Abus is an English bus company based in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

that operates school bus services in Bath and Sainsbury's shopper buses around South Bristol.

History

Abus was founded in May 1991 by former

Badgerline Badgerline was a bus operator in and around Bristol from 1985 until 2003. Its headquarters were in Weston-super-Mare. Initially a part of the Bristol Omnibus Company, it was privatised in September 1986 and sold to Badgerline Holdings in a manag ...

manager Alan Peters with an

Eastern Coach Works Eastern Coach WorksCompanies House extract company no 318856
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bodied

Daimler Fleetline The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from circa 1975) is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983. It was the second of three bus models to have a marque name as well as an alphanumeric ...

on route A49 from

Keynsham Keynsham ( ) is a town and civil parish located between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. It has a population of 16,000. It was listed in the Domesday Book as ''Cainesham'' (as it is pronounced), which is believed to mean the home of Sai ...

competing with Badgerline's 349. In February 1992, it began operating its first service under contract to

Avon County Council Avon County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Avon in south west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1974 and was abolished on 1 April 1996 at the same time as the county. The county council was based at Av ...

. From 1997, it began operating route 349 in co-operation with Badgerline.Abus closes after 30 years '' Buses'' issue 799 October 2021 pages 14/15Abus Farewell ''

Bus & Coach Preservation Ian Allan Publishing was an English publisher, established in 1942, which specialised in transport books. It was founded by Ian Allan. In 1942 Ian Allan, then working in the public relations department for the Southern Railway at Waterloo st ...

'' November 2021 page 19 In 1998, Abus operated the first low floor double deck bus in the world, an

Optare Spectra The Optare Spectra was a double-decker bus body built on the VDL DB250, DAF (now VDL) DB250 chassis between 1991 and 2006. The vehicle was developed as a joint project between Optare and VDL Bus Chassis, DAF; it was based on the designs of th ...

bodied

DAF DB250 The VDL DB250 (originally the DAF DB250) was a twin-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by VDL Bus & Coach. DB250 The DAF DB250 was launched in October 1991 and originally only available with Optare Spectra bodywork with 260 built, mai ...

. In 1999, it began operating co-ordinated services from

Castle Cary railway station Castle Cary railway station is on the Reading to Taunton line south west of London Paddington and the Bristol to Weymouth line south of Bristol Temple Meads. The two routes share tracks between Westbury and Castle Cary stations and are bot ...

to the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

. By 2016, it was operating route X9 from Bristol to

Nailsea Nailsea is a town in Somerset, England, southwest of Bristol, and northeast of Weston-super-Mare. The nearest village is Backwell, which lies south of Nailsea on the opposite side of the Bristol to Exeter railway line. Nailsea had a populatio ...

under contract to

First West of England First West of EnglandCompanies House extract company no 25088
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.Fleet in Focus ''Buses'' issue 736 July 2016 page 81 In June 2016, Abus operated 24 buses. In November 2018, ten buses were destroyed in a fire at Abus' St Philip's Marsh depot. With the pending introduction of a

low-emission zone A low-emission zone (LEZ) is a defined area where access by some polluting vehicles is restricted or deterred with the aim of improving air quality. This may favour vehicles such as bicycles, micromobility vehicles, (certain) alternative fuel veh ...

in Bristol that would require much of the fleet to be replaced, Peters decided to semi-retire with operations on service 349 ceasing on 28 August 2021.Service changes September 2021
Abus Since ceasing operations on service 349, the company gained 6 shopper routes to and from Winterstoke Road Sainsbury's in South Bristol, and also operates school buses R2 & R3 to Ralph Allen School in Bath. After

First West of England First West of EnglandCompanies House extract company no 25088
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started withdrawing routes owing to a driver shortage and commercial nonviability, it came to some of the smaller operators such as Abus to take some routes on. On September 27 Abus officially started running route 22 between the University of Bath and Twerton. Following this on October 10 Abus started running route 96 in South Bristol between Hengrove and Brislington. As well as this they operate route 178 between Brislington P&R and Paulton jointly with Citistar with Abus providing one journey in each direction daily.

Fleet

As of September 2022, Abus operate four buses: * DAF DB250 Optare Spectra - YG02 FWA * DAF DB250 Optare Spectra - AP04 BUS * Scania N94UD OmniDekka - 704 BYL * Volvo B7TL East Lancs Myllennium Vyking - PA04 CYF

References

{{Reflist Bus operators in Bristol Bus transport in Bristol Transport companies established in 1991 1991 establishments in England