Badgerline was a bus operator in and around

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 ...

from 1985 until 2003. Its headquarters were in

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmixon ...

. Initially a part of the

Bristol Omnibus Company The Bristol Omnibus Company was a dominant bus operator in Bristol, and was one of the oldest bus companies in the United Kingdom. It ran buses over a wide area of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and neighbouring counties. History ...

, it was privatised in September 1986 and sold to

Badgerline Holdings 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 man ...

in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

. It went on to purchase a number of bus companies in England and Wales. In November 1993, Badgerline Group was listed on the stock exchange and, on 16 June 1995, it merged with the

GRT Group :''This article describes the bus group, for the Grampian Regional Transport bus company and successors/predecessors, see First Aberdeen'' GRT Group was a bus operating company in the United Kingdom from 1989 until 1995. It was formed when Gram ...

to form

FirstBus FirstGroup plc is a British Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.First West of England First West of EnglandCompanies House extract company no 25088
...

's bus services in and around

History

1906-1980

The Bristol Tramways Company started operating buses in 1906 to feed traffic into their tram services from beyond the boundaries of the city of

. In 1910 a branch was opened in

where the company's first bus station was opened on the sea front in the 1930s. Others were built after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

at Wells,

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and

. The company changed its name to the Bristol Omnibus Company in 1957 as it no longer operated trams, but by then it was owned by the

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 se ...

and so became a subsidiary of the National Bus Company (NBC) on 1 January 1969.

1980-1985

In the 1980s the NBC split its subsidiaries into smaller operating units. Bristol Omnibus established a separate operating unit for its services outside Bristol in September 1983 and then introduced three distinct brands in April 1985, with operations in Somerset and the Avon outside the city of Bristol becoming Badgerline.

1986-1990

Badgerline was established as a company in its own right and sold to a group of its managers and staff on 23 September 1986. This was the second bus-operating NBC subsidiary to be sold.

Northern Counties Palatine The Northern Counties Palatine was a step-entrance 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus body built by Northern Counties from 1988 to 1999 in Wigan, England. The Palatine was built mainly on Leyland Olympian and Volvo Olympian chassis, althou ...

bodied

Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian was a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as t ...

& Badgerline

Bristol VR The Bristol VR was a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was manufactured by Bristol Commercial Vehicles as a competitor to the Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline. Development The Bristol VR was originally designed for s ...

in May 2011 Penzance Bus Station - Western National 628 (L628VCV)

In December 1986, six of the company's managers and 90 other staff formed Badgerline Holdings as a limited company to purchase Badgerline from NBC. Employees held 95% of Badgerline's share capital. It went on to buy two travel agencies, Roman City of Bath, and NBC subsidiary National Travelworld. On 7 August 1987

Western National Western National was a bus company operating in South West England from 1929 until the 1990s. Early history Western National Omnibus Company was founded in 1929 as a joint venture between the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the National O ...

, which operated in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

and

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, was sold by NBC to Plympton Coachlines with Badgerline Holdings having an initial 39% shareholding, which was increased to 66% in August 1988.NBC privaties two more subs
''Commercial Motor'' 13 August 1987 page 22 In April 1988, Badgerline Holdings purchased Midland Red West Holdings,In Brief
''Commercial Motor'' 21 April 1988 page 28 another ex-NBC employee buy-out that had purchased Bristol Omnibus in September 1987, and continued to operate city services in Bristol. Because of this the company was referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission who reported in March 1989 on concerns regarding the ownership by a single company of the two principal bus operators in Avon. Ensuing discussions led to the company giving two undertakings: # it would not seek to re-register any services that had been lost # tenders for subsidised routes would be done fairly and scrutinised by an auditor. The company created three subsidiaries in 1987 in an attempt to expand into new operating areas, none of which lasted more than a year. It sold its share in Red Admiral to

Southampton Citybus Southampton Citybus was a bus operator which operated local services throughout the English city of Southampton. It was formed in 1898 as Southampton Corporation Transport. In 1986, as a result of deregulation an 'arms-length' limited company ...

