Bluebird Bus & Coach was a bus operator based in
Greengate in
Chadderton
Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester.
Hi ...
,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
between July 1988 and March 2013.
History
Bluebird Bus & Coach was formed in July 1988
when Tom Dunstan, a former
Greater Manchester PTE area manager, bought a small coach company called Bluebird of Middleton. Tom Dunstan died in 2004 and the company was taken over by his son Michael. The first route operated was commercial service 112, which was followed by a number of contracted routes. In 2006 and 2007, Bluebird expanded its operating area to
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...
introducing buses on routes 181, 182, 402, 410 and 411.
In November 2008, Bluebird was the first operator to run the Bolton
Metroshuttle
free bus is a zero-fare bus system that operates in Greater Manchester. The system was first introduced in Manchester city centre in 2002, with three routes linking the city's major thoroughfares and stations with its main commercial, financia ...
service before being replaced by
Maytree Travel
Maytree Travel was a bus operator based in Bolton in Greater Manchester.
History
The company was formed in 2008 by owner Gary Hawthorne, who took over the Bolton operations of Tyrer Bus, who first started operating in Bolton in 2007. The compan ...
in January 2010, although the company would resume running a Metroshuttle service later that year, when they took the operation of the Stockport Metroshuttle service from Swan's Travel, although their Metroshuttle operation ended in March 2011, when the Stockport Metroshuttle service was taken over by
.
On 7 November 2012, it was announced that
had purchased the business, although the deal was subject to clearance from the
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 ...
[ and was approved on 22 February 2013. The purchase included Bluebird's 40 vehicles, 80 staff members and its lease on the depot at Greengate and was completed on 3 March 2013.
]
Fleet
As at May 2012, the fleet consisted of 49 buses.Fleet
Bluebird
References
External links
*
Company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bluebird Bus And Coach
Companies based in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
Middleton, Greater Manchester
Former bus operators in Greater Manchester
1988 establishments in England
2013 disestablishments in England
Chadderton