I am trying to find any details from enthusiasts on my old company, County Travel (Leicester) Ltd. We started in 1959 and as well as operating coaches we created eventually a pretty large stage carriage presence after acquiring Bass from Fleckney, Barkus, Allens of Mountsorrel, and Tourmaster from Loughborough which included Howletts of Quorn. We tied up with Leicester City Transport and ran from Market Harborough in the South to Derby in the North. If you know of any enthusiasts who have any info I really would appreciate it as it will fill some gaps where the old grey cells are diminishing, as modestly, we were quite a force in the 70/80s before selling the stage carriage service to Mildand Fox in 1989 and going on to form the coach dealership Coach Europe which sold Iveco bus and coaches in the U.K. until 2003.
Paul Cresswell
A fascinating subject, worthy of an article! I dont think a great deal more can be said about the company except maybe a table of businesses acquired and dates etc, to chart their remarkable expansion. The operations are another story. There had been a link between Leicester and Derby since before 1930, operated by Kemp and Shaw who sold out to Midland Red in 1955. After that, Trent became involved also and the service pattern was little changed until de-regulation. In October 1986, presumably Trent thought that Derby to Leicester was not commercially viable so did not register it. There was an express, X44 between Sheffield and Leicester, supported by Derbyshire and Leicestershire County Councils but this was short lived. Meanwhile, County Travel had joined together the services they had acquired and in conjunction with Leicester City Transport's Gibson division they formed a service (albeit via a roundabout route) between Leicester and Loughborough. In January 1986, well before d-day, they managed to start a more direct service between Leicester and Loughborough in direct competition with Midland Fox who incredibly withdrew from the Charnwood area and County's services became the 'County Link' operated by a sizable collection of Fleetlines acquired from East Kent, Merseyside and West Midlands, all turned out in a very smart livery of two tone green with cream fronts applied in Midland Fox style. The high point of the operation was a service between Market Harborough and Derby, a distance of almost 50 miles with 4-5 journeys daily, and must have been one of the longest stage carriage services in Britain operated with double deckers, with a journey time of five minutes under 3 hours, easily beating Yorkshire Traction's 65 route from Sheffield to Leeds. This was the basis of a very successful operation, the core of the service was the section between Loughborough and Leicester, with three buses per hour and a very far sighted move was the inclusion of East Midlands Airport in the section between Loughborough and Derby. It was something of a surprise when County decided to sell the operation to Midland Fox in 1989, perhaps they wanted to diverge into other things, perhaps it was the bus war in the Loughborough area precipitated by G K Kinch which decided for them. There is no doubt though, that they had a very valuable commodity which would have been worth a great deal more if they could have held on to it longer. This corridor today is covered by the highly successful 'Skylink' service, funded by East Midlands Airport which connects Derby and Leicester via the Airport in almost the same time as the County service did 25 years ago (by a slightly different route). The difference is that County served the Airport every 2 hours, today, the service runs every half hour during the day and every hour throughout the night!
Chris Barker
Green Line operated some very long routes with double-deckers and I well remember riding from Sevenoaks to Windsor on an RCL in the late sixties. The maximum extremity of the route was from Tunbridge Wells to Windsor which took three hours twenty minutes yet the core part of the route saw four buses per hour! However, if you wanted a really long double-deck ride, the ones to try were the Western SMT routes from Glasgow to Stranraer and Newton Stewart which took longer and covered significantly more miles! (There are probably others even longer in Scotland as well.)
David Beilby
You have really touched a chord, David! In 1958 I was one of a dozen RAF bods on an Army camp at Cainryan (some 7 miles North of Stranraer). Several times, we took the Western SMT service to Glasgow, via Ayr Depot for a re-fuel, and a wee for those who, by then, usually needed one! The journey was about 90 miles and took 4 hours. It was a 2-hour service, I believe, run by lowbridge Leyland PD2 tin-fronted double-deckers. It was a fairly hilly route, not really challenging, but enough to occupy the driver's left hand and foot for much of the time!
Chris Hebbron
28/11/13 - 06:15
County Travel were the providers of my school bus transport from Braunstone to Guthlaxton school at Wigston in 1965 to 1967 the regular performers were 9158/9 ME a pair of Plaxton bodied Ford coaches ex Fountain Coaches of Twickenham whose livery the company adopted for its coach fleet along with 3211 NB an older Ford/Plaxton. Their first new bus KBC 214E a Ford/Strachan service bus bought for the Leicester to Fleckney service taken over from Bass of Fleckney/Braunstone.
My first ever paid job whilst I was still at school was with Country Travel at their yard off Syston street depot. The newly arrived KBC 214E had to be cleaned up ready for service and then Dave Spoor sent me off up to the town to see if I could get some sort of cash tray to hold the money in. I returned an hour later with a plastic tray from a shop that sold weighing equipment on Belgrave gate and it didn't cost a penny!!
From memory they operated from time to time a few weird and wonderful vechs including an ex Trimdon Motor Services Duple service bus which was replaced by the new Ford mentioned above there were also numerous other Bedford/Ford coaches purchased in the late 1960,s.
One memory I have was on the day of the Aberfan disaster hearing about it on the coach Radio coming home on 9159 ME as we went round the Pork Pie roundabout-some things you never forget!!
Steve Sanders
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