Plymouth Citybus

Bus operator

Plymouth Citybus is a bus operator in Plymouth. It is a subsidiary of the Go South West sector of the Go Ahead Group.

In 1892, Plymouth Corporation purchased the horse powered tramways of the Plymouth Tramway Company and placed them in the care of a new Tramways Department. The network was expanded and the horses were replaced by new electric tramcars between 1899 and 1906. Following the union of the Three Towns of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse in October 1914, the Plymouth Tramways Department took control of the tramways in these places too. The Devonport and District Tramways was sold to the Corporation in 1914 (although the tracks of the two networks were not connected until October 1915) but the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Tramways, which dated back to 1872, remained an independent company until 1922 when it too was sold to the Corporation. The various depots of the old companies were slowly closed and the equipment and rolling stock concentrated at the old Devonport and District depot at Milehouse. Some new tramcars were constructed at the depot, and many more were completely stripped down and rebuilt. In 1923 new administrative offices were built there; that year saw the tram network at its greatest extent. From 1920, the Corporation also operated motor buses on routes beyond the tram tracks. The first four bus routes were operated by a fleet of twenty single deck 31 seat vehicles with solid tyres. By 1927 this had expanded to ten routes and 57 buses, some of which were one man operated. Plymouth was granted city status in 1928 and the buses started to carry the city's coat of arms and the "Plymouth City Transport" name. By 1930, it was becoming necessary to renew much of the tramway rolling stock. Consideration was given to converting to trolleybuses, but instead it was decided to implement a ten year programme of bus replacement. The first line to be converted was the Devonport to St Budeaux line which was closed in October 1930 when six new double deck buses replaced the trams. The line to West Hoe closed in 1931, the line to Compton closed in 1932, and regular services to the Royal Naval Barracks withdrawn in 1934. Further new buses were brought for these routes, and a few second hand tramcars from the now closed Exeter Tramway Company and Torquay Tramways allowed the oldest of the Plymouth cars to be withdrawn. In 1935 the Milehouse to Devonport line closed following the delivery of the city's first diesel engined buses. More were needed in 1936 to allow the closure of the line to Prince Rock and in 1937 to allow the withdrawal of the two long circular routes. It was at this time that the bus routes were first numbered. The plan to close the remaining tram lines was put on hold because of the outbreak of World War II in 1939; they were powered by electricity generated by British coal, whereas the buses relied on imported fuel. The one remaining route, from Theatre to Peverell, kept running but following city centre bomb damage in April 1941 (when car 133 was destroyed) the service was only operated between Drake's Circus to Peverell until the final tram ran in September 1945. A large part of the population of Plymouth moved out to the relative safety of the countryside during the war which meant that the Corporation's buses and trams were carrying fewer passengers, but rival Western National was under increasing pressure. Both operators had suffered damage to their depots and fleet – Milehouse was bombed in April 1941 – and so the two companies decided to pool resources under a Plymouth Joint Services agreement. This took effect from 1 October 1942 and resulted in 80% of mileage in and around the city were to be operated by the Corporation and 20% by Western National; the receipts were also divided in the same proportion, irrespective of which company operated which routes. This allowed Plymouth buses to operate beyond the city boundary to places such as Yelverton, Plympton and Wembury, while Western National were now allowed to pick up local passengers within the city where they had previously been restricted to only those travelling beyond the boundary. The routes in the Joint Services area, including those of Western National, were renumbered in a single sequence from 1 to 57 in 1957. Buses with front entrances were delivered to Plymouth City Transport from 1960 which paved the way to conversion of routes to one man operation from 1968, the first operator in the South West of England to do so. To help speed boarding times the fares were restructured to multiples of 3d. Fare stages at regular 0.85 mile (1 km) intervals were introduced in December 1975 to further simplify the fare structure.

During the early part of the 1980s, the National Bus Company (of which Western National was a subsidiary) undertook Market Analysis Projects in many areas to match services with demand. This resulted in most Plymouth Joint Services cross city routes being split into two that terminated in the city centre from 24 October 1982, as the survey revealed that few passengers travelled across the city without changing buses. The revision saw annual mileage reduced from more than 5.4 million miles to around 4.5 million, and the fleet from 185 to 160 vehicles. Buses were repainted and given "Plymouth Citybus" branding. Their colleagues walked out in solidarity and the Citybus service was crippled for two weeks. Western National used this opportunity to lay on extra buses, using the same numbers as Citybus services they were replacing, and Western National also covered Citybus school and Dockyard routes. Western National threatened to give jobs to sacked Citybus drivers. The Plymouth Evening Herald reported daily on the war of words between Citybus Director Brian Fisher (formerly Principal Assistant Transport Manager for Plymouth City Transport) and Western National Director John Preece. Agreement between Citybus management and unions was reached on 5 February, with drivers returning to work on 6 February. After a while direct competition between the two companies ceased and they largely returned to operating their old routes.

In May 2009, Plymouth City Council announced that it intended to sell the company. Early interest came from FirstGroup and local taxi owner John Preece who had been behind the privatisation of Western National and had made previous attempts to purchase Citybus. A £20 million bid by the Go Ahead Group was accepted in November 2009.

As of October 2013, Plymouth Citybus employed 443 people, operated 151 buses and coaches, and carried about 14 million passengers annually. In addition to its bus and coach operations, it also provides vehicle repairs and servicing for other commercial road operators and private car drivers through its Car and Commercial division. Its fleet is based at a depot in Milehouse. In October 2013, Plymouth Citybus launched a new service to Tavistock. This has since been withdrawn leaving Tavistock Plymouth services in the hands of Stagecoach South West.

Plymouth City Transport's first coach seated vehicles was a Leyland National fitted with coach seats. A separate unit branded 'Plymouth Citycoach' was later created Citybus with its own management and a remit to produce a profit. It offered both advertised day trips and holiday tours, as well as hiring out its vehicles. It initially carried a version of the bus livery, but generally with more white. The coaching business was shut down during the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020 but was reintroduced in 2023 using the 'Go Southwest Coach Hire' brand.

Plymouth City Tramways initially used a maroon colour scheme but a yellow and white livery was introduced in 1922 Six Bristol LHs that operated beyond the city boundaries were given a matching 'Country bus' logo, and a Leyland National with a wheelchair lift was branded as 'Mobility bus'. The Minibuses introduced in 1986 were painted in cream with red and orange bands and branded 'City shuttle'. A few years later a black, red and white livery was adopted for all buses, but the black was eventually replaced by grey. When low floor buses were introduced they were given 'Super Rider' branding. Park and ride services were introduced using Mercedes Benz minibuses in a mid grey scheme but the Dennis Dart MPDs that replaced them were given special green and yellow livery. The red, white and grey livery later became red and white. Following the takeover by Go Ahead in 2009, Best Impressions designed a two tone red livery with a white 'swoosh', this accompanied a new version of the Plymouth CityBus logo. However this has since been adapted by the company, who now use a plain red with a different style of swoosh (which covers more of the bus) and a simplified version of the Best Impressions devised logo. The new livery is often dubbed as 'Lines'.