Morley, West Yorkshire
Morley is a market town and a civil parish within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. Morley is the largest town in the Borough of Leeds after Leeds itself. Morley forms part of the Heavy Woollen District.
It l ...
. Founded in 1969 as a coach firm, it expanded into local bus operation following
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
. Its name was inspired by
Edward, the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, su ...
, a statue of whom stands in the centre of
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
.
In 1986,
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
introduced on-road competition local bus service operation. Black Prince moved into scheduled service operation, launching a number of routes centred on Morley in competition with
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 ...
. A variety of second-hand vehicles were acquired to operate the routes, and a livery of red and yellow introduced.
By 2004, Black Prince operated a fleet of 40 vehicles on a network of routes around Leeds, with an annual turnover of almost £3 million. Many of its routes competed with Yorkshire Rider's successor
First Leeds
First West Yorkshire operates both local and regional bus services in West Yorkshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the FirstGroup, and is made up of three sub-division brands: First Bradford, First Halifax, Calder Valley & Huddersfield and Firs ...
.
Sale and subsequent history
In May 2005,
FirstGroup
FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Office of Fair Trading
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic ...
as Black Prince had intended to close if the acquisition had not taken place. This was one of the first uses of the failing-firm defence, which was created under the
Enterprise Act 2002
The Enterprise Act 2002 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which made major changes to UK competition law with respect to mergers and also changed the law governing insolvency bankruptcy.
It made cartels illegal with a maximum pri ...
.
The takeover was completed on 31 July 2005. Several service changes were made to reduce competition with existing First Leeds routes. Planning permission was originally granted for the company's depot in Morley to be demolished and replaced by a supermarket. This did not take place, and in 2009 work instead began on a housing development at the site; however, this was halted by the
economic downturn
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...
and the site remained empty until late 2012, when a new housing development was proposed.
Black Prince was the last family-owned independent bus operator in Leeds prior to the takeover. In August 2005 a commemorative
die-cast
Die casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. The mold cavity is created using two hardened tool steel dies which have been machined into shape and work similarly t ...
model of a Black Prince vehicle was released by Britbus.
In January 2006, one of the replacement routes introduced by First was criticised for failing to serve the Lingfields estate. First stated that the service was not commercially viable.
Black Prince's founder Brian Crowther died in February 2008.
Annually on Christmas Day, a preserved Black Prince Optare Prisma is operated on the route of the former X51 from Tingley Mills in Morley to
Leeds General Infirmary
Leeds General Infirmary, also known as the LGI, is a large teaching hospital based in the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, and is part of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Its previous name The General Infirmary at Leeds is still ...
and
St James's University Hospital
St James's University Hospital ''Confirming name as "St James's"'' is in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England and is popularly known as Jimmy's. It is one of the United Kingdom's most famous hospitals due to its coverage on television. It is managed ...
. This service is run for free to help provide transport for workers or families visiting sick relatives in hospitals, as no bus services run in Leeds on Christmas Day.