Although it may not be obvious to passengers given the similar liveries used on the service by both operators, Arriva Midlands and Trentbarton jointly operate the X38 Derby to Burton service.
This modern example of cooperation is however the sole surviving case of a one time quite widespread practice.
Between the middle of the 20th century and the deregulation of the bus industry in 1986 an increasing number of routes were operated jointly by Derby Corporation / City Transport (the predecesor to todays Arriva Midlands Derby operation) and Trent Motor Traction (now TrentBarton), starting relatively informally but leading up to quite a formal arrangement by the 1980s.
One service, two operators - although with a shared livery you have to look very carefully to spot the difference
In the 1930s Derby Corporation had replaced its electric trams with trolley buses and whilst the network did expand a little, there was for the most part opposition to further installation of trolley wires post WWII, particularly where these were proposed outside the then Borough boundary. The Corporation had also ran some motor bus services from the mid 1920s given they facilitated rapid expansion of public transport services to new and growing suburbs.
Trent Motor Traction grew through acquisition to become the dominant bus service operator in the surrounding areas by the outbreak of WWII. Where their services ran into Derby, a Corporation Act generally prevented any picking up or setting down in order to protect revenue on same route Corporation services (a common practice at the time where private undertakings operated within areas of Municipal transport systems). Another Act had authorised Corporation operation into areas beyond the Borough boundary where urbanisation was anticipated to occur, but not, for the most part, exclusively so.
Blagreaves Lane constituted such an area. Post WWII it was served by a Trent service that operated non stop down Burton Road (in order not to compete with the Corporation's Burton Road trolley bus service) then continued via Stenson Road back into Derby Borough but only permitted to run as far as the Cavendish public house on the route of the Browning Street via Normanton Road trolley bus service. Derby Corporation (DC) also ran a bus service down Normanton Road and Upper Dale Road in order to directly serve the part of Stenson Road located within the Borough (up to the Sunnyhill Avenue junction).
Corporation public transport routes immediately post WWII
With the Corporation wishing to run onto Blagreaves Lane and Trent not only wanting to continue their service but also additionally run into town via Normanton Road, a deal was stuck in 1949 to commence a jointly operated circular service requiring two vehicles from each undertaking during daytime operation. Numbered 49 outbound via Burton Rd and 51 outbound via Normanton Rd & Stenson Rd, plus regular additional Normanton Rd DC shorts numbered 50 (and later one of the two full journeys an hour each way running as 49A and 51A variants additionally via Oaklands Avenue, along with some morning and late evening 50 journeys extended to Blagreaves Lane End as service 48), this continued for 33 years, 25 of which with the Burton Road restrictions retained (understandable for as long as the trolley bus infrastructure was retained, but less so that restrictions continued [except on Sundays] for another 10 years after the Burton Road trolleys were directly replaced by a motor bus service in 1964). During the last 4 years of joint operation the 49 was numbered 52, before the services became Derby City Transport (DCT) services 34 & 35. Today the route is covered by sections of Arriva services 7 and 5/5A and TrentBarton service 'Harlequin'.
The experience over Blagreaves Lane led to further cooperation the following year when the growing Chaddesden Hall Estate required a bus service. Derby Corporation trolleys already operated along Nottingham Road as far as the 'Creamery' (Raynesway) and with the new estate to the north undeniably constituting an extension to the town's urban area, the Corporation were interested in providing the bus service, whilst Trent could also lay claim based on the estate sitting outside the then Borough boundary. Hence joint operation of a new service was agreed, initially numbered 44 but from 1953 numbered 14, operating generally twice an hour (requiring one vehicle from each undertaking), Nottingham Road to Sunny Grove then Parkside Road to Trenton Green, later additionally via Sanderson Rd, Lexington Rd and Roosevelt Ave. Joint operation lasted 30 years, a few years after which DCT first introduced today's one way loop and renumbered the service to 20, as well as linking the service with the Mackworth via Ashbourne Road service for a number of years. At the end of the 1980s the service would gain a 20A variant operating a larger loop outbound via Reginald Road South and Maine Drive whilst only returning via Parkside Road with the 20 operating the loop in reverse. The new routing was successfull as in the mid-late 90s today's route was adopted with all journeys running via Reginald Rd South (leaving Parkside Road unserved) with the one way loop of the estate reintroduced.
