North Western Road Car Company (1986) - History

History

In 1986 prior to deregulation the of bus industry the then Conservative government under the direction of the Secretary of State for Transport Nicholas Ridley stipulated that some former National Bus Company (NBC) divisions needed to be split in order to boost competition. Ribble Motor Services whose operations stretched across North West England - from Cumbria to the East Lancashire/West Yorkshire borders and Greater Manchester to West Lancashire/North Merseyside was one such company and in the Summer of 1986 its Merseyside - Aintree and Bootle, West Lancashire - Skelmersdale and Greater Manchester - Wigan depots were incorporated into a new company - North Western Road Car Company Ltd taking the name of a company which historically had been based in Stockport and whose operations in Cheshire, Derbyshire, South-East Lancashire and what became Greater Manchester had been absorbed by NBC into Crosville Motor Services, Ribble and Trent Motor Traction and the SELNEC PTE in 1974. The head office for this 'new' North Western was at 503 Hawthorne Road, Bootle (next door but one to Bootle Depot at 499 Hawthorne Road) later moving to the Aintree depot in Liverpool and a new livery of red and blue separated by a grey diamond stripe replaced NBC's poppy red along with promotional branding of A New Kind of Service, From a Different Kind of Bus Company.