Preston Bus - History

History

Preston Bus was founded in 1904 as Preston District Travel and operated a number of services in the Preston area until 1993, when the company was bought from the local authority by its employees, and became a limited company.

In 2006, Preston Bus was subject to some high profile competition from national operator Stagecoach Group through their Stagecoach North West subsidiary. Competition escalated into a bus war with Stagecoach offering lower fares on the busiest routes.

The managing director of Preston bus was concerned that Stagecoach could force his company out of business.

Both companies have accused each other of unprofessional behaviour. On 10 June 2008, both companies agreed to a code of practice by the traffic commissioner. The competition continued, with Stagecoach operating routes within Preston and Preston Bus commencing a frequest service between Preston and Penwortham, and a limited service between Preston and Southport, duplicating existing Stagecoach routes.

On 30 December 2008 it was reported that Preston Bus had agreed in principle to an acquisition by its rival operator, Stagecoach North West. On 23 January 2009, Preston Bus was sold to Stagecoach in an estimated 10.4 million pound deal, ending 104 years service of Preston Bus to the city.

The routes operated by Preston Bus were rebranded as Stagecoach in Preston from March 2009.

On 11 November 2009 the Competition Commission ruled that the takeover by Stagecoach had adversely affected competition in the area and ordered the sell off of Preston Bus. Following this ruling, the Preston Bus name and logo was reinstated and the company was operated at 'arms length' from the main Stagecoach business. In January 2011, the Rotala Group announced they had agreed a deal to take over the Preston Bus operations from Stagecoach, operating most of the services Preston Bus had run before the Stagecoach takeover.. After developing a new livery of cream, blue and light green with 'PB' insignia a rapid repaint programme was instigated with most buses being repainted at an outside contractor in Walsall. All buses were expected to be in the new livery by the summer of 2012.