Yelloway Motor Services
Ltd.
Decline and demise |
In 1961 Yelloway acquired the
excursion licences of Turner
Brothers (Todmorden) Ltd, and in
1964 the excursion licences of Holt&
Sons, of Whitworth were acquired. No
vehicles were involved in either
case and both operators continued in
the coaching business. Kershaws
Luxury Tours of Rochdale was
acquired in 1967 and operated as a
subsidiary until 1971, when it was
merged with Yelloway. The Creams
subsidiary had been merged into the
parent company in 1970. In 1968 the
associated businesses of Makinson
(Manchester) Ltd., and North
Manchester Motor Coaches Ltd., were
acquired. North Manchester held a
licence for a Middleton and North
Manchester express service to North
Wales and this was transferred to
Yelloway for inclusion in the Fylde
Coast Pool. Both companies were
operated as subsidiaries for a time
but they were finally merged into
the Yelloway fleet in 1973 and 1975
respectively.
National Travel made an approach to
purchase the company in 1975, but
yet again the company remained
independent. In 1976 an agreement
was formulated between National
Travel and Yelloway whereby the
latter relinquished its London
express routes and in return
National Travel's interests in the
Fylde Coast Pool were handed over to
Yelloway, which became the sole
operator on the routes. A number of
joint operations to Devon were also
relinquished in favour of Yelloway.
Other services passed from Yelloway
to National Travel and this helped
to concentrate the Yelloway
operations into distinct areas. This
rationalisation helped to maintain
the profitability of Yelloway in the
face of falling passenger numbers
due to cheap foreign holidays and
the continued rise of the private
motorcar.
In 1980, now that production of the
AEC Reliance had ceased, Yelloway
were forced to find alternative
chassis. A number of Leyland Leopard
chassis were purchased over the next
two years, but experiments with
demonstration vehicles continued in
an effort to find a new standard
coach for the eighties. In 1982 two
of the new Leyland Tiger models were
purchased.
In January 1984, following a
revision by National Express,
Yelloway revised its services to the
West Country. As a result of
discussions it was decided to use a
block of numbers in the 876-899
series to try to bring some sort of
standardisation to route numbering.
Routes were allocated service
numbers as below;
841 |
Rochdale-Oldham-Manchester-Hanley-Cheltenham-Swindon-Southampton-
Bournemouth-Poole
jointly with National
Express |
845 |
Rochdale-Oldham-Manchester-Hanley-Newport-Cardiff-Swansea
jointly with National
Express |
877 |
Blackburn-Manchester-Cambridge-Clacton-on-Sea
jointly with Premier
Travel |
878 |
Blackpool-Manchester-Cambridge-Clacton-on-Sea
jointly with Premier
Travel |
883 |
Rochdale-Oldham-Manchester-Hanley-Bristol-Plymouth |
884 |
Rochdale-Oldham-Manchester-Hanley-Bristol-Exeter-Torquay-Paignton |
885 |
Rochdale-Bolton-Manchester-Hanley-Bristol-Bournemouth |
886 |
Rochdale-Oldham-Manchester-Hanley-Bristol-Southampton |
890 |
Burnley-Bolton-Bristol-Exeter-Torquay-Paignton |
Services 883-886 gave a two-hour
frequency between Rochdale and
Bristol. Services 885 and 886 had
timings in common with certain
National Express services between
Bristol and the south coast termini
and formed part of the frequency of
two hours offered on the National
Express services 785 and 786.
Service 730 between Rochdale and
Plymouth via Manchester, Birmingham
and Bristol was withdrawn.
On the 5th July 1985,
following the retirement of
Managing Director Mr. Hubert Allen
OBE, JP,
(who had been with the company for
nearly 58 years)
Yelloway
was sold to Carlton PSV Sales Ltd,
(the UK agents for Neoplan) of
Rotherham, Yorkshire.
Sadly this marked the beginning of
the
decline and final demise of the
company.
Mr Hubert
Allen O.B.E., J.P. on his day of
retirement, 5th July 1985.
Above;
The shape of
things to come, or so Hubert
thought!
Below right;
12 months later!!
In October 1986, following
de-regulation, Yelloway registered
several stage carriage services in
the Greater Manchester area and won
contracts from the PTE. As a result
an assortment of ageing second-hand
double-deckers joined the fleet.
The maintenance of vehicles and
pride in the Yelloway name was now
beginning to deteriorate fast as is
shown by the double deck bus to the
right.
In 1987, ATL Holdings, the parent
company of Carlton PSV Sales,
purchased National Travel (East),
which was to have a detrimental
effect on the remaining Yelloway
routes. By now the services run
jointly with Premier Travel were no
longer operating and National
Express services had replaced them.
Instead, Yelloway was contracted to
run two journeys a day on the
Burnley to Harwich services Nos. 351
and 352.
Most of the remaining coach work
undertaken by Yelloway at this time
was on contract to National Express
and this was transferred to the
newly acquired company along with
most of the coach fleet. The last
remaining vestige of the Yelloway
express network was the Blackpool
route through Oldham and Rochdale
areas, but by late 1988 this too had
gone.
In return another motley collection
of second-hand vehicles came to
Yelloway with which to operate the
stage carriage services. By late
1988 Yelloway Motor Services had
been reduced to a run down local
service operator.
Eventually maintenance problems with
the ageing fleet caused the Company
to suffer a series of prohibitions
on its vehicles. Greater Manchester
PTE cancelled contracts on several
services because of poor
performance. West Yorkshire PTE also
cancelled contracts for the same
reason and, on the 24th
November 1988, the Company was
placed under the control of
Crosville Motor Services, which had
just been purchased by ATL Holdings,
along with the remaining contract
work.
The Weir Street depot was closed and
sold for redevelopment and Yelloway
Motor Services passed into transport
history, a victim of de-regulation
greed and mismanagement in little
under three years, despite a long
and illustrious history. Most of the
remaining Yelloway fleet went for
scrap, apart from four new
Metroriders, which were transferred
to Crosville. Sadly Crosville Motor
Services was to tread the same path
to oblivion shortly afterwards.
<Previous
Page
Bibliography>