United Automobile Services
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United Automobile Services or United, as it was commonly known, was a major provider of bus services across the North East and North Yorkshire for 80 years or more.
United was founded in Lowestoft, Suffolk in 1912, with two routes, one in Suffolk and one over 200 miles away between Bishop Auckland and Durham. During the 1920's the company expanded in Norfolk and south Lincolnshire, and in Northumberland, Co. Durham and North Yorkshire. In 1929 control passed to the Tilling Group, the London and North Eastern Railway and B.A.T., and in 1931 the new owners split off the East Anglian operations into a separate company, Eastern Counties Omnibus Company.
United also started the East Midland Motor Company. This came about through the desire to expand. One of their managers, W.T. Underwood, was sent to Clowne (near Chesterfield) to set up a bus company in his own name. The Underwoods company later became East Midland.
United was nationalised in 1948, and controlled first by the British Transport Commission, from 1962 by the Transport Holding Company, and in 1969 by the National Bus Company.
The company ran vehicles from their head office in Darlington and garages across their area, including Durham, Hartlepool, Whitby and Peterlee amongst others. Most of those vehicles were Bristols with Gardner engines and ECW bodies, the LH and VR being common vehicles. Another vehicle used was the Leyland National. During the mid 1980s, Mercedes and Dodge S56 minibuses were purchased by United for use on new 'Hail and Ride' town services in many areas, mostly being branded with names such as Roadranger (Darlington), Clipper (Whitby), Hoppa (Hartlepool) and Panther (Peterlee) amongst others.
To prepare for privatisation, the Northumberland and Scarborough areas were separated into two new companies, Northumbria Motor Services and Scarborough & District. United was purchased by the Caldaire Group, then North East Bus, then Cowie, and the United image was removed in favour of the Arriva branding in 1997.
During the early to mid 1990s, United purchased a large amount of Optare Vectas (51) to replace the LHs, However more examples have been moved from other Arriva companies to the North East region so all of the Optare Vectas in the Arriva fleet are now based in the North East.
