. The Ministry threw the book at Omnibus. Newer buses were required so a batch of ex Stagecoach B6/Dashs was "bought". J/K and one ex Demo L reg went straight into service at Chesterfield in dealer white-these were the original prototypes and not very good. The rear suspension was a system of 5 tie rods holding an HGV derived axle in place on 4 air bags, the eyes on the rods wore very quickly and the B6s would bang and rattle allover the road till Volvo fitted modified tie rods.

One project which got some national press was the Atlantean sprint. LJA 645P had been sent away and its body removed, chassis lengthened and returned to Ecclesfield. Special springs, coach spec diff and gearbox as well as an uprated Leyland 0680 engine with an Eminox chrome exhaust all fitted before dispatch to East Lancs for a new single deck body. So 2501 IIL2501 arrived and apart form the length wasnt a bad bus, very nice to drive!. Another was also built 2505 IIL2505 with a few more planned, even a half completed chassis was stored at Chesterfield and some AN68s getting the private plates but thats as far as it went.

The turning point in some peoples eyes was when a batch of MCW bodied S reg AN68s was bought from Merseybus (Liverpools equivalent of SYT/Mainline). The alarm bells rang straight away, why were they releasing S-reg vehicles when there was still L/M/N/P reg stuff running around Liverpool in vast numbers?. Simple: they were corroded to death. 1090 OEM 790S is the stuff of legends, it went down the Wicker and turned to go up Spital Hill, its upperdeck didnt. On being informed of its amazing trick the management sent it to Chesterfield for the bodymen to inspect (and the bodymen were time served ex Reeve Burgess who had built the Beavers for SYT before being made redundant-small world isnt it?) and on removal of the rear panel work it was found the rear pillars were shot, you could stand upstairs and swing the back end over the engine bustle. Finito!. Trouble was a lot more was coming-granted same reg but from St Helens and a bit better looked after. Painting by this time was being done by CTL (Chesterfield Transport) as well as parts borrowing and sneaky runs through Stonegravels wash. Good job as the Merseybus livery was a pain to rub down, orders were to use scouring pads to take the shine off and get the first few painted-the managers were told the new paint would blow off the first time a jet wash was put near them. Ah well.

[Deleted]

You're right about Bert, Captain, but his stance was after the Volvo's had been delivered and he and Dave Hearson had been subjected to Mk1 Metrobuses! The 'Hit Squad' was stuff of ledgend and well respected.

Further updates to follow, but Captain's mention of the MCW Atlanteans made me chuckle. I also remember following one in a car and as it turned down Howard Street it visibly moved from one side to the other above the rear engine shrouds. In addition, the two engine side covers were different and the lights were at different heights and types!

[The Captain]

Yes i remember the ex Greenland Mk1 MCWs made redundant by new Volvos moving to Herries Rd before scrap or sale. A Bert "myth"-and theres plenty of those.

[andyrad]

What an interesting thread! great to read guys you should write a book

I was too young to know what was going on behind the scenes at the time and all i remember is the great variety of buses but its now great to read what was really going on

many thanks for this

[morrisminor]

Great stuff - thanks brownncream and thecaptain

[Deleted]

Nobody saw them coming, but they had planned well and were fairly good on the execution front. Sheffield Omnibus was part of the fall out from the policy of buyouts that SYT had initiated. The group had assembled a good batch of ex Preston Atlanteans that were well presented and, importantly, painted blue and cream. Sheffielders don't forget easily.

SYT reacted by putting extras on the 76 between Woodseats and Sheffield Lane Top, giving a five minute headway between Woodseats and Sheffield Lane Top with service 75. In addition, a new scratch card game called 'Mainline Mania' was launched with prizes including holidays to Florida and free travel.

The company had been pleased with the B10M's and carried forward the purchase policy for 1991. Another 40 were ordered, together with another 40 'Beavers'. This time Rotherham recieved some and the Beavers mainly went to Greenland for the 52, releasing the 'Scuds' to Doncaster for their Eager Beaver programme.

The Supertram project was up and running and was to be financed by the four local councils of South Yorkshire, refunded by the central Government. Unfortunately, the Conservatives renaged on the deal, and the whole cost had to be found from the rates.

Sadly, Bob Montgomery decided to take the helm at Dublin Bus and left in the early spring. It was often said that the other directors found him domineering in the board room and that he would dearly love to be in control. I have to say, I found him an excellent man to work for and he certainly gave SYT the 'oomph' to get into the competitive spirit.