The last of the early joint routes commenced in 1958, again to a new estate lying just outside the Borough boundary, Breadsall Hilltop (Scarborough Rise), numbered 27 and running via Mansfield Road twice an hour Mon to Sat. Like the aforementioned Trenton Green route, it was operated jointly until 1980. By the end of that decade DCT had extended the route along Bishops Drive into Oakwood on a 20 minute frequency, although the route would be withdrawn in the mid 00s. Since then Scarborough Rise (and with buses now running downhill along it on outbound journeys) has been served by Oakwood and Chaddesden circular services 22 & 24.
There were no further initiatives during the next thirteen years, by which time two things had changed. In 1968 Derby Borough increased its boundaries to accommodate not only the three areas with joint routes up to this point but the likes of Allestree, Mickleover and Spondon as well. Then in 1969, Trent's owners British Electric Traction sold it's bus businesses to the government and hence Trent became a part of the new National Bus Company, the NBC being actively supportive of its subsidiaries coordinating with municiple transport undertakings.
In this climate, agreement was reached in 1971 to commence joint operation to Allestree (both via Kedleston Road and Duffield Road), an area to which had henceforth involved fairly significant service duplication. This was because the Corporation had ran trolley buses up Kedleston Road to Allestree Lane End (only just beyond the Borough boundary) from the mid 1930s (replaced by motor buses from 1967) and from 1963 had also been licenced to run a bus service to a developing Park Farm. Meanwhile on Duffield Road, although the Borough boundary lay just past Broadway, Corporation trolley buses ran as far as Kings Croft (today's Palm Court Island) until being replaced by a motor bus service in 1964. Trent ran past both termini with a pair of linked Allestree circular services. On the Duffield Road side this additionally ran via Darley Abbey village (although Trent buses on the Belper service did run direct up Duffield Road) then past Kingscroft to Park Lane, and onto Cornhill, Robincroft Rd (with a later variant additionally serving West Bank Road and Woodlands Road) and the full length of Allestree Lane. From the mid sixties a second Trent Kedleston Road service was licenced to run 2 minutes and 3 stops beyond the Corporation's Park Farm service (11A) terminus to the end of Birchover Way with this service, numbered 58, representing a first instance of coordination in the area, running twice an hour between the Corporation's twice an hour 11A service. By mid 1971 Blenheim Drive had also been fully laid out.
The new Allestree services would see three configurations over their 15 years of joint operation. Initially they involved eight services, the old Trent services becoming 52 via Kedleston Rd and 53 via Duffield Road each running half hourly, supplemented with two further buses an hour on Allestree Lane via Kedleston Rd by the 56 additionally via Woodland Rd, West Bank Rd and Robin Croft Rd and the 57 via an opposite loop of 'Woodland Top'. Services 54 and 55 together ran every 15 minutes via Kedleston Rd to Park Farm then 55 continuing Birchover Way, Blenheim Drive and Oakover Dr and 54 the reverse loop. All these services ran to half their daytime frequencies during evenings and on Sundays. Finally service 158 (the 1 prefix indicating one man operated) ran twice an hour Mon-Sat daytimes direct up Duffield Rd to King's Croft (Belper services otherwise being deemed sufficient during evenings and on Sundays), whilst additional early morning shorts ran on Kedleston Rd to and from Allestree Lane End as service 59.
In 1978 this was rationalised to four services. The 51 and 52 represented today's Allestree Green and Blue services (non-Woodlands Top loop variants) and each running every 20 minutes (hourly evenings and Sundays), whilst the 53 via Darley Abbey village and 54 direct via Duffield Rd each ran hourly as far as Park Farm via Park Lane & Cornhill, then 53 via West Bank Rd, Woodlands Rd Allestree La, Oakover Dr and Blenheim Dr and 54 via Robincroft Rd, Blenheim Dr, Oakover Dr and Allestree La back to Robincroft Rd, the Park Farm loop directions existing in order that the Allestree Lane / Hollies Rd stops got an hourly service both to and from Park Farm (except evenings and Sundays when only the 53 ran). The services also provided an hourly link to Park Farm from Woodland Top and a half hourly link from the Duffield Road area of Allestree. For the first four years of this service configuration the Kedleston Road services were additionally linked with the Blagreaves Lane services. Afterward the Mon-Fri 51/52 service was reduced to half hourly each (Saturdays retaining the combined 10 minute service). Also in 1982 service 54 was withdrawn, with every other 53 renumbered 55 in order that the Hollies Rd to Park Farm bi-directional link be retained, all be it reduced to two-hourly and as services 53/55 only required a single vehicle they were for a year operated solely by Trent (this following a year of the 53 & 54 having been solely operated by DCT). This also left Cornhill (St Edmunds) with only an hourly service.
