Alder Valley

The Thames Valley and Aldershot Omnibus Company, trading as Alder Valley, was a former bus operator in England.

The NBC era

The Thames Valley and Aldershot Omnibus Company was formed by the merger of two National Bus Company (NBC) subsidiaries, Aldershot and District Traction (A&D) and Thames Valley Traction (TV) in January 1972. The name Alder Valley was an amalgamation of the former names, but not representing any geographical feature or area. Despite the merger, the company initially maintained two divisions, Reading (covering the former TV area) and Aldershot covering A&D's area, each of which continued to issue its own timetable booklet. From 1st November 1973 these divisions were renamed North and South. Thames Valley had also managed the South Midland express services between Oxford and London, but these had been transferred to City of Oxford Motor Services in 1971. The new company's head office was at the former TV headquarters in Reading, but the Aldershot office was retained as a divisional HQ, ["Aldershot's Buses" by Peter Holmes] ["National Bus Company: The Early Years" by Kevin Lane] ["National Bus Company: The Road to Privatisation" by Kevin Lane] and, in 1981, became the Head Office, allowing the Reading site to be sold for redevelopment.

Liveries

The buses began to be painted in dark red and cream, with small Tilling-style Alder Valley fleetnames with gold coloured lettering in early 1972. In keeping with the NBC policy, however, poppy red was soon applied (from December 1972), with a white stripe at waist level (single-deckers) or above the lower windows (double-deckers), along with white double-N logo, bold white fleetnames and light grey wheels. The logo later appeared in red and blue on a round-cornered white rectangular background. In the early days of the NBC livery, cream coloured NBC-style fleetnames/logos were applied to those vehicles which retained A&D two-tone green/cream or the early red/cream liveries. Alder Valley coaches were painted white all over with the red and blue "NATIONAL" fleetname and logo, with the Alder Valley fleetname less-prominently. "Dual-purpose" vehicles (i.e. bus -bodied vehicles fitted with coach seats and used mainly on long-distance stage-carriage services but also on express services, private hire, excursions and local stage-carriage services) were painted poppy red below waist level and white above, with red fleetnames and logos. A variation was a white livery with broad red band at waist level [photo by L Smith in Aldershot's Buses] . In 1977 (and for some time afterwards) a Dennis Loline carried a silver and red livery in honour of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Later, coaches carried a livery of white with an angular application of black and red horizontal stripes; this was also applied to the company's open-top double-decker based at Aldershot depot (see illustration). Coaches used on the London express services carried "Londonlink" branding from this point. There were, however, a large number of variations from the above standards. ["Aldershot's Buses" by Peter Holmes and Recollections of M P Andrew]

Vehicle fleet

While A&D was a BET company with a varied fleet including mostly Dennis Lolines and AEC Reliances, Thames Valley had a typical Tilling Group fleet comprising almost entirely Bristol vehicles. Some cross-border swapping of vehicles occurred between the two divisions after the merger. Through NBC days, Alder Valley adopted the Leyland National and Bristol VRT as its standard single and double deck buses. In the early/mid-1970s there was a severe shortage of vehicles, resulting in the hiring-in of a varied fleet which included a Trans World Airlines double decker noted on services from Aldershot, including the service 12 to Reading in 1974 ["Aldershot's Buses" by Peter Holmes] ; a number of elderly City of Oxford AEC Reliances in maroon and green livery, which operated Aldershot local services; and at least two ageing Sheffield United Tours coaches which operated daily on the Farnham to London service. Vehicle shortages (together with poor staff morale and retention [M P Andrew] ) led to poor customer service at this time, with many service cancellations.

Depots

Depots were maintained at Newbury, Reading, High Wycombe, Maidenhead, Bracknell, Aldershot, Guildford, Woking, Hindhead and Alton.

Operation

As well as local services, Alder Valley also ran frequent express coach services from Farnham and Reading into London, and seasonal services to the south coast. With changes in legislation in the early 1980s, the London services were mostly switched to the motorways (M3 and M4) and re-branded as "Londonlink". These services enjoyed a healthy boom period for a decade or so, with greatly expanded commuter services.

Decline

At the same time, local services were in decline and the Market Analysis Project (MAP) resulted in severe reductions in mileage, the end of any remaining two-person bus operation, and a reduction in the fleet size. Local fleetnames were applied to buses and publicity, and the Blackwater Valley MAP scheme saw the revival of the Aldershot & District name, while other areas were less fortunate (Forestride, Weyfarer, etc.). These names vanished after a couple of years.

In the lead up to deregulation, Alder Valley was again split into North and South. Initially, North and South were added to the company names. The NBC red livery was maintained initially, although it wasn't long before Alder Valley North experimented with various combinations of red, yellow and grey.

Deregulation and Privatisation

Alder Valley North / The Bee Line

With deregulation in 1986, Alder Valley North rebranded as the Berks Bucks Bus Company, trading as The Bee Line, and went for a yellow and grey livery adorned with bees. It was sold to Q Drive in 1987. The company was shrinking. It retreated first from High Wycombe, where the operations were sold in 1990 to the Oxford Bus Company. Oxford Bus ran them as Wycombe Bus, but sold them to Arriva in 2000 (after Oxford Bus had itself been sold to the Go-Ahead Group). In 1992 the Bee Line sold the Reading and Newbury operations to Reading Transport. The remaining operations were sold to Badgerline, which was then merged into First, who renamed the company First Beeline Limited and rebranded it as First Berkshire.

Alder Valley South / Alder Valley

Alder Valley South, meanwhile, was also privatised in 1987. It dropped the South from its name and adopted a two-tone green and yellow livery. It was sold again in 1988 to Q Drive, but the new owners sold the Guildford/Woking operations in 1990 - they eventually became part of Arriva. In 1992 the rest of the company was sold to Stagecoach as Stagecoach in Hants & Surrey. The once impressive Londonlink network also went into terminal decline. The remnant of the network is a Green Line service from Bracknell to London operated by First Berkshire.

Alder Valley Travel

The Alder Valley name was revived in 2002 when a new firm, Alder Valley (South) Limited, was registered, which trades under the name of Alder Valley Travel. The company operates a small but increasing fleet of vehicles on private hire work, school contracts, stage carriage bus services and rail replacement services, and is based in Alton, with depots there and in Staines. The company claims that the "old operator's name compliments us perfectly... we are proud to be innovative and forward thinking, but also feel it important that traditional values are not lost" [ [http://www.aldervalleytravel.co.uk/ Alder] ] .

As of February 2008 the company operates four routes on behalf of Surrey County Council: services 84 between Bisley and Camberley (Collingwood College), 85 (Ash and Collingwood College), 690 Winston Churchill School to Brookwood and Worplesdon and 828 Knaphill to Guildford.

ee also

*National Bus Company (UK)
*List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

Further reading

*"Aldershot's Buses" by Peter Holmes
*"National Bus Company: The Early Years" by Kevin Lane
*"National Bus Company: The Road to Privatisation" by Kevin Lane

References

External links

* [http://www.adbig.co.uk/aldervalley/index.html ADBIG website]
* [http://www.aldervalleytravel.co.uk/ Alder Valley Travel website]
* [http://www.modelbuszone.co.uk/efe/operators/aldervalleyidx.html Model Bus Zone collectors' page - diecast scale models of Aldershot & District, Thames Valley and Alder Valley buses]