The company had won the first round of the appeal process against the MMC order to sell the SUT combine. The whole process only finished in 1993 after further appeals. The real process of integrating SUT started in 1994, but by then the momentum had been lost and other competitors had stepped into the frame.

The new OD started in the summer. I found him cold and unprofessional, so I won't mention his name. He had many ideas about quality, but in the main he wished to rid the area of its 'orange and cream buses'. Plainly, he was colour blind and instantly wanted to paint all buses in a red and white scheme based on Go Ahead Northern (his last employer). The dreaded 'reorganisation' word resurfaced, but it was to be another twelve months until his masterplan was put in place.

Coachline was causing major headaches all round. It was in need of updating and the use of IT was needed, as everything was still done on paper. Out went Martin and incam one time SUT man Phil Travis. He certainly took it by the scruff of the neck, but problems dogged the operation throughout the rest of its SYT incarnation.

A major embarassement was the decision to award the World Student Games transport contract to East Midland. SYT had bid well and hoped to win the contract. In the event, the company introduced the forerunner to the daysaver called 'Games Saver'. The trial eventually led to the widescale introduction of bus sold period tickets.

Wigmores had a try at invading North Sheffield on the High Green corridor, but in the event the went 'home' and SYT came off the 208. There was more to this as an agreement had been reached to look at frachising services in Dinnington to Wigmores/NBC, but it had to wait a few years for that to happen. Yorkshire Terrier moved on to the 137/8 network in Rotherham, but this was a step too far and they soon retreated to move onto services to Killamarsh. Another competitor to give into SYT was Don Valley Buses.

This was part of the Julian Peddle/Stevensons empire and could have been backed by Midland Fox (a.k.a Drawlane). It mainly operated poor quality minibuses on tendered services. It was retained as yet another low cost unit but most of the fleet was replaced by MK1 S56's. Andrew Gunning, however, was looking to recapture the past by applying for a licence to operate in Sheffield. This would eventually surface as South Riding, but that's for another year!

[Deleted]

1992 was going to be one of those disaster ridden years for SYT. Firstly, the MMC were like a dog with a bone and wouldn't give up trying to wrestle the SUT combine away from the company, despite the emergence of a number of new competitors.

There is little to be said for January in any year and during the first two weeks of the year, one of the company's Dominators (2422 to be precise) was stolen from Rotherham Bus Station and eventually found embedded in a house in West Melton. Such was the complicated way these vehicles had been paid for in PTE days, the obviously too bad to be repaired bus, was argued over for a number of months until the finance company agreed for it to be scrapped and its parts used elsewhere. This was the first Dennis to be withdrawn.

SYT had invested heavily in something called 'Management Services'. The basis for this was that the company would take on higher overhead costs to reduce operating costs. One manifestation of this was 'Bus Driver', the computer drived network modelling scheme. Whilst it took an inordinate amount of time to produce a new network, it did give real cost benefit analysis based on data that could be altered by humans. This was 'junked' in the January and each area reverted to being responsible for designing their own networks.

Another piece of pie in the sky 'innovation' came in the spring when SYT announced its 'Next Century' initiative. This included guided busways, real time information and 'cosy stops'. Whilst most of this has now come to fruition in various parts of the UK, this kind of self promotion was expensive, and simply diverted resources from the firefight.

The huge complex at Midland Road was eating cash and needed a way of filling up the rapidly expanding empty space. In order to reduce the running costs of Rotherham Garage, the building and engineering part of the operations had been transferred to something called 'Central Overheads'. In effect, Rotherham was overly profitable, because it now paid a very low proportion of the running costs of the building. This cost was being subsidised by the remainder of the operation. The garage had been built for growth, but, that had stopped so consolidation was the name of the game.

London Buses had decided to extend the life of it ageing Routemaster fleet. SYT bid for, and won, a sizeable part of the contract and set about turning the engineering side of the business into a profitable part of the business. This mainly ivolved existing staff from accross the fleet, but some new workers were employed and buoyed by the success, were soon replacing floors of LB's Leyland Titan's and doing work for numerous other bus company's. Today's Commercial Unit at First was born form this starting point.

The profit and loss tables weren't looking pretty, so yet another re-organisasion took place. This time, I was involved, as I was one of the 35 members of staff considered 'expendable'. Not only that (I was back in eight months) but my department was wiped out as well as the company's travel shops and telephone response unit. Publicity that was to be produced was to be based on core services, and the rest would be done by the PTE. Now, you don't see Sainsbury's asking the 'Grocer Magazine' to produce its publicity, and to my mind, bus companies should be no different.

