First Potteries

First Potteries Limited (formerly known as First PMT Ltd, and the successor company of Potteries Motor Traction) is a company based in Stoke-on-Trent that operates buses in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Crewe, and in Chester and The Wirral through its sub-brand First Chester & The Wirral.

History

The company began life as Potteries Motor Traction or PMT. As part of the government of the day's process of privatising the state-owned National Bus Company, PMT Limited was created on 12th December 1986 when it was purchased by its management and employess from NBC. The team leading PMT's buyout were Managing Director Mike Moors, Traffic Manager Steve Ellis, Chief Engineer Barry Parkinson and Company Secretary Nigel Barrett.

Expansion came quickly for PMT Limited, and indeed it had commenced operations outside its traditional North Staffordshire area a little over six weeks prior to purchase from NBC. 25th October 1986 - the day bus services in the UK were deregulated - had seen the establishment of a small outstation in the town of Crewe in neighbouring Cheshire. This was followed by a venture into Merseyside with the opening of a Red Rider outstation at Moreton on the Wirral peninsula. A small operation in Leeds commenced in 1988, followed a year later by the winning of tenders in the West Midlands. This led to vehicles being outstation at a haulage company's yard in Willenhall.

On 6th February 1990 PMT acquired the Wirral, Ellesmere Port and Chester operations of Crosville from the Drawlane Group but not the Manchester, Runcorn and Warrington operations of Crosville which were integrated into Drawlane's North Western/associated Bee Line Buzz Company divisions. PMT was later purchased by the Badgerline Group plc before they in turn merged with GRT Holdings plc and formed First Group PLC, this sale including Crosville's operations in Chester and Wirral. First Potteries now operates mainly urban services in Stoke and surrounding towns, along with its network of services in the city of Chester through the purchase or ChesterBus in 2007.^[2] This business was integrated with the existing First Chester & The Wirral which already ran a network of services in Wirral and Chester before the purchase of ChesterBus.

Liveries

The traditional colours of the PMT fleet were red and cream. During NBC ownership in the 1970s and 1980s, poppy red and white livery was used. Following privatisation, the livery became red and yellow with the fleetname in a 'zipper' logo. Despite this, several variations were introduced to suit individual routes - Silverdale Shuttle and Bradwell Shuttle, which saw the red replaced with blue; Hospitalslink, a scheme used exclusivley on a handful of minibuses and which was green-based; and Birches Head Townabout, again a minibus operation and which received a yellow and orange livery. Additionally, a pair of minibuses gained a purple and yellow variant to promote the Ball Green to Tunstall service.

All these liveries have now been completely superseded by the standard First corporate 'barbie' colours (pink, white and blue). Just five buses remain in passenger-carrying service which were delivered during the days of red and yellow, the remainder having either been acquired second-hand and/or received in First's corporate scheme.

Administration

In 2010, First Group changed the management structure of First Potteries. The Staffordshire area operations are now part of First Midlands (which consists of First Wyvern, First Northampton and First Leicester) with its "group" office at Adderley Green, Stoke on Trent. The Cheshire and Merseyside area depots however are part of First Manchester.

Although this has happened, the legal name/address remains First Potteries Ltd in Adderley Green, Stoke-On-Trent, whereas for the Chester and Wirral operations it is now First Manchester, Wallshaw Street, Oldham.

Update: The legal name is still First Potteries Ltd but the address is now based out of the regional head office at Chelmsford, Essex.

Crewe depot has now shut and has transferred vehicles and services to Newcastle depot. Newcastle depot has accepted planning permission to build a new depot at Milehouse in Newcastle, work is yet to start.

List of routes

This is a summary of First services in Stoke on Trent and local surrounding areas. Note: This list is not yet completed.

N.B Details of routes are taken from First Potteries website.

See also

• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

References

External links

• First Chester & Wirral Homepage
• Stoke on Trent Bus Information website