south lancs travel

South Lancs Travel

• Edit source

South Lancs Travel is a privately owned bus operator in the districts of Bolton and Wigan in Greater Manchester operating an extensive commercial network along with tendered services on behalf of Transport for Greater Manchester . It also serves some areas of the districts of Salford & Trafford such as The Trafford Centre, Worsley, Walkden & Little Hulton. [2] Its headquarters are in Atherton and it is the trading name of Green Triangle Buses .

• 4 References
• 5 External links

History [ ]

Green Triangle Buses was established as a limited company in April 1998 by business partners Martin Bott and David Stewart, operating from Printshop Lane, Atherton (close to the boundary with Tyldesley). The new business began with two new Mercedes Varios which were used on a GMPTE tender. [3] These were joined by three single deckers for use on school services, ironically used by the old South Lancashire Transport (also owned by the two partners) which was bought by Arriva during the previous year. [3]

Further Varios were quickly added to the fleet, which were used on Green Triangle's first commercial service. This service, the 675, provided a half-hourly service between Leigh and Shakerley via Astley and Tyldesley. [3]

Less than a year later, the 675 was withdrawn and repalaced with the 670/680 circular services. This essentially provided an extension to the existing service, running back to Leigh via Atherton. This was supplemented through the introduction of service 652 (Leigh - Hindley - Wigan). All three services directly competed against the incumbent operator, Bellairs and Dootson (B&D Coaches). [3]

An opportunity for expansion came in 1998 with the opening of the Trafford Centre . Green Triangle introduced two new daytime services to the centre in the form of the 674 from Leigh and the 673 from Atherton. The 673 only lasted a short time, although the link was later reinstated as the 132; the 674 continues to this day, although it is now numbered 126.

In 1999, Green Triangle acquired its main local rival, Bellairs and Dootson (B&D Coaches). An ironic decision was made to rebrand the combined operation as South Lancs Travel.

However, the merger resulted in a combined fleet that would prove be too large for the Printshop Lane site. So in 2000, the company relocated to its current premises, a Template:Convert/acre Commercial Garage site 0.5 miles away on Chanters Industrial Estate. [3]

Since then, the company has steadily expanded its network, primarily through tender gains. This expansion took the company deeper into both Wigan and Bolton, with the most significant gain being the award of the GMPTE 'Easylink' network of services.

Commercial work was also added, with SLT taking over the 592 (between Shakerley and Bolton) in 2002, acquiring the service from the one-man Atherton Bus Company following the retirement of the owner. This was linked up with an existing service to form a through service from Leigh to Bolton.

The company also added a network of services in western Wigan in 2005, when it acquired the Appley Bridge outstation from Blue Bus of Bolton . This included a small network of services to Shevington, Standish, Orrell and New Springs. The Appley Bridge outstation was eventually closed in May 2007 as the leased site was sold for redevelopment. [3]

In 2006 entrepreneur Julian Peddle bought a 30% stake in the company. [4]

SLT has more recently expanded its network of services in Bolton, introducing the 514 (in 2009) and 574 (in 2011) services to Middlebrook, [5] as well as taking over service 515 to Ladbybridge in 2011 when Arriva decided to withdraw the route. [5] It also introduced service 516/517 to Horwich, replacing a similar First Manchester service but on an improved frequency. However, this was soon followed by the withdrawal of the 652.

South Lancs Travel have also been involved in head-to-head competition with First Manchester on a number of occasions. The most notable of these took place in 2002, when, following competitive registrations by First, SLT offered "return tickets for the price of a single fare" - First responded with a £2.00 (later £2.50 then £3.00) weekly ticket for travel within the Leigh area. [3]

First also introduced a short-lived competing 652 service, albeit operating from Hindley Green to Shakerley via Leigh. More recently, First introduced a competing 635 service - SLT retaliated by introducing journeys on the 600 between Wigan and Ashton-in-Makerfield, and offering a £1.00 flat fare. Following the withdrawal of First Greater Manchester services to Shevington, the SLT 600 was withdrawn in May 2008 and SLT is now the sole operator of services to Shevington and Appley Bridge.

The vast majority of the 60 strong fleet is now low floor, mainly Dart MPDs, Optare Solos and Scania L94UBs. Recent new acquisitions are 4 MAN A22s with Wright Meridian bodies, used on the 635 service. The B&D Coaches O Licence was finally surrendered in February 2009 when the Green Triangle Licence was expanded to 48 vehicles.

On 30 September 2011, South Lancs Travel was bought in a joint deal with shareholder Julian Peddle and Crewe -based operator D&G Bus with previous owners Martin Bott and David Stewart remaining with the company as consultants. [6] [7] In January 2012, Strawberry merged with South Lancs Travel and moved its operations to SLT's depot in Atherton. Strawberry's founder Oliver Howarth became joint operations director of the enlarged company. [8] However, he left soon after with Strawberry being acquired by D&G and Julian Peddle and merged into the main company and the name and livery being dropped in favour of the SLT brand.

In 2012, SLT won the Bolton Metroshuttle (service 500) from current operators Maytree Travel, with a January 2013 start date. This service will operate with two Optare Versa hybrid buses, ironically previously operated by Maytree on the now withdrawn Salford Quays Link service.