but their operations in

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

and

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

lost £962,000. *Badgerline South operated 21 Iveco and 12 Ford Transit minibuses in Salisbury. *

Badger Vectis Badger Vectis was an English bus company based in Poole. A post-deregulation joint venture between Weston-super-Mare based bus company Badgerline and Isle of Wight bus company Southern Vectis, it was set up in September 1987 to compete with in ...

operated in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

and

as a joint venture with

Southern Vectis Southern Vectis is a bus operator on the Isle of Wight. The company was founded in 1921 as "Dodson and Campbell" and became the "Vectis Bus Company" in 1923. The company was purchased by the Southern Railway (Great Britain), Southern Railway b ...

using 7 Iveco minibuses and 16 single deck buses, mostly

Bristol RE The Bristol RE was a rear-engined single-decker bus or single-decker coach chassis built by Bristol Commercial Vehicles from 1962 until 1982. It is often considered the most successful of the first generation of rear-engined single-decker buses ...

s. *Red Admiral operated in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

as a joint venture with Southampton Citybus.

1990-1995

The company expanded into

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and then floated on the stock exchange as the Badgerline Group in November 1993, followed by acquisition of

Potteries Motor Traction First Potteries is a bus company based in Stoke-on-Trent operating services in North Staffordshire, England. It is a part of First Midlands and a subsidiary of FirstGroup. History The company began life as Potteries Motor Traction. As part ...

and

Yorkshire Rider Yorkshire Rider was a bus company in West Yorkshire, England. History To comply with the Transport Act 1985, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive transferred its bus operations to an arms length company named Yorkshire Rider on 26 ...

in 1994. Badgerline Group had also unsuccessfully promoted

guided bus Guided buses are buses capable of being steered by external means, usually on a dedicated track or roll way that excludes other traffic, permitting the maintenance of schedules even during rush hours. Unlike trolleybuses or rubber-tired tra ...

es and

articulated bus An articulated bus, also referred to as a banana bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usua ...

es as solutions to Bristol's transport problems in the 1990s. The Badgerline Group merged with

to form

FirstBus FirstGroup plc is a British Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland. The operating subsidiaries transferred to FirstBus were: *Badgerline Buses *

(trading as City Line) *

Eastern National Eastern National (also known as EN) is a nonprofit Cooperating Association based in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, that partners with the National Park Service in the United States. It was created by charter in 1948 to "provide quality education ...

*Frontline Enterprises *

Midland Red West First Midland Red Buses,Companies House extract company no 1556327< ...

(including Midland Red Coaches) *

(including Pennine Blue, Red Rider and

Crosville Motor Services Crosville Motor Services was a bus operator based in the north-west of England and north and mid-Wales. History On 27 October 1906, Crosville Motor Company was formed in Chester by George Crosland Taylor and his French business associate Geo ...

) *

South Wales Transport South Wales Transport was a bus company that operated services in South Wales centred on Swansea and West Wales. History South Wales Transport commenced operating on 2 May 1914 in Swansea. It operated bus services that connected with the S ...

* Thamesway BusesBadgerline to split Eastern subsidiaries
''Commercial Motor'' 12 July 1990 page 28 *Wessex Coaches *

On 16 June 1995, Badgerline Buses became a subsidiary of the new

FirstBus FirstGroup plc is a British Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.First Bristol in 1999 but Badgerline was managed independently again from 2000. First Somerset & Avon was created on 30 May 2003 to combine the operations of both Badgerline and

Southern National Southern National was a bus company operating in South West England from 1929 until 1969, and again from 1983 until 1999. History Original company (1929-1969) Southern National Omnibus Company Crosville Motor Services Crosville Motor Services was a bus operator based in the north-west of England and north and mid-Wales. History On 27 October 1906, Crosville Motor Company was formed in Chester by George Crosland Taylor and his French business associate Geo ...

in April 2018. All 16 buses allocated to the depot for town services were repainted.

Area of operation

Badgerline's headquarters were in Weston-super-Mare. Bus services extended as far as

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...

Calne Calne () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs h ...

