King Travel

King Travel is a bus company operating in the North West of England. The company has formed From "Pilkington's Buses" (more commonly known to local people as "Accrington's Buses"), a company established in 1967. It had its operators' licence revoked when a "VOSA" investigation found problems in the operation of the company June 2004. [cite web | url=http://archive.theboltonnews.co.uk/2004/6/12/485557.html | title=School bus firm loses its licence | date=2004-06-12 | accessdate=2008-02-26 | publisher=Lancashire Evening Telegraph]

"King Travel" is the company that formed from the next generation of "Pilkington's" family members 2006,and is one of numerous other companies run by "Pilkington's Accrington Ltd". [cite web | url=http://archive.theboltonnews.co.uk/2006/4/1/892573.html | title=Troubled bus firm is back | date=2006-04-01 | accessdate=2008-02-26 | publisher=Lancashire Evening Telegraph ] The livery is in a similar style to "Pilkingtons"' red and cream, although no uniform colour has yet been chosen.

Routes

The company has taken up route 20 from Accrington to Blackburn via Oswaldtwistle, although this route has frequent competition from "Lancashire United's" routes 1, 6 and 7. Thus, "King Travel's" services are not as frequent. They also operate route 20d, a direct service between Accrington and Blackburn.

In August 2007, the company started operating route 114 between Preston and Chorley on behalf of Lancashire County Council. [" [http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/bus/service_changes/Docs/august07.doc "Bus service changes, August 2007"] " Lancashire.gov.uk Retrieved 1st January 2008] This route was previously operated by "Blue Bus of Penwortham".

The fleet

"Pilkington's Buses" had most of their main-line commercial routes competing with municipal or council owned buses. The fleet was made up predominantly of Leyland Nationals, some of which were re-bodied by East Lancashire Coachbuilders in the early 1990s. The company also operated a number of DAF Optare Deltas and Dennis Darts, as well as numerous double deck buses.

King Travel have returned two of these vehicles to the road still carrying "Pilkingtons" fleetnames, while the other buses in the fleet are two S-reg Optare Excels from East Yorkshire Motor Services. These two vehicles are route branded. Also operated are two Mercedes-Benz Varios on route 20d. One of these buses has route branding for the 20d, with the destinations it serves branded on the windows. This could possibly be a reference to Pilkington buses, where most of the route branding was displayed on the windows. The two Varios are still in their previous owner's livery, of white and blue, although the route branded vehicle has a simple maroon panel on the back with the route info.

The company also operates two modern low-floor Dennis Dart midibuses on route 114 with the brand name "Pilkington's".

References