Sheffield Omibus (Read 2,008 times)

[bususer]

I am wondering what people's memories here are of Sheffield Omnibus (NOT Andrews/Sheffield Omnibus which was created later by YTC.

As far as I know this company started in 1991 when two people from Preston (I don't know their names)bought some old Layland Atlantians from Preston Omnibus and moved to Sheffield to compete with SYT. I know they were based at Ecclesfield but I'm not sure what their initial route(s) was/were.

Also I am interested in the nature of their competition with SYT. I think it was quite a bitter rivalry. And wasn't there an incident in about 1993 when a bus of theirs had break failure going down a steep hill and the driver managed to get the bus safely to stop with no injuries (no mean feat)! Didn't they have various maintainence safety issues and got into trouble with the Traffic Commissioner?

[The Captain]

Sheffield Omnibus:
A shortened history: Set up by Ian Dyson ex North Western who was miffed at Sheafline selling its business to SYT instead of his good self. He had 3 partners in the business-Mike Armstrong ex Cumberland Motor Services, Tony Williamson ex Leicester Citybus and another fellow who wasnt there long called Bob who came from Midland Fox.
Operated out of George Fishers yard on Green Lane Ecclesfield with 2 batches of ex Preston AN68s, 5 GM standards via Hyndburn and another batch of AN68s from Portsmouth operating mainly on the 72/74/76. Various other routes and the domination of Chapeltown/High Green helped expansion and the setting up of another depot at Chesterfield to operate 53/94 and Stocksbridge routes. New buses came in the shape of 3 B10Ms, 5 Olympians and a batch of B6s. Other secondhand buses were National 2s and more AN68s from Brighton/Merseybus/Ribble/Magicbus and a few others.
Competition wise SYTs Herries Rd depot operated hitbuses using 2229/2467-2470 with a team of dedictated drivers such as Gordon Sharpe, Greek Eddie, Sniffer and a few others who waited at Lane Top in the morning and sat on High St/Arundal Gate in the evenings doing short runners and "Goosers". Fares were about the same as were weekly tickets and at such low prices people on the main routes bought both Mainlines and Omnibuses.
Re the runaway bus-it was an ex Merseybus AN68 driven down Newman Rd when the throttle stuck-instead of merely knocking the bus out of gear the driver panicked and drove it up a banking. The Ministry found no fault with the brakes but did take issue with the throttle fault and Omnibus and allegedly Merseybus were dealt with over the vehicle. Another incident of a driver caught smoking on High St brought the attention of the Police who did a spot check on the vehicle and found various minor faults however a sizeable oil leak ensured further investigation by the Ministry and a fleet check.
In early 1995 Mainline were hitting the business hard with various bus scraps going off at night on the 47/48s and in the daytime on the 72/75 corridors, Yorkshire Traction came sniffing and offered a deal to takeover which was accepted, and Omnibus became another Tracky subsidury along with South Riding/Andrews and Yorkshire Terrier. Andrews management were given charge of the 3 former companys while Terrier ran alone until it was decided to adopt the Terrier name and livery for all of Sheffield.

[dougie]

Interesting stuff.

I remember a lot of stories doing the rounds at the time about where the financial backing was coming from, given the large amounts of resources being thrown at services (e.g. every ten minutes out to Stockbridge at one point).

They did have some interesting routes, including a Sunday one from Ecclesfield to a car boot sale near Worksop IIRC.

In hindsight, Tracky's purchase of the various "independents" around Sheffield (South Riding, Andrews, Terrier...) makes less sense, given how they cut them back so much, but I'm guessing that the SO business model (throw lots of buses at high frequency services all the way out to Low Edges/ High Green, weekly tickets for the price of a pint of shandy...) wasn't exactly sustainable!

Has anyone tried coming up with a map of all the different independent Sheffield operators? Would be quite colourful!

[The Captain]

Plenty of rumours about financial backing Dougie but never anything concrete, apart from George Watson taking over as one of the four partners and his ex Stagecoach connections i never saw anything to suggest otherwise-while he was at East Midlands we loaned an RM and had a Mansfield VRT JAK 210W on loan for a while but i think that was down to him being up for a good bus war and being pally with the other directors-coincidence that Bob Hamilton came onboard to run the Nottingham Omnibus offshoot although we knew there would be tears as Nottingham City Transport were very aggressive from the off-in the final months the better buses from that business got tidied up and sold on and the Merseybus AN68s were showing signs why they were sold early in comparison with other Merseybus AN68s and moved to Nottingham.
Yes we bought ex Stagecoach buses-the National 2s and Magicbus AN68s were a bit shot but the ex Ribble stuff was tidy-1994 was probably the best year for condition of the fleet at Ecclesfield anyway, painting done at Chesterfield Transport on mates rates after a deal on not competing with them was done.
Only after Omnibus finished and Tracky found out what it was really worth and how much Volvo bus was owed allegedly for the 3 B10Ms, Olympians and B6s plus missing stock did the penny drop how close to the edge we had gone.

