British Electric Traction Company
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British Electric Traction Company
British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentokil Initial. History Early history Tramway services The company was founded in 1895 as British Electric Traction Company Ltd, with Sir Charles Rivers Wilson as chairman and Emile Garcke as managing director. It was involved in the electrification of tramways in British towns and cities, and also in Australia and New Zealand, for example in Auckland. From operating trams, BET moved on to manufacturing them with the purchase of Brush Electrical Engineering Company in 1901. The BET became the largest of the private owners of tramways in the British Isles. During its history, it gained control in England of the Metropolitan Electric and South Metropolitan systems in London, as well as systems in Barnsley, Barrow-in-Furness, Birmingham, ...
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Public Company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (listed company), which facilitates the trade of shares, or not (unlisted public company). In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange. In most cases, public companies are ''private'' enterprises in the ''private'' sector, and "public" emphasizes their reporting and trading on the public markets. Public companies are formed within the legal systems of particular states, and therefore have associations and formal designations which are distinct and separate in the polity in which they reside. In the United States, for example, a public company is usually a type of corporation (though a corporation need not be a public company), in the United Kingdom it is usually a public limited company (plc), i ...
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Merthyr Tydfil Electric Tramways
Merthyr Tydfil Electric Tramways operated a tramway service in Merthyr Tydfil between 1901 and 1939.The Golden Age of Tramways. Published by Taylor and Francis. History The company was owned by the Merthyr Tydfil Electric Traction and Lighting Company, a subsidiary company of British Electric Traction. Services started on 6 April 1901. Sixteen tramcars were purchased from the Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Company and Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Works The United Electric Car Company was a tramcar manufacturer from 1905 to 1917 in Preston, Lancashire, England. History The Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Works was formed in 1897 registered on 25 April 1898 to acquire works at Preston, ... for the initial services. Closure The company was purchased by the local authority in 1939 for the sum of £13,500 () with the aim of closing down the service, and the final tram ran on 23 August 1939. References Tram transport in Wales 3 ft 6 in gauge railway ...
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Jamaica Omnibus Service
The Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS), operated a municipal bus service for the Kingston Metropolitan Area, from 1953 until it was wound up in 1983. Pre JOS In June 1898, the existing mule car service in Kingston was phased out and a transition to electric trams, initially operated by the West India Electric Company and later by thJamaica Public Service Company was undertaken. This transition to the electric tram was completed on March 31, 1899. This tram service continued to operate, but the inflexibility of a tram service could not keep pace with a growing city, and the tram service ceased on August 7, 1948. Kingston's first bus service operated by a company called Jamaica Utilities commenced on August 8, 1948. Initially communities served included, Rockfort, Hagley Park, Mountain View and Three Miles. The service operated by Jamaica Utilities was unsatisfactory, mainly due to the poor condition in which the fleet was maintained. Efforts to get overseas professional advisers was r ...
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National Bus Company (UK)
The National Bus Company (NBC) was a nationalised bus company that operated in England and Wales between 1969 and 1988. NBC did not run buses itself, but was the owner of a number of regional subsidiary bus operating companies. History Background Following the Labour Party victory at the 1966 General Election, Barbara Castle was appointed Minister for Transport. Castle immediately ordered a review of public transport, with a view to formulating a new transport policy. Among the issues to be tackled were the ownership and operation of bus services, which were rapidly losing patronage and profitability due to increased prevalence of private motor cars. The state owned a considerable proportion of scheduled bus operators outside the major cities, having obtained the Tilling Group companies in 1948 as a byproduct of nationalising the railways. The Tilling Group was subsequently placed under the ownership of the nationalised Transport Holding Company (THC). London Transport w ...
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Containerization
Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the process of unitization of cargoes in exports. Containerization is the predominant form of unitization of export cargoes, as opposed to other systems such as the barge system or palletization. The containers have standardized dimensions. They can be loaded and unloaded, stacked, transported efficiently over long distances, and transferred from one mode of transport to another—container ships, rail transport flatcars, and semi-trailer trucks—without being opened. The handling system is completely mechanized so that all handling is done with cranes and special forklift trucks. All containers are numbered and tracked using computerized systems. Containerization originated several centuries ago but was not well developed or widely applied unti ...
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Red & White Services
Red & White Services was a bus company operating in south east Wales and Gloucestershire, England between 1929 and 1978. Red & White evolved into Red & White United Transport Ltd, formed in 1937, which owned bus and road freight companies in the United Kingdom and Southern Africa. When the group's UK bus interests were sold to the British Transport Commission in 1950, the group changed its name to United Transport Company. Early history In 1921, John Watts of Lydney, Gloucestershire, started two bus companies. One, Gloucestershire Transport, ran local bus services around Lydney. The other, The Valleys Motor Bus Services, ran buses around Tredegar in South Wales. Both companies expanded rapidly by acquiring nearby operators. In 1926, the Lydney business adopted the name Gloster (Red & White) Services. By 1928, the companies were operating buses between Gloucester, Hereford and South Wales. In 1929, John Watts formed Red & White Services Ltd to bring together the various bus c ...
