|
Badgerline was a bus operator in and around Bristol from 1985 until 2003. Its headquarters were in Weston-super-Mare. Initially a part of the Bristol Omnibus Company, it was privatised in September 1986 being sold to Badgerline Holdings in a management buyout. It went on to purchase a number of bus companies in England and Wales. In November 1993, Badgerline Group was listed on the stock exchange, and on 16 June 1995 merged with the GRT Group to form FirstBus. ==History== The Bristol Tramways Company started operating buses in 1906 to feed traffic into their tram services from beyond the boundaries of the city of Bristol. In 1910 a branch was opened in Weston-super-Mare where the company's first bus station was opened on the sea front in the 1930s. Others were built after World War II at Wells, Bath and Bristol. The company changed its name to the Bristol Omnibus Company in 1957 as it no longer operated trams, but by then it was owned by the British Transport Commission and so became a subsidiary of the National Bus Company (NBC) on 1 January 1969. In the 1980s the NBC split its subsidiaries into smaller operating units. Bristol Omnibus established a separate operating unit for its services outside Bristol in September 1983 and then introduced three distinct brands in April 1985, with operations in Somerset and the Avon outside the city of Bristol becoming Badgerline.〔(Companies House extract company no 1966227 ) First Bristol Limited formerly First City Line Limited formerly Badgerline Limited〕 This name was then established as a company in its own right which was sold to a group of its managers and staff on 23 September 1986. This was the second bus-operating NBC subsidiary to be sold. On 31 May 1985 46 Ford Transit minibuses replaced 18 full-size buses at Weston-super-Mare, the first English town network to be totally converted to minibus operation. Most routes operated at a 10-minute headway during the daytime, with routes combining to give 5-minute headways through the town centre. Headways reduced to 20 minutes in the evening and on Sundays. Full-size vehicles were retained in the town for longer distance services. The town's bus station was closed in 1987 when maintenance facilities were transferred to a new depot in Warne Road. On 16 June 1995, Badgerline Buses became a subsidiary of the new FirstBus. In 1996, Badgerline merged back into Bristol Omnibus which was also a part of FirstBus although Badgerline was retained as a trading name. In July 1997 the Streamline operation in Bath was purchased by FirstGroup and merged with the Badgerline, although the Streamline name was retained for a while. It had started as a taxi company but expanded into minibus services. At the time of takeover it had 20 buses, three of which were full size single deck buses. Bristol Omnibus was renamed First Bristol in 1999 but Badgerline was managed independently again from 2000. First Somerset & Avon was created on 30 May 2003 to combine the operations of both Badgerline and Southern National.〔(First Somerset & Avon Limited formerly First Bristol Buses Limited formerly Bristol Omnibus Company Limited ) Companies House extract company no 25088〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Badgerline」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|