Barton Buses 1489 (RRC 489R) in Beeston - 11 Sep 1999 (151-1)

Wednesday 11 September 1991 – Barton Buses 1489 (RRC 489R), a Plaxton Supreme Express bodied Leyland Leopard new in December 1976, seen on Queens Road, Beeston near Read Avenue.
The bus and coach interests of Barton Transport PLC were acquired by the Wellglade Group in 1989. Wellglade already owned the former NBC privatised Trent Motor Traction Company and the two companies were merged in 2005 to create Trentbarton (Trent Barton).
Family run Barton Transport had been one of Britain’s largest ‘non-combine’ owned bus companies in the days before the privatisation of the National Bus Company and for many years was noted for its most varied fleet of secondhand vehicles.
During the 1970s the Government ran the New Bus Grant Scheme which offered a 25% grant for the purchase of new vehicles built for stage carriage operation notably that such vehicles were built to be one person operated (the grant later being increased to 50%). A key feature of the specification was the fitting of powered doors controlled by the driver.
Body builders like Plaxton and Duple adapted their coach designs so they qualified for the New Bus Grant and so stage carriage operators were able to add coaches to their fleets at a much reduced cost, coaches which could also be run on private hire and excursion work as long as the required percentage of mileage was operated on stage carriage services.
Barton seized the opportunity to upgrade their fleet over the time that the New Bus Grant was available and the company modernised their fleet with many new mainly Plaxton bodied coaches like this one.