Finally, in 1985 the combined 53/55 service was increased to half hourly (reinstating the pre-1978 service provision through Darley Abbey Village), shortly after a loop of Derwent Avenue, Lambourn Drive and Ford Lane had additionally been introduced, when the two services reverted to full loop routes, 53 outbound via Kedleston Road and 55 outbound via Darley Abbey (each twice an hour / hourly evenings & Sun). Full coordination with the 51 & 52 retained a 10 minute frequency on Kedleston Road and to Park Farm along with an improved 20 minute frequency evenings and Sundays
Allestree timetable in the final year of joint operation ->
Trent would fully take on the services at deregulation (Oct 1986) renumbering the Kedleston Road services with single digits and briefly linking certain journeys with the Spondon and Borrowash routes (during which time the 55 number was retained for an hourly Darley Abbey through to Park Farm service running Mon-Sat daytimes only). In 1987 the pre-deregulation (only without the fifty prefix) 1, 2, 3 & 5 were reinstated but with a 4 also introduced to Woodlands Top via Kedleston Road partly covering the reduction of the 3 & 5 to hourly. In 1989 the 4 would match the 1 & 2 in running twice an hour with the Darley Abbey / Lambourn Drive route once again terminating at Park Farm as service 133 (and supplemented by certain peak time diverted Belper services numbered 132). In 1991 or 1992 the 133 was renumbered 3 and routed to Darley Abbey via Kedleston Road and Broadway but soon became secondary to service 34 running as per the 3 to Ford Lane then additionally to Duffield (Meadow Vale). In 1995 the 1, 2 & 4 were rebranded as Rainbow routes R51, R52 & R54 and the 34 as R34 (with the Cornhill/St Edmunds Cl stops becoming unserved for a number of years upon the discontinuation of the 3), then in June 2002 the R51 & R52 were rebranded again as the 'Allestree' Red and Blue services (and operated by midibuses for around 15 years), whilst the city section of the R34 along with the Woodlands Top and Allestree Lane/Hollies Rd section of the R54 were replaced with the 'Darley' which ran through to a loop of Park Farm and Allestree Lane End. The 'Darley' only lasted 9 months however after which time certain 'Allestree' journeys were instead operated via the Woodlands Top loop, whilst for the next two and a half years only a handful of journeys a day remained serving Darley Abbey village and Lambourne Drive courtesy of service 17, operated under subsidy by Trentbarton subsidiary Notts & Derby, which had been introduced upon the demise of the R34 in order to continue providing a limited service to Wirksworth Avenue in Duffield. In 2005 a 17A was belated introduced replicating the 'Darley' and which in conjunction with the 17 reinstated an hourly frequency Mon-Fri daytimes to Darley Abbey village and Lambourne Drive. The Allestree Red became Allestree Green after a change in direction of the Woodlands Top loop variants in 2012 with blue livered vehicles also introduced before finally the 17/17A was withdrawn completely in 2021 leaving all of Darley Abbey village, Lambourne Drive, Cornhill/St Edmunds Close and Allestree Lane/Hollies Road without a bus service until the end of March 2023 when these areas where linked with Park Farm by the National Bus Strategy Local Transport Fund supported Allestree Shuttle minibus operated by Derbyshire Community Transport running three journeys toward Park Farm (two from Darley Abbey) and two return journeys Monday to Friday, however the service did not receive support to continue following the end of its initial trial period in October 2023.
