Prudent industry professionals keep an eye on Notices & Proceedings (or they get their employees to do so). Though the information on bus service registrations & variations gives little away, it’s enough to give pointers. But rarely is there something so tantalisingly off-beat as this, straight from the current N&P for the Western Traffic Area, dated 22 March 2011.
A new operator is applying for a licence, trading as Crosville Motor Services. You might associate that address with Cheshire or, at a push, Devon (Croscol’s of the 1920s) but certainly not Weston-super-Mare.
Is it really true that one Jonathan Pratt intends starting a one-vehicle business in Somerset trading as Crosville Motor Services? It seems so. Is this the same Jonathan Pratt who appears recently to have been the coaching & national express manager in Wales for Veolia?
There’s something else that’s odd about this development. Punch in the given residential postcode BS22 7WB and you’ll notice that the address is a cul de sac accessed only off Weston’s Badger’s Way. Weston super Mare was once the head office of Badgerline. Interesting coincidence. And, if my memory serves (and I think it does), Badgerline so nearly bought Crosville Wales.
You would think that the successors to CMS would’ve safeguarded the name. Apparently not. Arriva has Crosville Bus Ltd, as heir to some of the Cheshire garages and those in Wales. Crosville Ltd is an extant company registration that in 1986 passed to Potteries Motor Traction but one that currently has an unassuming address at Wallshaw Street, Oldham, c/o First. At least that’s nearer to the Crosville of old.
I wonder what the late W J Crosland-Taylor might’ve made of this. It was he and his family, notably Claude, who fostered and grew CMS to one of England’s biggest territorial operators. In his first book, WJ gives a very romantic assessment of the early years. No doubt embellished, readers nevertheless get a first-hand feel for the Klondike-like fight to establish a territory. It was just as commercial in the 1920s &1930s as it is today. There were times when CMS was quite ruthless; there were also times when CMS acted with nothing other than benevolence towards its employees. It’s a pity more general managers didn’t see fit to commit pioneering memories in such a way. Crosville pitched hard to take over businesses in a largely rural swathe of north west England and north Wales. Its successors have lost much ground outside main centres & corridors and you wonder whether the fight was worth it to end up with an operation baring the once grand name of Crosville Motor Services on a sole vehicle operation in Weston…
P.S. The possible reason for the CMS application? It may just be that the operator or person has a preserved former CMS Bristol
12 comments:
The names of former bus companies have often not been safeguarded by successor operators, doubtless for a variety of reasons. The titles of a famous operator and its successor are also privately owned in the same region, and provide historical links with Badgerline too.
I believe that Black & White Motorways is also another example, although they have a commercial operation in Hampshire.
Hants & Dorset lives on, on the legals for Damory, part of... Go South Coast
And UK North (the best example of the worst possible way to run a bus company I guess) was trading as, and liveried as, GM Buses for a while.
Thank goodness the traffic commissioners knocked that one on the head. Though not before they managed to kill someone.
...and someone still hasn't learnt how to spell accommodation...
The spelling of the address ('Accomadation' Road) is rather strange, and (at least) according to Google Maps, incorrect!
It doesn't come as a great surprise to learn that the current generation of operators have little or no interest in the heritage of the constituent parts that make up their businesses. However, as you suggest, there are several possible combinations using the basic (widely known) names, and a business would presumably have to register all possible combinations to fully protect the name. Southampton City Bus registered several companies with similar names at deregulation time, but, even by then, there were several different versions of the 'historic' name. Ironically, I seem to recall that one of the companies registered had been renamed from something like 'Swift891 Ltd', which seemed appropriate - though Southampton's Swifts were 505s!
And didn't Excelsior name their London express coach service 'Bournemouth Belle' after the former pullman train of that name?
I believe that a preserved Crosville bus is indeed the likely vehicle to be operated.
Anonymous @07:30
VOSA are exceedingly bad at spelling. The schools in Harehills aren't great.
"It doesn't come as a great surprise to learn that the current generation of operators have little or no interest in the heritage of the constituent parts that make up their businesses."
They do sometimes. I've seen commemorative liveries - Stagecoach did one to celebrate Cumberland Motor Services, and First currently have an old-style-livery Green Line coach running around Sluff from time to time.
...and Arriva have just painted a bus into Maidstone & District livery, and Go-Ahead have two Oxford Bus Company Darts in heritage liveries.
Wellglade was very careful, when buying Trent from NBC, to purchase also the full names of both Midland General and Notts and Derby. I guess this was to prevent anyone else from using them but, as is well known, after a good few years they started using them for operational purposes. However, neither is actually the original company, both being off the shelf companies, renamed before purchase.
Anonymous @15:19 - they are also adept at cashing cheques but not bothering to send what has been paid for.
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