Secretly, two budgets existed. One if Labour had won the April election, and the one put into place if the Conservative's won. The new OD made a great play on turning the company Mainline, but confused it by making sure every bus recieved SYT vinyls on the upper deck windows and then into the curious situation of calling it SYT Mainline for a number of months until well into 1993.

TV advertising was back with the snappily titled 'We've saved a seat for you' (actually, their were lots of seats, as the company's ridership had halved in six years) and a slightly revised livery. Strangely, for a man about to be made redundant, I was asked to attend the livery reveal to the Directors at Herries (maybe it was symapthy?) and to be honest, it looked rubbish. The silver didn't wear well (it was eventually replaced by grey) and diluted the whole point of the Mainline concept.

Some more B10M's arrived in time for the new livery launch and were put to work at Leadmill, Rotherham and Doncaster. But the icing on the cake was the 'Grand Plan'. This would finally see the closure of Halfway (no, not yet!) the closure of Leadmill (again, never saw fruition in 1992) and the building of a new garage in Sheffield to replace Charlotte Road when SUT's future was finally decided (for a company with no money, this was more pie in the sky and I never saw a plan or location for this). In addition, Rutland Way would close and its function would move to Rotherham (wow, that actually did happen) and Doncaster would retreat into the new garage and Bootham Lane would close (again, only partially enacted). 70 vehiles would be removed form the PVR by removing about 5% of the company mileage and anybody over 50 would be allowed to take early retirement (that was popular!).

As with all things SYT, it was just more bad news for the fire. Adding fuel, was the introduction of South Riding using ex Halton Nationals. In a bizarre twist, SYT initiated legal proceedings against them, as well as Omnibus and Terrier for using the same fleet numbers. This was based on the assumption that you could trademark these as being individual to the company.

As the summer turned to autumn, Saver tickets came to be sold on bus, in direct contravention of an agreement made with the PTE when they took over the travel shops. The PTE agreed to take all the staff on in return for a guaranteed level of Saver sales. In addition, the 'Beaver' dream began to die with service 52 moving to B10M operation to reduce labour costs.

The funniest tale of 1992 was about George Watson. Now working for Sheffield Omnibus, and after attending a PI against them, he pitched up at Amos Road to enquire where his share of the Savercard revenue was. This maverick busman was aware that his drivers were allowing Savercard holders to travel on payment of 50p. We weren't bothered, as we already had the original revenue (actually, the ridership on the 75/76 hadn't been affected by Omnibus at this point), but he couldn't understand why he didn't get a cut of the original price, as every passenger travelling at 50p was affecting his average fare and was blowing a big hole in hos revenue projections. A few kind words in his ear left him vowing to take us to court and take us into a bus war. Only part of that was right!

[ateam]

The story continues

You can still see the SYT logo on the old Rutland Way building.

[The Captain]

George Watson, you knew something was in the wind. Rumour was Stagecoach were not impressed with his love of Routemasters and unique style of management. When East Midlands Routemasters appeared at Omnibus the rumour mill went into overdrive: "Takeover/cash/propping up?"-and it went down a storm in its first week-the "Hitsquad" waiting at Lane Top saw the Routemaster chugging up the road on the 72 and thought it was the X39 Penistone which Stagecoach were running on tender at the time (did they not realise double decks couldnt get under the bridge at Penistone?).

Then there was the Mansfield & District VRT JAK210W loaned to Ecclesfield for a while, nice bus and gave the management confidence to buy the ex Northampton Alexander VRTs in readyness for the start up of Nottingham Omnibus which was a new venture with ex East Midlands Mansfield manager Bob Hamilton. More connections with consequences in the future.

George fetched up his beloved RM10 and had Omnibus staff tidy it up a bit while some long toothed Barnsley busmen had a chance to find out whether the Routemasters reputation was myth or fantasy. They were surprised at how good a drive it was. They never did anything for me, a Mk1 National was the tool for the job.

Yet another Stagecoach connection was the purchase of a batch of ex Ribble ECW AN68s (TRN-Vs) new in Carlisle and a few odditys, LEO 734Y new to Barrow Corporation with a GM standard body, VCW 440W another 33ft AN68 with a NC body which came from a Dewsbury operator, and LRB 582W an ex Trent ECW AN68 which was a lovely bus but the body was rotten at the rear. The 165/265 tender was won so two Leyland Tigers arrived, new to London & Country (A-EPA) but came from Nottingham City Transport as part of a deal to scale down the Nottingham Omnibus business (which didnt take off but as bus wars go was very very bitter), also a surprise move was the arrival of 5 brand new last built Leyland Olympians with Alexander RH bodywork-then a batch of 8 brand new Alexander Dash bodied B6s!!. Question to ones self: where is the cashflow for all these new buses? 3 B10Ms/half a dozen second hand nearly new B6s/8 new B6s and 5 new Olympians?. Mmmm.