An event that has had a bearing on Derby(/Arriva Midlands)-Trent(/Trentbarton) joint operation to this day occurred in December 1973 when the Blue Bus Company of Willington, who ran two services between Derby and Burton, were put up for sale and Derby Borough Transport (DBT), as the Corporation transport department was now called, successfully agreed a deal to purchase the business. Whilst the acquired coach fleet allowed DBT to expand their private hire work (with the name Blue Bus Services retained for this), the two bus routes also gave DBT a presence in Burton which it was thought in a vague sort of way would help promote the town there. Derby buses appearing in Burton would soon support the new livery of light blue and grey which had started to replace the traditional olive green and cream from 1969 (although it would take until 1978 for the former livery to be fully replaced).
18 months after being taken over by Derby Borough Transport and this bus is still carrying its Blue Bus Services livery and fleetname. Blue Bus did not use service numbers and so their vehicles did not have number blinds. DBT therefore used boards to show the two routes were now numbered. For a little over 2 years DBT service 45 and Trent service 5 would retain independent numbers despite the routes being identical until the services were officially coordinated (as service 45) in March 1976 before being renumbered 103 in June 1977. Service 46 kept its number until August 1981 and remained solely operated by DCT using two vehicles (meaning the six vehicles used to operate the three Burton services were split three each) even upon adopting a Trent NBC series route number of 105.
One of the two routes, which ran via Findern, Willington and Repton, ran coordinated with a Trent service operating over the same route. In 1976 the two services were consolidated into a single hourly joint service with route number 103 being assigned the following year. In 1981, Trent suggested the 103 be linked as a circular service with their hourly 104 Derby to Burton via Tutbury route. As the combined 103/104 was created from one joint service and one ran by Trent only, the vehicle proportion of the new jointly operated circulars remained three Trent vehicles to DCT's one. Joint operation lasted until 1986 with Trent then continuing to operate the Mon-Sat 103/104 until the services were renumbered 83/84 in 1994 (and a few years later branded as Villager services V1 and V3). Throughout this whole period, Derby City Transport would retain full operation of the second route inherited from Blue Bus, Derby to Burton via Etwall and Egginton, running hourly and coordinated with the 104/103 to provide a half hourly service to Etwall. It also carried a Trent (National Bus Company) series route number of 105 from 1981 until deregulation (subsequently running as service 31). In 1994 the service was part of a route exchange and became Trent service 81 then Villager branded service V2 additionally serving Hatton, until being withdrawn in 2017.
Service 105 additionally coordinated with service 104/103 to & from Etwall
Following the success at Allestree, the next suburb to interest Derby Borough Transport was Mickleover with agreement reached for the taking over of Trent service 15C from February 1974. This was the variant of Trent's Mickleover services serving the original section of Ladybank Road and DBT operation allowed stopping restrictions prior to the City Hospital to be removed and the service coordinated with DBT's Uttoxeter Road local service to Corden Ave. Full coordination followed in November 1975 when the local Uttoxeter Road service was discontinued and service 15 to Mickleover Market Place and renumbered 15A to Ladybank Road both became jointly operated, each running three times an hour Mon-Sat daytimes and the 15A additionally twice an hour evenings and Sundays, along with hourly service 15H to Pastures Hospital which retained a limited stop section until June 1979, after which it only ran irregularly as service 404. In April 1981, following the completion of Ladybank Avenue, the 15 & 15A became circular services, now each running twice an hour Mon-Sat daytimes and hourly evenings and Sundays. In May 1982 the 15A was renumbered 16 and the 404 to 19.
Trent took over the running of services 15 & 16 at deregulation (Oct 1986) whilst service 19 was discontinued. From the early/mid 1990s the services were ran as Rainbow routes R15 and R16, each running three times an hour (Mon-Sat daytimes), additionally serving the full length of Brisbane Road and for a few years with every other journey operating cross city to Wyvern Retail Park, then in the early 2000s they were rebranded as the 'Mickleover' Red and Blue routes each now running four times an hour Mon-Sat daytimes. More recently the route variants were changed to Green and Blue with pink liveried vehicles used.
The Mickleover services had commenced joint working on the basis of existing Trent fares. Given these were higher than Corporation fares, regulations on the use of pensioner's bus passes differed, and picking up and setting down restrictions still applied on some routes, a County Council working group recommended a Coordination agreement be entered into whereby all bus services in Derby would be run on the basis of corresponding fares and conditions, picking up and setting down restrictions be gradually relaxed and full integration of Trent services operating within the now city boundary with City Transport (as DBT was now known) services, whilst maintaining the existing ratio of services which was 83.3% Derby City Transport and 16.7% Trent. Trent would also surrender all revenue taken on routes wholly within the city, but in turn be reimbursed by the Council with running expenses on these routes. The agreement was signed on 1 April 1979.
