Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd
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The Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd were a bus company based in Maidstone, Kent. The company operated bus and coach services in Mid and West Kent and East Sussex from 1911 until 1998. The company's surviving operations were absorbed into Arriva Southern Counties.
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[edit] Early years
The origin of The Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd (M&D) can be traced back to 1908 when a hired Darracq-Serpollet steam bus made a trial run from London to Maidstone. The first public service commenced a week or so later between Maidstone and Chatham. In July, a further service was introduced between Maidstone's North Ward and the Athletic Ground, via Maidstone West railway station.
The venture was not entirely successful, prompting an increase in fares. This was not enough to prevent the vehicles being re-possessed and in 1910, the undertaking was purchased by Walter Flexman French, who named the company the "Maidstone, Chatham, Gravesend & District Motor Omnibus Service" before handing over day to day control to his son, George French. The company was registered as Maidstone & District Motor Services Limited in March 1911.
To supplement income, buses were fitted with lorry bodies at night and made trips between Maidstone and London as "Maidstone & District - Haulage Contractors". The Head Office of the company was a small wooden framed building in St. Peters Street - this was later preserved at the company's central works facility in Postley Road. Matters improved to the extent that the British Electric Traction Company (BET) acquired an interest in M&D in 1913.
In 1914, acquisitions of Daimler saloons increased the fleet size to 21 vehicles. New routes were introduced from Maidstone to Ashford, Faversham, Hastings, Sevenoaks and Tenterden as well as between Chatham and Faversham. The outbreak of the Great War brought a temporary halt to expansion with shortages in both staff and vehicles. However, by 1917 the following services were in operation which were lettered although expansion of services resulted in letters being replaced with a numbering scheme (service number shown in italics), which survived until 1974.
- A/(1): Maidstone - Chatham
- B/(26): Chatham - Gravesend
- C/(3): Maidstone - Faversham
- D/(26): Chatham - Faversham
- E/(5): Maidstone - Cranbrook - Hawkhurst
- F/(6): Maidstone - Marden - Goudhurst - Hawkhurst
- G/(7): Maidstone - Tunbridge Wells
- H/(5): Maidstone - Cranbrook - Hastings
- I/(9): Maidstone - Sevenoaks
- J/(10): Maidstone - Ashford
- K/(11): Faversham - Ashford
- L/(12): Maidstone - Tenterden
- M/(12): Maidstone - Sutton Valence
- N/(13): Tenterden - Woodchurch - Ashford
Various competitors were in the post war period including North Kent Motor Services (1920), Red Car (1929), Enterprise of Queenborough (1930), Standen & Sons (Sheerness, 1930) and Goddard & Kelcey (Gillingham, 1931). The company also opened the first bus station in England, sited in Palace Avenue, Maidstone in 1922, the same year as the central works in Postley Road opened.
Tillings acquired an interest in the company in 1921 while Maidstone & District became a public company in 1922. In 1929, M&D acquired the Chatham & District Traction Company - however the company was obliged to retain the Chatham & District fleetname and the operation remained separate until 1955, vehicles remaining in a green, brown and cream livery.
The advent of the Road Traffic Act 1930 saw the demise of a number of independents, many of which were acquired by M&D. On the debit side, the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) in 1933 required M&D to surrender most its operations in Dartford and Gravesend (together with garages in Dartford and Northfleet and a number of Leyland Titans). This prompted the company to turn westwards for further expansion opportunities. M&D acquired Autocar Services in 1928, keeping it as a separate company until the purchase of its rival, Redcar in 1935.
1935 also saw the purchase of Hastings Tramways Company, which brought trolleybuses into the M&D fleet. Although these were repainted into the company's green and cream livery, the Hastings Tramway fleetname was retained until 1957. The remainder of the fleet was generally based on AEC or Leyland chassis, bodywork being either Weymann (buses) or Harrington (coaches) although a number of Bristol/ECW vehicles appeared towards the close of the decade.
The war years saw numerous incidents, partly arising from the company's proximity to the Kent coast. Gillingham depot was destroyed in a bombing raid in August 1940 while a number of buses were requisitioned by the military. There were the inevitable staff and vehicle shortages, although not as acute as with the neighbouring East Kent Road Car Company.
[edit] Post war M&D
The post war years saw a marked preference for AEC vehicles together with some orders for Bristol chassis until the type became unavailable outside of the Tilling Group after 1950. A consequence of this was the return of Leyland chassis to the fleet - M&D ordered PD2 double deckers in large numbers, one of which accumulated over one million miles partly through employment on the long 122 service between Gravesend, Tunbridge Wells and Brighton (operated jointly with Southdown Motor Services). A unique feature of this service was that M&D and Southdown operated similar vehicles, enabling one company's crews to operate the other's vehicles, a frequent practice on the route.