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British Transport Commission
The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the separate Ulster Transport Authority). Its general duty under the Transport Act 1947 was to provide an efficient, adequate, economical and properly integrated system of public inland transport and port facilities within Great Britain for passengers and goods, excluding transport by air. The BTC came into operation on 1 January 1948. Its first chairman was Lord Hurcomb, with Miles Beevor as Chief Secretary. Its main holdings were the networks and assets of the Big Four national regional railway companies: the Great Western Railway, London and North Eastern Railway, London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway. It also took over 55 other railway undertakings, 19 canal undertakings and 246 road haulage firms, as well as the ...
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Tilling Group
The Tilling Group was one of two conglomerates that controlled almost all of the major bus operators in the United Kingdom between World Wars I and II and until nationalisation in 1948. Tilling, together with the other conglomerate, British Electric Traction (BET), became the main constituents of the country's nationalised bus industry in the late 1960s and was sufficiently well known to have entered popular culture as part of London's Cockney rhyming slang (Thomas Tilling = shilling). The company continued as an industrial conglomerate after nationalisation of its bus interests; it was acquired by BTR plc in 1983. Origins The company traces its origins to 1846, when Thomas Tilling started in business. Tilling was born in 1825 at Gutter's Hedge Farm, Hendon, Middlesex, of parents who had moved there from Gloucestershire. In 1846, at the age of 21, he went into the transport business in London as a jobmaster in Walworth using a horse and carriage which cost him £30. In J ...
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Transport Holding Company
The Transport Holding Company (THC) was a British Government-owned company created by the Transport Act 1962 to administer a range of state-owned transport, travel and engineering companies that were previously managed by the British Transport Commission (BTC). It came into existence on 1 September 1962, with certain assets of the BTC vested in it on 1 January 1963. Assets The THC's assets were very varied, reflecting its role as the manager of those investments that did not fit elsewhere in the post-1962 structure of nationalised transport. There were essentially six areas of activity: * bus companies, some part-owned with the British Electric Traction Group, later acquired by the THC, * bus manufacturing companies (Bristol Commercial Vehicles and Eastern Coach Works) * road haulage companies, e.g. British Road Services (BRS) and Pickfords * shipping lines, e.g. the BTC's shares in Associated Humber Lines and the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company * travel agents (Thomas Cook ...
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Gateshead And District Tramways Company
The Gateshead and District Tramways operated a tramway service in Gateshead between 1883 and 1951. History The Gateshead and District Tramways commenced services on 22 October 1883 with steam-hauled tramcars operating on three routes centred on Gateshead High Street. In 1897, British Electric Traction took ownership of the company and the Gateshead and District Tramways Act of 1899 authorised the modernisation and electrification of the system. Electric services started on 8 May 1901. On 5 February 1916, a runaway tram crushed a family of three and a soldier, home on leave due to injuries received in France, on Bensham Hill. The crashed occurred when the tram's driver, who was aged 20, left his tram to aid his colleagues in a oncoming tram in which a fight was occurring. Whilst the driver was away from his tram, more passengers boarded, causing the tram to roll back and run away. The tram driver was acquitted of manslaughter at Durham Assizes. On 12 January 1923, through ru ...
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Cavehill And Whitewell Tramway
The Cavehill and Whitewell Tramway operated steam powered, then horse drawn and finally electric tramway services between Cavehill and Whitewell in Belfast, Ireland between 1882 and 1911. It was subsumed into Belfast Corporation Tramways. History The tramway was authorised by the Cavehill and Whitewell Tramway Order of 1881. Track-laying started on 23 January 1882, an inspection was undertaken by Major General Charles Scrope Hutchinson on 16 June 1882, and he declared it fit for traffic. The line was opened on 1 July 1882Belfast Newsletter, 30 June 1882 with just one steam engine, ordered from Kitson and Company. The route ran from Chichester Park Gate at the terminus of the Belfast Street Tramways line and terminated at the Glengormley Arms. By 1892 the steam tram engines were giving trouble and horses were employed to maintain the service. By 1896, all steam engines had been sold. By 1905, the company had concluded a contract with British Electric Traction for the electrifica ...
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Rothesay And Ettrick Bay Light Railway
The Rothesay tramway was a narrow gauge electric tramway on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. History The original tramway was opened in 1882 – a horse-drawn gauge tramway running from the promenade at Rothesay to Port Bannatyne. In 1901 the tramway was bought by British Electric Traction and closed on 2 March 1902 for modernisation. It was regauged to and electrified. Some horse-drawn vehicles were re-gauged and operated a temporary service until the electrification was complete. Electric services started on 13 August 1902. On 13 July 1905 a extension from Port Bannatyne to Ettrick Bay along a reserved right of way was opened. It had been built by Dick, Kerr & Co. On 1 January 1914, control of the company passed to the Scottish General Transport Company. Fleet *1-10 Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Works 1902 Toastracks *11-15 Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Works 1902 Single-deck saloons *16-20 Brush Electrical Engineering Company 1903 Toastracks Closure On ...
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