Wellglade Group
The Wellglade Group[1] is a transport group operating bus and tram services in the English Midlands.
 | |
| Parent | Brian King Ian Morgan Graham Sutton |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1986 |
| Headquarters | Heanor |
| Service area | Derbyshire Leicestershire Nottinghamshire Staffordshire South Yorkshire |
| Service type | Bus, coach & tram services |
| Fleet | circa 500 buses 37 trams |
| Operator | Derby Community Transport First Leicester 6% High Peak Buses 50% Kinchbus Midland General Nottingham Express Transit Notts & Derby TM Travel Trent Barton |
History
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Wellglade was formed in 1986 when Brian King and Ian Morgan purchased Trent Buses from the National Bus Company in a management buyout. In 1989 the business of Barton Transport was purchased.[2][3]
In 1998 Wellglade purchased the Kinchbus business in Loughborough. In January 2010 TM Travel of Sheffield was purchased. In January 2012 Wellglade took over the bus operations of Felix Bus Services.
In December 2011 Tramlink Nottingham took over the running of the Nottingham Express Transit tram network. In April 2012 Centrebus Bowers Coaches operation and services operated from the Dove Holes depot of Wellglade's Trent Barton were combined to form High Peak Buses.
Subsidiaries and Interests
Trent Barton
Trent Barton operates services from Bakewell in the north to Coalville in the south as well as Ashbourne, Burton upon Trent, Chesterfield, Derby, Ilkeston, Mansfield, and Nottingham. It was formed when the Trent Buses and Barton Transport operations were merged.[2] Trent Barton maintains a 6% shareholding in First Leicester.[4][5]
Kinchbus
Kinchbus is a bus operator based in Loughborough. It was originally an independent company established by Gilbert and Janet Kinch.
Kinchbus operate some local services around Loughborough along with their longstanding Kinchbus2 route between Leicester and Loughborough and Skylink from Leicester to Derby via Loughborough and East Midlands Airport.
Kinchbus use the slogan 'Loughborough's Finest' which is advertised across their fleet of buses. Following the collapse of Nottingham based Premiere Travel on 24 January 2013, Kinchbus reinstated their service 9 between Loughborough and Nottingham which was the first route to have the new refreshed version of the current livery and logo which have been in place since 2007.
Notts and Derby
Notts + Derby operates a small number of local bus services, school buses and contract and private hire work in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. They operate a fleet of vehicles, most of which previously operated with Trentbarton and Nottingham City Transport.
TM Travel
TM Travel is a bus operator based in Halfway, Sheffield which operates passenger bus services in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Founded in 1995 as a family-owned operation with one bus, by March 2008 it had expanded to become the largest independent operator in Derbyshire. The company was taken over by the Wellglade Group in January 2010.[6]
Midland General
The Midland General Omnibus Company was incorporated in 1920 as a company in the Balfour Beatty group with a depot at Langley Mill. In 1972 the company's operations were merged with those of Trent and the Midland General fleetname ceased to be used.
The name was resurrected when Bargain Bus routes BB2 to Cotgrave and BB4 to Long Eaton were started in Nottingham in competition with Premiere Travel's services. These were withdrawn after Premiere Travel decided to withdraw their services.
The Black Cat and Ilkeston Flyer services acquired from Felix in January 2012 were to be operated by Midland General.[7] In practice buses of the Notts + Derby fleet operated both services and the Midland General name has disappeared from the timetables.
Nottingham Express Transit
In March 2011 the Tramlink Nottingham consortium which Wellglade holds a 12.5% shareholding in, was awarded the Nottingham Express Transit 2 contract by Nottingham City Council.[8][9] In December 2011 Tramlink Nottingham took over the running of the tram network.
Felix Bus Services
In January 2012 Wellglade purchased some assets from Felix Bus Services.[10] Felix already shared two routes with Trent Barton, these being Black Cat and Ilkeston Flyer. Despite the appearance of the Midland General name in timetables,[11] the former Felix journeys were operated by Notts + Derby.
High Peak Buses
In April 2012 Centrebus and Trent Barton entered a 50/50 joint venture. This saw Centrebus owned Bowers Coaches and Trent Barton's Buxton area services combined to form High Peak Buses based at the latter's Dove Holes depot.[12][13]
References
- Companies House extract company no 1980546 Wellglade Limited
- History Trentbarton
- Wellglade Tramlink Nottingham
- Government Approves 19th Bus Sale of Leicester Citybus Ltd Local Government Chronicle 15 November 1993
- FirstGroup Annual Report March 2013 FirstGroup
- Millar, Alan (February 2010). "Wellglade acquires TM Travel:". Buses. Ian Allan Publishing (659): 8.
- Mid & South Derbyshire and the City of Derby Bus Timetable. Derbyshire County Council. 2012.
- NET Phase Two Preferred Bidder Named Tramlink Nottingham
- Anticipated acquisition by Tramlink Nottingham Consortium of NET phase 2 concession Office of Fair Trading 15 September 2011
- Wellglade to buy Felix bus services busandcoach.com 30 November 2011
- "Felix Bus & Coach website: Bus Services". Retrieved 15 December 2011.
- Wellglade/Centrebus join up in Buxton busandcoach.com 24 May 2011
- New bus operator hits the road Trent Barton
- Home Kleanline