Timetable showing a coordinated 20 minute headroom from city to Spondon, White Swan (20'-25'-15' inbound)
The following year a route swap was made as Derby City Transport (DCT) were keen to serve one of the two remaining suburbs in the city that hitherto they had not, namely Spondon. Trent gave up service 115 to Huntley Avenue via Locko Road and Sandycroft Road, their only Spondon service that operated wholly within the city boundary. At the same time DCT withdrew their Nottingham Road to Raynesway island service (except on Sundays when the 115 didn't operate). Whilst not a joint working in terms of a shared operation of a single service, the DCT operated 115 remained fully coordinated with Trent's other Spondon Dale Road services, the 111 to Nottingham via Kirk Hallam and the 113/114 to & from Ockbrook. As the 115 ran hourly it was operated by a single vehicle. In return DCT gave up ring road service 90, however as this was operated by two vehicles for much of the day this in turn resulted in the ending of Trent's vehicle allocation to service 14 (Trent also gave up their vehicle allocated to service 27 at this time in exchange for one of DCTs four running boards on the Blagreaves La/Kedleston Rd service).
When, two years later service 90 was reduced to a peak time only service, it too became a jointly operated service but to compensate Trent over the loss of their daytime mileage DCT offered Trent majority operation of the Littleover Lane loop via city to Chaddesden Albert Road services 153 & 159 from 1983. Renumbered 28 & 29 the services utilised three Trent vehicles to DCTs one therefore Trent's share of the Blagreaves Lane services was also ended at this time, whilst DCT also gave the single vehicle operated Darley Abbey service back to Trent (after a year of running the service by themselves, although a futher year later would see the service return to joint operation with the operator providing the majority of journeys alternating each day). DCT also initiated their first service to Chellaston (as opposed to Shelton Lock) at this time with the single vehicle operated hourly 62 to Glenwood Road via Ascot Drive. This was the situation at deregulation, with the Sandringham Drive and Arnhem Terrace areas of Spondon remaining as the only populous city areas not served by City Transport buses.
The peak time ring road service lasted until the turn of the century before being withdrawn by DCT. Service 28 briefly survived deregulation as an hourly service linking Albert Rd/Waterford Dr with Chester Green (City Road) before the Chaddesden section was renumbered 18 the following year. In the early 1990s DCT would instead divert their Ilkeston via Spondon service 19 via Waterford Drive and this continued when Trent took over the route in 1994, until later still the estate was covered by a diversion of the separate tendered Ockbrook route following the introduction of the Borrowash (later X17) and Spondon Flyers. Today, with the Borrowash and Spondon Flyers having been withdrawn, the current tendered Ockbrook loop services operated by Vectare (and formerly by Diamond bus) continue to serve Waterford Drive. Arnham Terrace in Spondon has, since November 1994, been served by the regular Nottingham via Sandiacre service. Whilst it was mooted that the Ockbrook service could also link the Sandringham Dr (service 9) and Locko Rd (service 9A) areas of Spondon with the city (on a two hourly each frequency with one journey direction having to be made via Priorway Ave in Borrowash), in the end these areas are now served by the National Bus Strategy funded Spondon Shuttle minibus operated by Derbyshire Community Transport running half hourly between 10am and 2pm Monday to Friday to and from the village centre. This service also provides an additional, and more direct versus the 9/9A, service between Arnham Terrace and the village centre. After a 6 month break when the initial trial period ended, the service is expected to be reinstated in April 2024. The Littleover Lane loop service was revised at deregulation with instead the route via St Chad's Road linked with the Browning Street via Normanton Road services 32/33. Later, a standalone service 32 via St Chad's Road would operate to Littleover Lane, whilst today the route is covered by a section of Arriva's 5/5A service.
