- Red & White Services
Red & White Services was a bus company operating in south east Wales and
Gloucestershire ,England between 1929 and 1978.Red & White evolved into Red & White United Transport Ltd, formed in 1937, which owned bus and road freight companies in the United Kingdom and southern Africa. When the group's UK bus interests were nationalised in 1950, the group changed its name to United Transport Company.
Early history
In 1922 John Watts of
Lydney , Gloucestershire, started two bus companies. One, Gloucestershire Transport, ran local bus services around Lydney. The other, The Valleys Motor Bus Services, ran buses aroundTredegar in South Wales. Both companies expanded rapidly by acquiring nearby operators. In 1926 the Lydney business adopted the name Gloster (Red & White) Services. By 1928, the companies were operating buses betweenGloucester ,Hereford andSouth Wales .In 1929 John Watts formed Red & White Services Ltd to bring together the various bus companies he had formed or acquired.
In 1929 Red & White entered the long distance coach market, initially from Gloucester and between London and South Wales. In the early 1930s coach operators were acquired further afield, with services between London, Liverpool and Glasgow and between Cardiff and Blackpool. In 1934 Red & White was one of the founder members of the
Associated Motorways consortium.The company expanded rapidly during the 1930s, by now from new headquarters in
Chepstow . It acquired several bus companies in the Swansea area and elsewhere in South Wales. In 1933 Red & White acquired the business of Red Bus Services ofStroud .By 1937 Red & White and its subsidiaries were operating a fleet of over 400 buses and coaches. In that year Red & White United Transport Ltd was formed as a public company to hold the group's various interests. The group's operations in the Swansea area were brought together in 1939 in a new company, United Welsh Services Ltd. Later in 1939, the group bought Cheltenham District Traction Company, which ran town buses in
Cheltenham .Expansion continued even during the Second World War. In early 1944 the group bought Newbury & District, which ran buses in west Berkshire, and in 1945 it bought Venture Ltd, the main bus operator in
Basingstoke , Hampshire. Also in 1945 it bought South Midland Motor Services of Oxford, which before the war had run express coach services between London, Oxford and Worcester.Nationalisation
In 1950, to forestall compulsory acquisition by the post war Labour government, Red & White sold its UK bus and coach operations to the
British Transport Commission . The group changed its name to United Transport Company, and continued to hold its interests in transport in Africa and in road freight transport in the UK. It was taken over byBritish Electric Traction in 1971.The British Transport Commission transferred most of the English bus operations of Red & White to other recently nationalised companies:
* Venture Ltd was transferred to
Wilts & Dorset
* Newbury & District was transferred toThames Valley Traction
* The management of South Midland was also transferred to Thames Valley Traction
* The operations in the Stroud area were transferred to Bristol Tramways
* Cheltenham District Traction Company was also transferred to Bristol TramwaysIn return, the Forest of Dean services of Bristol Tramways were transferred to Red & White.
This left Red & White with its services in Monmouthshire, the Forest of Dean and the Glamorgan valleys. United Welsh was managed separately within the BTC.
In 1962 Red & White was transferred to the state-owned
Transport Holding Company , and in 1969 to the National Bus Company.In 1978 the National Bus Company merged the operations of Red & White into the neighbouring NBC operator Western Welsh, which became National Welsh. The Red & White name disappeared.
Privatisation
National Welsh was privatised in 1988. The company struggled financially and went into receivership in 1992 - the main example of the failure of a privatised bus company. National Welsh was broken up. Most of the National Welsh services were eventually acquired by Stagecoach. The name Stagecoach Red & White was used for a time, but the local company is now known as Stagecoach South Wales.
External links
* [http://www.maerdy.net/redwhite/ Red & White Services 1919-1949]
* [http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/red-and-white/ Red & White Services Ltd - A History]
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