Potteries Motor Traction: The Red and Yellow Years

For many people. the halcyon days of PMT was the decade between the management buyout of the company from the National Bus Company in 1986 until the merger of Badgerline and GRT to form First Bus in 1997.

The adoption of the bright red and yellow livery with a zipper stripe ushered in the new era. Gone were the drab days of the National Bus Company and its poppy red livery and restrictive practises. Deregulation in October 1986 would unleash new freedoms that would see PMT open depots and outstations at Crewe, Wolverhampton, Moreton, Stockport and Leeds well outside their traditional operating area to service recently won tendered services on behalf of other councils. These would be branded Red Rider.

The purchase of the Crosville depots at Chester, Birkenhead and Ellesmere Port would take their red and yellow buses all over the Wirral and into Liverpool and the purchase of Pennine Blue would establish operations around Tameside in Manchester.