The full list of jointly operated routes is:
1. Blagreaves Lane via Burton Rd / Normanton Rd 1949-1982
2. East Chaddesden (Trenton Green) 1950-1980
3. Breadsall Hill Top via Chester Green 1958-1980
4a. Allestree via Kedleston Rd 1971-1986
4b. Allestree via Duffield Rd 1971-1981 & 1983-1986
5. Mickleover via Uttoxeter Rd 1974-1986
6a. Burton via Repton 1976-1986 (and for many years prior, between Trent and Blue Bus of Willington)
6b. Burton via Hatton 1981-1986 (followed by unofficial service coordination between Derby-Etwall 1986-1995)
7. Spondon (Dale Road) 1980-1986 (followed by unofficial partial service coordination 1986-1994)
8. Ring Road service 1982-1986
9. Southeast Chaddesden (Waterford Drive) to Normanton (Littleover Lane) via City Centre and St Chad's Rd / Dairy House Rd 1983-1986
10. Derby-Burton express 1995-present (first 3 years as Stevensons & Trent)
By 1984, DCT had achieved their aim of at least a share in every single city service (in line with the post 1968 boundary change). DCT's only presence on out of city routes remained associated with their acquisition of Blue Bus, ten years previously. Pure speculation, but if deregulation hadn't intervened perhaps a reconfiguration of their presence on out of city routes may have involved a reduction of their Burton runnings in favour of a turn on the 113/114 to Ockbrook in order to additionally serve the Sandringham Drive and Arnhem Terrace areas of Spondon.
Degregulation officially ended coordination between DCT and Trent although DCT's Spondon, Huntley Avenue service, renamed 21, remained partially coordinated with Trent's now 13 & 14 services and an initially tendered DCT replacement of part of the former 111 (numbered 19), as well as DCT's renumbered 105 remaining coordinated with Trent's 104/103 to and from Etwall. DCT's withdrawal from Allestree and Mickleover was likely made on the understanding that Trent would not compete on other City services including the given up Littleover Lane route. In September 1994, just after DCT had become part of the British Bus group a deal was made with Trent whereby DCT gave up their Spondon & Ilkeston via Spondon routes as well as most journeys on their remaining Burton route in exchange for Trent's Melbourne/Swadlincote service (which post deregulation had lost many of its Chellaston passengers to DCT until Trent eventually fought back with additional Chellaston short journeys earlier in 1994). Trent would subsequently introduce the Spondon Flyer service, which would operate for the next 27 years, and (from 1998/9) the Derby-Burton Villager branding whilst DCT were able to coordinate the Melbourne/Swadlincote service with their Chellaston services, whilst also gaining an operational link with the Swadlincote depot of their now British Bus partners, Stevensons of Uttoxeter. That wasn't the end of cooperation however as a follow on element to the Melbourne trade (5 months later) involved British Bus giving up their remaining Burton via Egginton journeys (which by then supported a Blue Bus Services fleetname) but reinstating a regular presence on the corridor through Stevensons agreeing an equal share with Trent of a new twice an hour X38 Derby-Burton express service (greatly supplementing Stevensons irregular Burton suburbs-Derby service 18 [formally service 418]) using a common branding of the joint operation and exchangable return ticketing. When Cowie/Arriva took over British Bus their share of the X38 would run under the Arriva Midlands name, as would eventually their whole Derby city operation.
DCT did retain a presence in Burton during Stevensons X38 tenure, courtesy of operating the tendered 103/83 & 104/84 Sunday service throughout their own rapid transition of Blue Bus Services and British Bus 'City Rider' liveries to become Arriva Derby.
Stevensons bus and Trent minibus in joint livery 1997 (joint liveried coach vehicles were also used by both Stevensons and Trent as well as regular liveried Stevensons (2) and Trent vehicles). The joint timetable would soon change to show Arriva as the co-operator
The X38 has proven to be a long lasting service, with both its central termini and frequency (currently three journeys an hour) proving attractive compared to the same journey by rail, resulting in Arriva and TrentBarton continuing to be satisfied with a coordinated share of the service.
References
- The Story of Transport in Derby, Barry Edwards, Breedon Books 1997
- Derby City Transport Route History 1840-1982, BK Edwards & JG Simpson, Omnibus Society Publications 1983
- Mid and South Derbyshire Public Transport Timetable May 1986 (plus various other Trent, Derby Corporation, and DerbysCC timetables)