When Stroud's buses were green (and even red)
Decline & Fall of the
Country Bus Service
Stroud and its nearby settlements are neither rural nor urban but something between the two; if anything, the valley floor, its communities and industry might best be described as "semi-urban". But the fact is that in general Stroud's hinterland is more rural than urban and, as elsewhere in rural Britain, has seen a dramatic reduction in passengers over the years.
For many years, Bristol Omnibus' preference in safeguarding its commercial position had been to increase fares rather than reduce service levels. This trend started after the Second World War and accelerated sharply during the 1970s. It was nevertheless inevitable that there were times when routes were cut. Latterly, with Cheltenham & Gloucester Omnibus and Stagecoach, minibuses have operated more and more services and this, for a time at any rate, buoyed mileage.
Stroud of the early- and mid-1950s was very much self-contained. Many worked in shops and offices locally, in cloth manufacturing, engineering or in chemicals in enterprises along the valley floors. Local shopping was the norm with trips to Cheltenham and Gloucester centres important. Car ownership was low and along the valley floors bus frequencies high. Even villages away from the valleys on the Cotswold Hills enjoyed a good service.
 Bristol K waits in Stroud Bus Station in the early 1960s. Note crowded passenger platform showing the importance of the bus at that time. Photo by kind permission of David Lloyd |
Services such as medical facilities centralized in the 1970s. Facilities shifted from Stroud's hospital to the general hospital at Gloucester, itself in an out-of-town location. Likewise, out of town shopping began to flourish with growth in car ownership. Stroud's population could not support edge of town retail units in the way Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bristol and Swindon could. Shoppers began to drift away to those centres accessible only by car. The trend in the 80s and 90s for town centre food shopping - even in small towns - to move to locations less accessible by bus dealt a further blow. The major food retailers in Stroud - Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury's - are each less attractive to public transport users. Stroud's four town centre supermarkets of the late sixties are reduced to a single small outlet today. Perhaps the culmination of the out-of-town retail sector was the purpose built mall known as Cribbs Causeway, north of Bristol, and only about 40 minutes from Stroud by car via the M5 motorway.
Add to this mix the increasing popularity of Cotswold villages from the mid-1970s as commuter dormitory settlements (where once populations were more-or-less self contained), with the associated steeply rising house prices, and there began a so-called gentrification of hill top villages. As older residents whose lives revolved around their village and Stroud died or moved away, newcomers able to afford the area's housing moved in, with their two or more cars. No longer could such villages support even a skeletal bus service.
The bus therefore tended to become a transport service for a residual group of people who were unable to unwilling to drive. It reached the stage where it could not possibly compete.
This is illustrated by the reduction in the numbers of bus departures from Stroud over the years. Taking 1960 as the base (100%), bus departures had fallen by more than half in the year prior to Stagecoach involvement (1983=40.63%), although passenger numbers would have dropped by more than that. The number of vehicles obviously fell during this period and their capacities reduced save for a period from the early 80s when deckers were reintroduced, principally for school loads.
However, a reduction in departures does not tell the full story: at the same time, some longer distance journeys were curtailed in favour of a "shuttle" service to local estates (e.g. terminating at the Cashes Green estate rather than Randwick or Ruscombe villages as was traditional).
The 1992 network showed some improvement but this was solely owing to the conversion of a local estate's service to high frequency minibus operation.
However, in recent times there has been some cause for optimism. Building upon changes over the past couple of years - principally between 1997 and 2001 - Stagecoach doubled the daytime frequency from Stroud to Gloucester, reintroduced hourly through running between Forest Green, Stroud and Cheltenham, operated hourly between Stroud and Dursley and half-hourly between Stroud and France Lynch. In April 2002, the France Lynch service saw hourly through running to Gloucester, although this switch in favour of Tetbury and Minchinhampton a year later.
Changes to town services in May 2001 ensured that Mason Road, Uplands and Kingscourt all enjoyed at least hourly services and even with retrenchment in May 2002, particularly over the Dudbridge and Sainsbury's section, daytime levels of service were still similar to or better than their 1970s level.
In May 2001, the company took the opportunity to tidy up its operations and then present the results in a clear package for its customers in the form of a timetable booklet replacing mediocre leaflets. This was further improved in the April 2002 timetable with the use of spot colour, a more suitable font size and and clear mapping.
Two years later, however, following a string of changes, the decline had again set in. Services to Gloucester reverted to largely hourly, the timetable to Minchinhampton and Tetbury became messy and more services became the responsibility of other operators. The timetable tidying up associated with the last few years was set aside for complicated schoolday/holiday journeys. Changes that had previously been for the better slowly began to unravel. In the summer of 2004, departures from Stroud were no more than 42 per cent of their 1960 level. Whereas Stagecoach locally was experiencing considerable growth and investment - in Gloucester, Swindon and Cheltenham - could anything stop the rot in Stroud?
| Departures from Stroud | Service
levels 1960=100% |
| 1960 | 100 |
| 1965 | 100 |
| 1970 | 96 |
| 1975 | 82 |
| 1981 (MAP) | 48 |
| 1983 (pre-"Stroud Valleys" brand) | 41 |
| 1985 (Stroud Valleys) | 42 |
| 1992 (pre-Stagecoach incl. Metro "C") | 50 |
| 2001 (Stagecoach in the Cotswolds) | 48 |
| 2002 (Stagecoach in the Cotswolds) | 47 |
| 2004 (Stagecoach in the Cotswolds and others) | 42 |