GM Buses was the main bus company serving the ten metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester in North West England. The company was formed in 1986 by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. In December 1993, it was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South in order to increase competition for services in the area, before they were sold to the FirstGroup and Stagecoach respectively.
History
The Transport Act 1968 resulted in several bus companies run by local authorities around Greater Manchester merging to create a central organisation. It consisted of companies operating in the following areas: Ashton-under-Lyne Bolton Bury Leigh Manchester Oldham Rochdale Salford Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley & Dukinfield (Operated by the SHMD Joint Board) Stockport Wigan
The new central organisation was named SELNEC, the South East Lancashire North East Cheshire Passenger Transport Executive, and commenced operations on 1 October 1969. The SELNEC catchment area would eventually become Greater Manchester. SELNEC introduced a standard livery of orange and white, with the company split into three zones: Northern, Central and Southern.
In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 changed many of the UK's administrative areas and the county of Greater Manchester was created. As a result, SELNEC was renamed Greater Manchester Transport. In 1981, a new livery was adopted of orange, brown and white. Also in the same year, Lancashire United Transport, based in Atherton, was absorbed into Greater Manchester Transport.
Deregulation
In 1986, deregulation was introduced to bus services and Greater Manchester Transport was split into two. The management of service information and tendering, bus stations and stops would be run by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE). The bus operation would be named Greater Manchester Buses or GM Buses as it is commonly known, initially being split into North, East, South and West operational areas before these were merged into South, East and West areas in March 1987. Deregulation also saw competition introduced on several routes run by GM Buses; by March 1988, GM Buses was running 361 'Little Gem' minibuses in competition with other operators across Greater Manchester.
The competing operators included Bee Line Buzz Company, which ran several services along major routes across the Greater Manchester area; Wall's and Finglands Coachways, which introduced several services along the Wilmslow Road corridor; and Bluebird Bus & Coach and Citibus Tours, which launched several routes in the North Manchester area. Many of the companies that tried to compete with GM Buses failed, with most going out of business and some, such as Citibus Tours, being taken over by GM Buses or its immediate successors. Some companies that did succeed included Bluebird Bus & Coach, who ran several services between Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester, until they were bought out by GM Buses' future incarnation, Stagecoach Manchester, along with Mayne Coaches, who operated until 2006.
On 11 December 1993, GM Buses was split for sale as two separate companies, as the Government felt that they had a monopoly of bus services in the Greater Manchester area and wanted to increase competition. GM Buses was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South. Both companies were purchased by their employees in separate employee buyouts in early 1994.
It had been hoped by splitting the companies up, GM Buses North and GM Buses South would compete against each other. However, as their names would suggest, the two companies would continue to operate mainly in their respective operating areas.
Competition with MTL
Prior to the formation of the North/South GM Buses companies, Merseyside's dominant bus company MTL was in a phase of expansion and turned its attention to Greater Manchester. In the summer of 1993, MTL Manchester began operations from a depot in Miles Platting and added an extensive network of new/copycat services to Manchester's already hotly contested bus market.
In October 1993, the Merseybus depot in St Helens was rebranded Lancashire Travel; a further series of new/copycat services were introduced in the Wigan, Leigh, Bolton, Salford and North Manchester areas that Merseybus/MTL had been gradually increasing its profile in since the late 1980s. Finally, around 1993/94, MTL purchased Bolton Coachways and used their fairly substantial minibus network to further strengthen their position in the town against GM Buses North.