When Stroud's buses were green (and even red)
Stagecoach & other operators
Bringing the Story
Up-to-Date
The final chapter of the Stroud's Buses book concluded in 2003 on a rather upbeat note. What has happened subsequently?
January 2004 Upheaval
Stagecoach's integrated network from 2002 where many buses arrived and departed at ..10 and ..40 past each hour (with through fares) collapsed when roadworks particularly along the Golden Valley caused reliability and punctuality problems. On top of this, several expired but extended school contracts that helped to sustain off-peak services were thrown back by Stagecoach following what they claimed were poor annual inflationary increases.
 Former Swindon-based Olympian 105 was the first vehicle at Stroud to receive Stagecoach's so-called beach ball or swirls livery, surrounded by buses with the same chassis but the more traditional livery. |
Subsequent Gloucestershire County Council contracts were awarded not to Stagecoach but to an ever-expanding Ebley Bus, the effect of which on the 8/8A, 21, 22, & 92/92A was to see what may best be described as a timetable as tidy as an unmade bed, with Ebley augmenting thinly provided Stagecoach journeys to the south-east or, in the case of some of these routes on Saturdays, Ebley being the sole operator. Changes to the 92/92A were particularly significant. The hitherto hourly service between Stroud, Minchinhampton & Tetbury was replaced by a handful of irregular journeys again augmented by Ebley Coaches particularly as 228 (with parts of the 254/255 also relevant to this corridor) and although the council's chosen numbers had a certain traditional feel to them, they did not foster easy passenger recognition.
 New to Warrington is this Carlyle-bodied Dennis Dart being made ready for departure on one of Ebley Bus' journeys on the joint service with Stagecoach (though ticket inter-availability was not permitted) |
It is also noteworthy that service 36 (Rodborough/Kingscourt) passed in its entirety to Ebley Coaches as 236, but to a reduced timetable. This was the direct descendent of two GWR motor bus services in Stroud in 1927. Stagecoach took the opportunity off peak on Mondays to Fridays to abandon the unpopular hourly France Lynch/Brownshill loop and reintroduce half-hourly services between Stroud and Eastcombe, buses then bifurcating to either of France Lynch or Brownshill. Saturdays were hourly, with a bus every two hours to each outer termini. The loop remained at peak times.
Service 620 (Tetbury-Bath), formerly Stagecoach's, passed initially to South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach and then in February 2004 to Ebley Coaches, while the 628 (Stroud-Nailsworth-Bath) was withdrawn without replacement.
The total effect was to reduce Stagecoach's Stroud driver requirement overnight by about a fifth. Stagecoach bravely maintained a no-redundancy policy and consequently some Stroud drivers found themselves temporarily working at other depots. For example, for a while Cheltenham minibus services P (Ewens Farm) and Q (Station-Town Centre-Ryeworth) were worked by two surplus Stroud drivers, greatly helped by the fact that that by this time Stroud's drivers were the only ones still being trained to operate stick shift, manual buses (for the Mercedes 709s and 811s still in use). These services became a figure of 6, from 18 July 2004.
Stroud Bus Station
 The site of the former bus station. It's still possible to imagine where the platform once was |
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