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trentbarton (Trent Motor Traction Company Ltd. & Barton Buses Ltd.)
Wright Solar bodied Scania L94UB in Bingham in 2017
ParentWellglade Group
FoundedOctober 1913; 111 years ago (1913-10)
HeadquartersHeanor
LocaleNottinghamshire
Derbyshire
Leicestershire
Service areaDerbyshire
Leicestershire
Nottinghamshire
Staffordshire
Service typeBus services
HubsNottingham and Derby
Depots5
Chief executiveJeff Counsell
Websitewww.trentbarton.co.uk

Trent Barton, stylised as trentbarton, is a bus operator based in Heanor, Derbyshire. A combination of the Trent Motor Traction Company and Barton Buses Limited,[1] it is the major operating division of the Wellglade Group.

History

Preserved Leyland National in Trent Motor Traction Company livery
Barton Plaxton Supreme bodied Leyland Leopard in 1993
Optare Excel at Stockport bus station in August 2006
Wright Solar bodied Scania L94UB in September 2004

In October 1913, Trent Motor Traction Company[2] was founded and commenced operating a bus service between Derby and Ashbourne. In November 1913, a second service commenced to Stapleford. By 1925 services were operating from Derby, Loughborough and Nottingham. As services expanded the business grew to seven depots.[3]

During the 1930s some 52 smaller operators were bought out. In August 1949 Trent Motor Traction Company began to operate some services in partnership with Derby Corporation. In 1958 following the opening of the A52 an express service commenced between Derby and Nottingham. In 1969 the company became part of the National Bus Company.[3]

As part of the privatisation of the bus industry Trent was sold in a management buyout. In 1989 the business of neighbouring Barton Transport was purchased and placed into a separate legal entity[4] even though both subsidiaries combined their operations on a day-to-day basis. The separate Trent and Barton brands were brought together as 'Trent Barton' in 2005.[3]

Trent Barton maintains a 6% shareholding in First Leicester.[5][6]

Services and brands

Trentbarton operate services from Loughborough, Ashbourne, Burton upon Trent, Chesterfield, Derby, Ilkeston, Mansfield, and Nottingham with most operating under a brand name with branded vehicles although some still use conventional route numbers, Some services within the network operate through to around 03:00 on Saturday and Sunday mornings.[citation needed]

'indigo' became the first route to operate a '24 hours a day, 7 days a week' from 24th July 2011[7] until March 2012 it also operated between East Midlands Airport and Loughborough when that section of the route was replaced by a revised 'skylink Nottingham' service which runs between Nottingham and East Midlands Airport but via a quicker route.[citation needed]

Buses operate from Nottingham to the suburbs of Calverton, Cotgrave and Keyworth while the 'mainline' and 'rushcliffe villager' run along the A52 to Bingham and Radcliffe-on-Trent.

In Derby, Trent Barton run some urban services, such as the non-stop 'spondon flyer' service, and 'the mickleover' and 'the allestree'. There are also a number of longer distance services for example 'swift' to Uttoxeter and 'the sixes' to Belper and Matlock with their unusual numbering system: 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 and 6X. 'the villager' services run south to Burton on Trent with the numbering system V1 and V3 plus a number of services run north towards Ilkeston and Heanor such as the 'black cat' and 'H1'.

Trent Barton also operates a number of express services around the East Midlands. These include:

  • 'red arrow' service from Nottingham to Derby.
  • X38 (operated jointly with Arriva Derby) from Derby to Burton on Trent
  • the comet from Chesterfield to Derby via Clay Cross and Alfreton and Ripley
  • 'RapidOne' between Ripley and Nottingham fast along the A612 (until 29 March 2020) [8]

In the 1990s and 2000s Trent Barton operated large number of 'rainbow routes', with frequent services running from Nottingham and Derby under route numbers such as 'R11, R12 and R13' from Nottingham to Eastwood and into Derbyshire, now known as 'rainbow one' or 'Rainbow Allestree' running from Derby to the village just outside town, now known as 'the allestree'. Most of the Rainbow routes were rebranded in the early 2000s leaving just 'Rainbow 1 to 5', running from 7 to 12 minutes from Nottingham to various suburban towns. These were then rebranded leaving just 'Rainbow One' as the remaining Rainbow brand.

Routes that operate with conventional numbers are generally operated by a pool of 'spare' vehicles that advertise the 'Mango' smartcard or the Zigzag day ticket, these vehicles also substitute for a branded vehicle if it is unavailable.

High Peak Buses

Main article: High Peak Buses

In April 2012 Trent Barton entered a 50/50 joint venture with Centrebus. This saw Trent Barton's Buxton operation combined with Bowers Coaches to form High Peak Buses.[9][10][11]

The joint company operates all services previously run by Bowers Coaches and the Buxton division of Trent Barton, including the Skyline 199 service from Buxton to Stockport and Manchester Airport, and Transpeak from Derby, Belper, Matlock, Bakewell, and Buxton. The service no longer serves Nottingham, this portion of the route being removed in late 2012. The Buxton to Manchester section was later withdrawn from 23 July 2018.

Ticketing schemes

The 'Mango' system was initially tested on the company's Rainbow 4 (now i4) and Indigo routes. After this proved successful, Trent Barton proceeded to extend the scheme to all of its services.[12][13]

Depot

Trent Barton operates from depots in Derby, Langley Mill, Belper, Nottingham and Sutton in Ashfield with Kinchbuss depot in Loughborough an outstation for some Skylink Nottingham buses.[14]

Langley Mill depot is also the headquarters for trentbarton and Wellglade Group.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Terms and conditions: general conditions of carriage". www.trentbarton.co.uk. Heanor: Trent Motor Traction Company. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  2. ^ Companies House extract company no 131912 Traction Motor Traction Company Limited
  3. ^ a b c History Trent Barton
  4. ^ Companies House extract company no 2347412 Barton Buses Limited
  5. ^ Government Approves 19th Bus Sale of Leicester Citybus Ltd Local Government Chronicle 15 November 1993
  6. ^ FirstGroup Annual Report March 2013 FirstGroup
  7. ^ Indigo buses to run right through the night
  8. ^ {https://www.trentbarton.co.uk/news-and-media/our-news/article/rapidonewavesgoodbye2020}
  9. ^ Companies House extract company no 7623806 High Peak Buses Limited
  10. ^ Wellglade/Centrebus join up in Buxton Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine busandcoach.com 24 May 2011
  11. ^ New bus operator hits the road Trentbarton
  12. ^ Trent Barton starts rollout with integrated solution Init June 2008
  13. ^ Bus heartbeats Archived 23 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine busandcoach.com 12 December 2012
  14. ^ "About the Wellglade group". Derby Bus Depot.

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