[bususer]

thanks both. loads there I never knew.

[andyrad]

Jul 13, 2015 14:06:27 GMT bususer said:

And wasn't there an incident in about 1993 when a bus of theirs had break failure going down a steep hill and the driver managed to get the bus safely to stop with no injuries

Heres a clip i saved from that incident...

[andyrad]

and what the BBC had to say on it...

[jamiekku120w]

Didn't omnibus also have some ECW atlantean's? If memory serves they (reg's TRN4--V/LRB--W) didn't last too long in Sheffield and went to roadcar where some were converted to open top and lasted in service until around 2002 before being replaced by MCW metrobuses.

[The Captain]

Aug 1, 2015 14:07:57 GMT jamiekku120w said:

Didn't omnibus also have some ECW atlantean's? If memory serves they (reg's TRN4--V/LRB--W) didn't last too long in Sheffield and went to roadcar where some were converted to open top and lasted in service until around 2002 before being replaced by MCW metrobuses.

Yes TRN-Vs from Stagecoach Ribble and the lone ex Trent LRB 482W. Bought 1994 and lasted well into 1995 before movement to Barnsley & District before proper transfer to Roadcar.

[jamiekku120w]

Aug 1, 2015 15:25:18 GMT The Captain said:

Aug 1, 2015 14:07:57 GMT jamiekku120w said:

Didn't omnibus also have some ECW atlantean's? If memory serves they (reg's TRN4--V/LRB--W) didn't last too long in Sheffield and went to roadcar where some were converted to open top and lasted in service until around 2002 before being replaced by MCW metrobuses.

Yes TRN-Vs from Stagecoach Ribble and the lone ex Trent LRB 482W. Bought 1994 and lasted well into 1995 before movement to Barnsley & District before proper transfer to Roadcar.

Didn't a couple of atlanteans also get cut down and used as recovery vehicles? Can remember one being VCX340X but not sure about the other/others.

[The Captain]

Aug 1, 2015 22:22:40 GMT jamiekku120w said:

Aug 1, 2015 15:25:18 GMT The Captain said:

Yes TRN-Vs from Stagecoach Ribble and the lone ex Trent LRB 482W. Bought 1994 and lasted well into 1995 before movement to Barnsley & District before proper transfer to Roadcar.

Didn't a couple of atlanteans also get cut down and used as recovery vehicles? Can remember one being VCX340X but not sure about the other/others.

Yes OEM785S an ex Merseyside AN68 at Tracky.

[bususer]

Intersting point made earlier Dougie about a map showing all the independents and their routes. I bet if one were done almost all of Sheffield would have been covered by one of the four (Omnibus, Terrier, Andrews, South Riding) at leat during peak times. Off peak would have been a very different story though. Does anyone know what routes were not duplicated by an independent at peak time in around 1993? I'm guessing perhaps Dore and a few really rural ones like Bradfield.

[dougie]

Aug 21, 2015 15:08:13 GMT bususer said:

Intersting point made earlier Dougie about a map showing all the independents and their routes. I bet if one were done almost all of Sheffield would have been covered by one of the four (Omnibus, Terrier, Andrews, South Riding) at leat during peak times. Off peak would have been a very different story though. Does anyone know what routes were not duplicated by an independent at peak time in around 1993? I'm guessing perhaps Dore and a few really rural ones like Bradfield.

Dore had the "Rotherham & District" 5 for a while (inc a navy Routemaster?) though I think that was finished pre'93 - it was a complicated service that ran through to High Green as a 72 IIRC - but this was before the days of PTE timetables, so I've no real record to if (did ride the 5 to Dore around 1990, but that was in the days before digital cameras!)

Northern Bus/ Wigmores ran commercially to Bradfield IIRC over the years - the 66 via Dungworth - there were a few independent operators of the 61 (Skills/ Don Valley?), but that was probably tendered so wouldn't count I guess.

Every time I think of a suburb that hasn't had competition, I seem to recall something (Nether Edge hasn't had any... oh, wait, there used to be an East Midlands service - something like the M97?) - it'd be a very colourful and complicated map.

There were also a lot of short lived services where one independent competed with another (e.g. Sheffield Ombubus ran an 18 through Burngreave to Southey Green/ Deerlands Avenue that competed with the 'Terrier 11/127, South Riding ran a 193 to Woodhouse via Manor Park whilst Mainline and Terrier were fighting out over the 25/64/92 corridor out that way). In fact, beyond the relatively stable 46, South Riding seemed a really scattergun approach to services - trying corridors for a few months, chucking a couple of buses a day on some routes (e.g. the 151 - equivalent to the Mainline 51) - that never seemed to last long.

Another aspect is the "routes that used to have competition that won't even have one commercial service later this year" - e.g. City - Derbyshire Lane had Sheafline (421/ 433?) on top of the Mainline service - there's not been a direct service from town to Stockarth Lane (i.e. between Middlewood and Oughtabridge for a year or two, but Omnibus had their 1/11/18/19/21 competing with the 57/X66/X67 on.