Mayne Coaches

Mayne Coaches Ltd.

Slogan	Luxury Coaching Since 1920
Founded	1920
Headquarters	Marsh House Lane, Warrington
Service area	Greater Manchester, Warrington
Service type	Coach hire
Fleet	Nearly 100 vehicles.
Operator	Mayne Coaches Ltd.
Web site	Official website

The Mayne Group, (Mayne) is a coach operator based in the north west of England, trading as Mayne Coaches, owned by Stephen Mayne. Coach services are operated from Warrington and Manchester. A family run business since 1920, the bus operations were sold to Stagecoach Group on 21 January 2008, marking the demise of the oldest bus operator, to have retained its independence, in Manchester^[1].

Mayne are not to be confused with Maynes, an operator of blue and gold liveried coaches based in Buckie, Scotland.

Company locations

The Mayne Group head office was located in the bus operations depot on Ashton New Road, Clayton, before the sale of bus services. Manchester coach operations are undertaken from a depot nearby in Fairclough Street, adjacent to Manchester Velodrome, which also houses the group accounting functions. Warrington coach operations are operated from a purpose built office and depot complex on Marsh House Lane.

Coach operations

Scania Irizar InterCentury I in old Mayne livery

Mayne operate coaches for private hire, leisure travel and operate many school contracts. The coach fleet consists of red and cream liveried coaches which include:

• Plaxton
  • Premiere (Mostly converted into 70 seaters)
  • Profile
• UVG
  • Unistar
• Irizar
  • i4
  • Intercentury
  • PB
• VDL Bova
  • Futura
• Scania
  • Omniexpress

All coaches carry the brand name Mayne.

Company history

The company was formed before the First World War, originally delivering furniture from its shop in Bradford, Manchester. Maynes branched out into coach excursions in the 1920s, running trips to the coast and to Buxton. They would later expand their coaches to run trips to football matches and race meetings. By the start of the 1930s, the company concentrated on passenger transport and would continue to grow during the 1930s and moved to its present HQ on Ashton New Road in Clayton. They were previously based in Beswick.

Coach services would stop when the Second World War broke out and struggled to recover after the war ended, with the costs of fuel, labour and vehicles rising and passenger numbers dropped due to the increase of cars on the road. During the 1960s, the company would received numerous offers from Manchester Corporation Transport to take over Mayne. By resisting the offers, the company was able to grow steadily and would increase its services in the 1980s.

The Warrington operation was acquired through the purchase of Barry Cooper Coaches of Grappenhall Road, Warrington by members of the Mayne family in 1982. Although this was originally a separate business to Mayne, the Mayne name and red and cream livery were soon adopted to aid interoperability and further the company brand. In 1989 the coach operations in Manchester expanded into the Fairclough Street depot. In 1998 Barry Cooper coaches was renamed Mayne Coaches, and moved to its present site.

Over the years the company has grown from an initial purpose built coach in 1925 and new bus in 1929, with expansion coming through acquisition of local bus and coach operators, and through purchases of new buses and coaches. The company resisted numerous attempts at nationalisation due to a licensing agreement made in 1930 with Manchester Corporation regarding bus service provision.

Once free of such restrictions and political pressure in 1986, due to deregulation of bus services, the company went on to survive the new era of competitive bus service operation, until sale of the bus operations in January 2008.

Having always been a family run business, Mayne's bus division was sold to the Stagecoach Group after the children of the current managing director, Stephen Mayne, did not express an interest in running the company.^[2][3][4]. The Ashton New Road bus depot was sold to supermarket chain Aldi, which commenced demolition in December 2007. The bus fleet then briefly operated from the Fairclough Street coach depot, supplemented with temporary parking at the adjacent Velodrome. After obtaining Office of Fair Trading clearance on 10 January 2008, the sale of the bus fleet and registrations was completed on 21 January 2008.

The company remains as a coach operator, still under the ownership of Stephen Mayne, with the Head office at Warrington.

Former bus services

A Mayne Scania N113

Bus services were operated mainly in East Manchester, with the majority of services running between Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester via Ashton New Road. Mayne operated a diverse fleet of distinctive red and cream liveried single and double deck buses acquired singly or in small batches. One of the largest purchases was a batch of five East Lancs bodied Dennis Tridents bought new in 1999, striking in appearance compared to contemporary buses of the time. All buses carried the brand name Mayne.

Following the sale, the 37 bus vehicle Maynes fleet in Manchester, was transferred to Stagecoach Manchester's Hyde Road depot, with Mayne services becoming integrated into Stagecoach Manchester^[5], and the Maynes fleet undergoing a repaint into Stagecoach colours.

A small number of ex Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company, East Lancs bodied Scanias were retained by the company for use on schools contracts.

References

1. ^ Bus and Coach News
2. ^ End of the road for bus firm Manchester Evening News 19 November 2007
3. ^ Stagecoach Group plc Regulatory Announcement regarding OFT
4. ^ Bus and Coach News
5. ^ Stagecoach Manchester news release

External links

• Official website