Services [ ]

This is a summary of South Lancs Travel services: [2] [9]

See also [ ]

• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

References [ ]

• ↑ Fleetlist . South Lancs Travel. Retrieved on 4 April 2012.
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 Timetables . South Lancs Travel. Retrieved on 4 April 2012.
• ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 "D&G Buys SLT" (January 2012). Bus Fayre (Volume 34 Issue 1): 10–14.  
• ↑ Millar, Alan (March 2009). "What Julian Did Next". Buses (648): 30–35.  
• ↑ 5.0 5.1 Transport for Greater Manchester - Buses - Latest Service Changes .
• ↑ D&G buys South Lancs . Bus and Coach. Retrieved on 26 October 2011.
• ↑ News . D&G Bus. Retrieved on 26 October 2011.
• ↑ Template:Cite news
• ↑ Journey Planning - Bus Times Leaflet Library . Transport for Greater Manchester. Retrieved on 27 September 2011.

External links [ ]

Template:Commons category

• South Lancs Travel website

Template:Bus companies in North West England

• 1 London Buses route 23

About Diamond North West

Who are diamond north west.

Diamond Bus North West was formed from the purchase of South Lancs Travel by Rotala Plc in 2015. We are one of the two pioneers of the Greater Manchester Bee Network.

Diamond Bus North West continues to grow and develop...

Diamond Bus North West are multiple Award Winners.

This year in 2023 we were named winners at the Bolton News Awards for the Wellbeing Award, we were also Awarded Membership status by the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter becoming the First Transport operator in Greater Manchester to achieve this.

In 2022 we won the award for the Best City Bus Operator and won Silver UK Bus Operator of the Year at the 2022 UK BUS AWARDS along with Company of the Year at the Bolton News 'Build Back Bolton' awards 2022.

As Franchising started on the 24th September 2023, Diamond were awarded 7 franchises in the first phase and another franchise in the second phase. It is Diamond’s aim to deliver a frequent, reliable, clean and friendly traveling environment for the community.

Sometimes we use free imagery that requires attributions Click here   for the attributions .

TravelSafe strategy for 2022-2024

Happenings at South Lancs Travel, Atherton

Website Links

• South Lancs Official Website
• South Lancs Fotopic Site
• Martin Bott Transport Bookshop

18 December 2010

• Severe Weather

05 June 2010

Blog archive.

• ►  June (1)

ILLUSTRATED FLEET HISTORY - SOUTH LANCS TRAVEL/GREEN TRIANGLE 

Last Updated : June 25th 2023 (brought up-to-date)

This page lists all Bristol LHs and REs operated by South Lancs Travel/Green Triangle including links to all photos currently in the BVRES Collection showing the liveries carried by individual vehicles. If you have any further information or photos I would be delighted to hear from you at [email protected]

Return to Illustrated Fleet History Index

Return to Home Page

Category : South Lancs Travel (bus company)

Subcategories.

This category has only the following subcategory.

• Diamond North West ‎ (2 C, 13 F)

Media in category "South Lancs Travel (bus company)"

The following 37 files are in this category, out of 37 total.

• Bus operators in the United Kingdom by name (S)
• Bus operators in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan
• Bus operators in Greater Manchester by name
• Diamond North West
• Uses of Wikidata Infobox
• Uses of Wikidata Infobox with no image
• Uses of Wikidata Infobox with no instance of

Navigation menu

• Atherton Tourism
• Atherton Itineraries
• Atherton Hotels

South Lancs Travel Ticket Price, Hours, Address and Reviews

• United Kingdom
• Things To Do In Atherton

South Lancs Travel

• Address: Chanters Ind Est, Tyldesley Old Rd, Unit 22-23, M46 9BE, Atherton, United Kingdom
• Tags: Transportation, Transport Hubs, Bus Stations

South Lancs Travel Reviews & Ratings

South Lancs Travel (Q7567798)

Wikipedia (0 entries), wikibooks (0 entries), wikinews (0 entries), wikiquote (0 entries), wikisource (0 entries), wikiversity (0 entries), wikivoyage (0 entries), wiktionary (0 entries), multilingual sites (1 entry).

• commonswiki Category:South Lancs Travel (bus company)

Navigation menu

advertisement

Traffic and Travel

Latest traffic and travel news, information and updates for Lancashire and surrounding areas. We'll bring you everything you need to know about travel by road, rail, air or sea including updates about public transport. Includes live breaking news coverage of incidents on the roads including A6, M6, M55, M65, and M61, as well as regular updates about roadworks, closures and delays. Be the first to hear about road closures, crashes and rail disruptions as they happen with LancsLive's Traffic & Travel newsletter . Get all the latest news, sport and what's on stories sent to your inbox daily with the LancsLive newsletter here.

• Where to park at Manchester Airport including Meet and Greet, on-airport parking and cheaper options
• Be the first to hear about road closures, crashes and rail disruptions as they happen with LancsLive's Traffic & Travel newsletter
• First piece of M6 motorway opened in Preston had no speed limit and was designed prevent driver boredom
• Manchester Airport terminals 1, 2 and 3 and which airlines fly from them

• Recent Photos
• The Commons
• Flickr Galleries
• Camera Finder
• Flickr Blog
• The Print Shop
• Prints & Wall Art
• Photo Books
• Stats Dashboard
• Get Auto-Uploadr

Operator Name: South Lancs Travel. Fleet / Reg No: 76 S26 SLT. Chassis: Scania L94UB. Body: Wright Solar N44F. Location: South Lancs Travel depot, Atherton, Lancashire. Date:21st October, 2012.