[transit]

....loving all this as i was in hibernation for 20+ years after the SYPTE years.
Certainly filling the gaps ! - looking forward to next instalment ! - When finished ,this should be put into a publication !!!!!!

[Deleted]

The relentless march of Omnibus was causing great concern. As well as its original corridor, it had now moved onto the Penistone Road corridor as well as Ecclesall Road. Even more concerning, they seemed to be able to make a fist of running evening and Sunday buses, something which traditionally, smaller operators had distanced themselves from. There also seemed to be a tri-partite agreement with Terrier and South Riding to be 'non-competitive' and each kept to their own zone.

The big question was where was Omnibus getting its backing from? It had now branched off into Nottingham and had opened a second garage at Chesterfield to break into the lucrative Low Edges and Wincobank corridors. Nottingham was a step to far, and it was difficult to guarantee any quality in the engineering operation. Some of the vehicles purchased were, at best, poor, and even though some small scale purchases of stock buses helped decrease the average age, it was a war of attrition and costs were cut to the bone.

For the new Mainline, the first big decision of the year was to sell off the Leicester Avenue part of Doncaster Garage. The old garage was an unusual mix of buildings within a central shell and a lot of bits of equipment and vehicles that nobody wanted head office to know about, were stored in its nooks and crannies.

The plot included all the administrative functions for the district, so this was moved to exisiting premises in Duke Street. Some vehicles were moved to Bootham Lane and the apron at the rear of the building was to be the parking area.

The MMC had won their final appeal for the break up of the SUT combine but surprisingly, after four long years, the DFT decided to let the matter rest allowing the integration of the company to begin. It seemed like a hollow victory - most of the advantages of buying all these companies had been lost and the company had spent an incredible amount of money on defending its corner.

The PTA finally decided to let the employees purchase the company. The trigger for this was the break up of GM Buses and the Government's threat to stop the Superannuation Scheme for existing employees. ESOP was back on the agenda, but the feeling was that what the employees was buying was worth less than it was in 1989.

The sale was a contracted and long winded affair. In effect the ESOP was buying the right to operate Mainline's services (what happened if they didn't want to operate them any more is a mute point) and some assets. In effect that meant Leyland Nationals - nothing else. Significantly, the ESOP had to agree to a certain level of service throughout the operating area and make a conditional fares agreement that limited the amount of increase over a given timescale. The fact that no sognificant assets were included in the sale lessened the burden of cost. It caused problems, however.

With no assets, it was difficult to raise funds. Conditions set by the PTA would limit the company in its reactions to other operators and the level of revenue that could be earned. The Volvo B10M's were at risk of being taken away by the financiers. SYT's bankers had been Midland Bank and when the purchase was agreed for the B10M's, this was agreed with HSBC in Hong Kong and when they heard that the company's assets were to be retained by a non operational umbrella company, they decided that with no guarantee of revenue, this was too big a risk. This had to be guaranteed by the PTA, but it did hold up the sale process by a couple of months.

The Sheffield Traffic Regulation order came into effect in 1993 and had an instant effect on the way services operated in the city. Together with a management plan by the City Council and roadworks from tram construction, it all added to the operating costs. On top of this, the Operations Director was 'asked to leave' during the spring, being replaced by Ian Davies.

Meadowhall Head Office was closed during the summer and despite the company toying with buying an old solicitors office in Broomhill, moved to a brand new office building on Newhall Road. Stores moved to Greenland and Rotherham and Computer Services was scaled back, just 18 months after a huge extension was built at Amos Road.

Wilfreda Beehive was eating into Doncaster's revenue and was causing great consternation. The desire was expressed that this company should be 'brought to heel' but no real decision could be made at this time. Feelers were put out, but were rebuffed. This wouldn't be the last time this would be tried. Costs could, however, be reduced in Sheffield and Charlotte Road closed in the autumn with the bus division moving to Greenland, Herries and Rotherham and Coachline returning to Leadmill.

George Watson had been watching his first love, Clydeside, with interest and wanted to get back to the fray. An approach was made to Mainline to purchase the business. This would have been very tempting, but having only just got rid of one MMC enquiry, it was decided to say no and insist on fair competition. The main competitors in Sheffield had got into the nack of blocking stops and not playing well. This was going to get dirty!