A similar arrangement was the Heathfield Pool agreement. Heathfield was a frontier town between M&D and Southdown Motor Services territory; unfortunately it was not a logical terminus for bus services. Consequently, services between Eastbourne, Hastings, Tunbridge Wells, Hawkhurst and Brighton were co-ordinated; journeys being timed to connect at Heathfield to provide a number of through travel facilities. M&D and Southdown jointly operated most services through Heathfield. The arrangement continued until the early 1970s when services were truncated and allocated to a single operator. The remaining Hawkhurst to Heathfield section of service 18 could not survive as a separate entity and was an early victim of MAP re-organisations in 1980, being withdrawn completely apart from some school journeys which passed to Southdown.
As the 1950s drew to a close, the Hastings Tramways fleetname disappeared, the M&D fleetname appearing on vehicles from 1957 (including trolleybuses). M&D made a decision to abandon the trolleybus system and ordered some of the country's first Leyland Atlanteans to facilitate this. Low bridges in the Bexhill area necessitated these to be fitted with low floor Weymann bodywork with sunken offside gangways at the rear of the upper deck. Subsequent deliveries were for more conventional height buses with Metro Cammell bodies.
M&D also purchased a number of single deck saloons for one-person operation of rural services, initial examples being based on the Albion Nimbus chassis. Further saloons based on the AEC Reliance chassis were purchased until the company developed a preference for Leyland single deckers in the mid-sixties, ordering several batches of Panthers including some dual door examples with Strachans bodywork. At the same time, the Daimler Fleetline with lowheight Northern Counties bodywork succeeded the Leyland Atlantean as the standard double deck intake.
[edit] National Bus Company
In common with most provincial bus companies, Maidstone & District became part of the National Bus Company in 1972. The company had made its first loss the previous year, necessitating some rationalisation. A partnership with East Kent Road Car Company began to evolve, the running of the company transferring to Canterbury as the decade progressed. The "Wanderbus" ticket, initially valid on East Kent buses became available on the services of both operators - availability was eventually extended to most Southdown Motor Services services and the ticket was re-branded "Busranger" following introduction of a National Wanderbus ticket. Publicity often bore the names of both East Kent and Maidstone & District, the latter company often being abbreviated to "Maidstone".
The traditional green and cream livery gradually gave way to NBC leaf green (although initial repaints still carried M&D's scroll logo). The company purchased several batches of Leyland Leopards for both bus and coach work, together with ECW bodied Bristol VRTs replacing some of the early Atlanteans in Bexhill and Hastings. M&D were not as enthusiastic about the Leyland National as East Kent, although several batches were delivered including some dual purpose buses for a proposed network of limited stop services.
1973 saw transfers of services between East Kent and M&D, East Kent ceding operations in Faversham and Rye while M&D's presence in the developing town of Ashford was reduced with the closure of its depot.
In 1974, a service re-numbering programme commenced starting in the Hastings area. Services were to be numbered in a common sequence with those of East Kent Road Car Company, furthering expectations of a merger between the two companies. Services were re-numbered according to area with most services receiving three digit numbers, the first of which indicated the area of operation.
Further new buses were taken into the fleet following NBC's selection of the company for evaluation of new double deckers. MCW's Metropolitan, Volvo's Ailsa and Bristol VRT series 3 entered service at Silverhill, eventually transferring to the Medway Towns. The company was impressed by the fuel economy of the Gardner engined VRTs, whereas passengers approved of the smooth ride offered by the Metropolitan. It was intended to evaluate Leyland's new Titan product although none were ultimately delivered. M&D acquired the Bristol VRT in large numbers, although it also received two batches of MCW's Metrobus, including some mark 2 examples which were allocated to Tunbridge Wells.
Services in Chatham began to serve the new Pentagon Bus Station in Spring 1976, while in Maidstone, Lower Stone Street Bus Station was redeveloped using NBC's standard saw tooth layout. This enabled to closure of the original bus station in Palace Avenue (now a car park), although the booking office building was purchased by the Kent & East Sussex Railway and re-assembled at Tenterden Town Station where it stands today.
Meanwhile, in the Gravesend area services were recast as part of a co-ordination scheme with London Country. There was an exchange of services, London Country picking up a number of town services from M&D including those to Valley Drive which were linked to the 480 service from Erith and Dartford, operated with Routemaster (RML) vehicles at that time. M&D's Gravesend Depot closed some 18 months later, the remaining local services passing to London Country at Northfleet thus completing a process begun with the formation of LPTB in 1933.
1979 saw the replacement of the former Green Line 719 service between London and Wrotham, together with the Maidstone - Tenterden extension of National Express 008 with a limited stop bus service numbered 919. This service was operated initially with dual purpose Leyland Nationals and followed the former M&D E3 express coach route. Between Wrotham and Farningham, the service called at most bus stops en-route taking over three hours to complete the journey between Tenterden and London. Despite the subsequent introduction of coach specification vehicles, the service was not an attractive way of travelling between Kent and the capital (although it often carried healthy loadings on the Wrotham to Sidcup section) and did not survive.
During the early years of the 1980s, expectations of a complete merger with East Kent began to grow. Vehicles and operations were interchanged, including some M&D Atlanteans, which were swapped for AEC Regents. In 1980, the first MAP (Market Analysis Project) was completed in the Hastings area, leading to a re-establishment of a local identity "Hastings & District" for buses operating from Silverhill, Hastings and Hawkhurst depots. There were drastic cuts in services, together with the closure of Bexhill depot on 26 April 1980. The Hastings Observer advised the company to "get the next stage out of town" while a group of Bexhill M&D drivers formed Bexhill Town Bus Services, initially operating a number elderly B46D Leyland Nationals acquired from Plymouth City Council.
