Northumbria Motor Services

In the 1970s you could travel from the Scottish border to the Yorkshire coast resort towns using only red and white United buses. In the 2000s you can still do the same but in turquoise Arriva buses. It would be easy to assume little has changed, but to do so would miss the existence of one of the most distinctive operators of the 1980s and 1990s – Northumbria Motor Services.

Operating buses in the English county with the lowest population density at a time when unemployment was soaring as heavy industry closed was never going to be easy. Enter a forward-thinking management team keen to break free from conventionality and not afraid to take some risks.

Covering the period 1986 to 1998, this book tells the story of the trendsetting operator and shows how it fundamentally changed the bus industry long after livery and company had disappeared.