Coach and Bus Guides

The earliest coach guide book I have in my collection is the ‘Roadway Motor Coach Timetable’ for summer 1932 bequeathed to me by an elderly gentlemen in 1978. He wrote that this publication only lasted a few years although this was issue number 21. It is indeed a fascinating publication featuring lots of different operators few of which are around today.

In much later years the ‘bible’ for coach services was the ‘ABC Coach Guide’ (later ‘ABC Coach and Bus Guide’) published by Index Publishers (Dunstable) Limited twice a year. This company also issued a road haulage guide and various other directory type publications. The winter coach guide never seemed quite as interesting as the summer issue because of the lack of seasonal service content. Quite a number of services had the notation ‘This service is suspended during the winter and re-commences summer 19xx’.

Timetables were listed under each different operator alphabetically be they British Electric Traction (BET); former Tilling Group companies owned by the nationalised British Transport Commission (BTC) which became the Transport Holding Company (THC) in 1963; or independent operators. In addition to the coach service timetables, where appropriate, a listing of key stage carriage services of the operator was included outlining the frequency of service and the journey times. Some operator entries also featured a full route maps of the particular company’s network. In the back of the guide was a generic map of Britain which unfolded to show the coach routes. The style and layout barely changed over the twenty years spanning the examples I have in my collection (1951 to 1970).

I first discovered the guide in our local reference library in my early teens (early 1960s) and, from time to time, managed to obtain redundant copies from a friendly librarian.

The last ABC was published around 1970. The National Bus Company (NBC) had been formed in 1969 and was gradually getting itself set up – this was a little before the creation of National coach branding which later became National Express.

The coach guide then produced by the NBC, named ‘Britain’s Express Coach Guide’, only contained timetables for coach services (both of NBC subsisiaries and a small number of independent companies). The format was a crisp and modern looking A4 size making the old ABC Coach and Bus Guide look rather dated. It didn’t have any maps though. It was also issued twice a year but had a short life because of the dawn of the ‘National’ branding – the precursor of ‘National Express’.

The first coach guide to be issued featuring the ‘National’ coach branding, under the umbrella of the ‘Central Activities Group’ of NBC, was issued for the Winter period 1973/1974. It also introduced the countrywide route numbering system for the services which were still licenced to the constituent subsidiaries of NBC. Each column of timings had a little circle at the bottom of the column containing a two letter code showing the operator to whom the service was licenced. However, compared with the previous NBC publication the National one was, quite honestly, abysmal and had numerous errors. It was cluttered with advertising for tours and travel. (The publication included a timetable for a brand new service 112 linking Southend-on-Sea—Birmingham—Liverpool which was considered, I believe, to have been the flagship of the newly created National network and which was to be licenced to Tillings Travel (NBC) Limited. However, it was not to be because Yelloway and Premier Travel objected to the service on the grounds of the services they operated from East Anglia to the North West).

The twice yearly issue of a National/National Express coach guide in book form continued until after the deregulation of longer distance services (October 1980) although for a time in the mid 1980s timetables were issued in loose leaf form to enable quicker service changes to be implemented in the event of competition. The loose leaf timetables were stored in what seemed to be absolutely huge blue binders which were provided as part of the subscription. In due course they reverted to the issue of coach guides in the traditional book format until the situation stabilised and as threats of competition from new operators reduced.

The twice yearly publication became once a year along the way and then it was announced that, because of the wider availability of the internet and websites, publication of the printed guide would cease. I used to buy every new issue by mail from National Express at Edgbaston.

I believe the last National Express coach guide to be published was that for the period 5 March 2007 to 2 March 2008.

The earliest coach guide book I have in my collection is the ‘Roadway Motor Coach Timetable’ for summer 1932 bequeathed to me by an elderly gentlemen in 1978. He wrote that this publication only lasted a few years although this was issue number 21. It is indeed a fascinating publication featuring lots of different operators few of which are around today.

In much later years the ‘bible’ for coach…  (read more)

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