The Hastings & District operation was eventually established as a separate company in 1983, although Hawkhurst depot remained with M&D while Rye passed to the new company. Hastings & District was eventually purchased by Stagecoach, who amalgamated it with the eastern half of the former Southdown Motor Services company to form South Coast Buses.
In the face of continuing MAP revisions, the 1980's saw a number of depot closures, notably the Maidstone depot in Knightrider Street (following co-ordination of local services with Maidstone Borough Council Transport under the Maidstone Area Bus Services banner) and the relatively new facility at Tonbridge. The company's Central Works in Postley Road, Maidstone (where the original head office "shed" was preserved) also closed, maintenance being devolved to a new company Kent Engineering (based in Canterbury and Hawkhurst), who also undertook maintenance for East Kent.
The express coach services between London, the Medway Towns and Maidstone were re-branded Invictaway in the early 1980s, this name also being applied to the circuitous 900 service between Gillingham and Gatwick Airport. An all-over black livery was applied initially, including to a number of MCW bodied Atlanteans diverted from Midland Red in 1971. To enhance these services, several batches of Leyland Olympians with ECW double deck coach bodies were acquired, although these appeared in a green/white livery based on NBC's Green Line livery. This livery was subsequently applied to the whole Invictaway fleet.
[edit] Privatisation
Any prospect of a merger with East Kent disappeared on 7 November 1986 when the company was sold to its management (M&D was one of the first NBC companies to be privatised). There was little apparent change at first, other than the NBC logo being replaced with a stylised M&D logo. NBC's standard green livery was retained, although the white relief was later changed to cream. M&D took a cautious approach to deregulation, mainly registering inter-urban routes which followed major roads. Notable casualties were the routes serving North Downs villages south of Sittingbourne and Faversham together with the majority of Sunday services. There were also some improvements, including increased frequency on the trunk 70-74 group of services westwards along the London Road from Maidstone together with improvements local services in the Medway Towns.
M&D were not a great follower of the minibus, although some Mercedes vehicles were acquired for service in Tunbridge Wells and Chatham. M&D purchased Northern Counties bodied Olympians in significant numbers post-privatisation.
Joint operation of services with East Kent Road Car Company ended with deregulation in August 1986. The long-established 10 service which linked Maidstone with Ashford and Folkestone was truncated, East Kent continuing to operate the route in two sections, Folkestone to Ashford and Ashford to Maidstone (the latter section being worked jointly with Boro'line).
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M&D decided to avoid confrontation with Boro'line (the company established by Maidstone Borough Council to run urban services in Maidstone), continuing to operate inter-urban services in the Maidstone area. Buses continued to be garaged in Boro'line's depot in Armstrong Road. However in 1991, the prospect of Maidstone Borough Council selling Boro'line to a potentially hostile competitor eventually prompted M&D to leave Armstrong Road and register a number of town services in direct competition. Boro'line were ill equipped to deal with the onslaught from its larger neighbour and in 1992 the Council eventually agreed to sell the company to Maidstone & District. M&D moved into Boro'line's Armstrong Road Depot (close to the former Postley Road Central Works), which at one point became the head office of M&D, Kentish Bus and Londonlinks. The Boro'line fleet was disposed of, with the exception of 26, the sole surviving Leyland PD2/Massey of Maidstone Corporation which passed into M&D's heritage fleet and is now privately owned.
[edit] The end of M&D
M&D itself was acquired by British Bus, who also owned the neighbouring Kentish Bus (formerly London Country South East) operation. The Invictaway services between Maidstone, the Medway Towns and London were re-branded as Green Line. Vehicle replacements continued apace, Bristol VRTs being replaced with Olympians - Northern Counties bodywork returning to the fleet for the first time since the acquisition of several batches of Daimler Fleetlines in the early 1960s.
In 1996, the Cowie Group (best known for its Grey-Green operation) acquired British Bus. The year also saw the introduction of a striking new livery, designed by Ray Stenning and based on M&D's traditional green and cream (although more like the coach version than the original bus livery) including a stylised scroll fleetname reminiscent of the pre-NBC version. This livery first appeared on a batch of Plaxton-bodied Dennis Dart SLFs, many of which were acquired under a Quality Partnership scheme with Kent County Council for covering the 82, 85 and 89 services in Maidstone. Unfortunately, the application of the new livery across the fleet was curtailed by the decision of Arriva (the name adopted by Cowie in 1998) to introduced a corporate identity and livery. This was to be the beginning of the end for Maidstone & District, although the fleetname survived for some time on vehicles not repainted into Arriva's turquoise and ivory scheme.
Thus the story of Maidstone & District appears to have come to an end. In 1998, the company was renamed Arriva Kent & Sussex, becoming part of the also renamed Invictaway holding company, Arriva Southern Counties. Arriva have retained the M&D name to prevent use by competitors.