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

and

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somer ...

but it also operated

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

services to destinations such as

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Vehicles were maintained at four depots: Bath, Bristol, Wells and Weston-super-Mare. The allocations on 1 January 1986 and 30 November 1989 were:

Fleet

Weston-super-Marere station - Badgerline - 4511 C511BFB

The first years of operation saw the delivery of three different models of

minibus A minibus, microbus, minicoach, or commuter (in Zimbabwe) is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, th ...

es,

Ford Transit The Ford Transit is a family of light commercial vehicles manufactured by the Ford Motor Company since 1965, primarily as a cargo van, but also available in other configurations including a large passenger van (marketed as the Ford Tourneo in ...

s, Freight Rover Sherpas and

Iveco Daily The Iveco Daily is a large light commercial vehicle, light commercial van produced by the Italy, Italian automaker Iveco since 1978; it was also sold as the Fiat Daily by Fiat Automobiles, Fiat until 1983. Unlike the more car-like unibody Fiat D ...

s. The first 36 new full-size buses were 12 double deck, 14 single deck and 10

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

coaches. These entered service, mainly at Weston-super-Mare, in May 1987. The following year saw the introduction of 24 Optare StarRider midibuses. These were followed by 10

s for Bath. On 31 May 1985 46

minibuses replaced 18 full-size buses at Weston-super-Mare, the first English town network to be totally converted to minibus operation. Most routes operated at a 10-minute headway during the daytime, with routes combining to give 5-minute headways through the town centre. Headways reduced to 20 minutes in the evening and on Sundays. Full-size vehicles were retained in the town for longer distance services. The town's bus station was closed in 1987 when maintenance facilities were transferred to a new depot in Warne Road. Badgerline was operating 342 buses on 1 January 1986 but this had increased to 441 by 30 November 1989.

Liveries and brands

The livery established in 1985 was yellow with a broad diagonal green panel on each side (about a third of the vehicle) sweeping up and forward. The name was in green serif letters, repeating along a white band above the lower deck windows (at roof level on single deck buses) interspersed with a

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united b ...

logo. Some vehicles carried a white livery with one band each of yellow and green, horizontal along most of the side but up swept at the rear. These were branded for specific services: minibuses were being branded 'Mini Link' and buses with coach seats 'Swift Link', although this brand was soon dropped as it was difficult to always roster branded vehicles to Swift Link routes. Coaches that were not in Roman City, National Express or National Holidays livery were painted white, yellow and green in broad diagonal panels but these sloped backwards, opposite to ordinary buses. Open top vehicles in Bath carried Roman City livery for a while but were then changed to primrose yellow with olive and Brunswick green bands with both Badgerline and Guide Friday logos. A revised livery was introduced for minibuses in 1991. This was plain green and with a larger badger logo and the company name in yellow serif lettering. Shortly afterwards the larger buses started to appear with the new logo and lettering style on a large green area in the centre of the body, either side of which was a yellow area that was angled up and backwards (opposite to the previous scheme). FirstBus livery began to appear on Badgerline vehicles in March 1998. In line with company policy this was initially only carried by new vehicles that were built to a high specification. The first of these were

Wright Renown The Wright Renown was a low entry single-decker bus body built on Volvo B10BLE chassis by Wrightbus in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Over 800 Renowns were built between 1997 and 2002, making it somewhat more successful than the B10L-based Lib ...

bodied

Volvo B10BLE The Volvo B10BLE was a rear-engined low-entry single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Volvo in Sweden between 1993 and 2004. The first prototypes were built in 1992, but mass production started in 1993, only a year after the high-floor B10B. It ...

s, new for express service X39 between Bristol and Bath, and Wells based routes 173 (to Bath), and 376/377 (to Bristol and Yeovil).

References

External links

{{Defunct British Bus Companies Companies based in Somerset FirstGroup Transport companies established in 1985 Transport companies disestablished in 1995 Weston-super-Mare 1985 establishments in England 1995 disestablishments in England Former bus operators in Bristol Former bus operators in Somerset Former bus operators in Wiltshire