Coventry Corporation Transport

The first motor bus service began on 30 March 1914 using six locally made Maudslay vehicles. These were open top double deckers with solid tyres, no windscreen and seats for 34 passengers, and each cost £739. The route was from Stoke Heath to the Fire Station in Hales Street. During the first week of operation, £107 4s 4d was taken in fares. A further service to Hearsall Lane started in May but both were short lived as the chassis were requisitioned by the War Office in September that year.

After the Great War, bus services resumed in 1919 and a bus garage at Harnall Lane was opened in 1921 adjoining the Priestley's Bridge premises. The tramway system reached its peak of 58 tramcars that same year with 6 services to Bedworth, Bell Green, Stoke, Earlsdon, the Allesley Road and the Railway Station.

At the 1925 Commercial Motor Show, Maudslay exhibited one of the first covered top double deckers which the Corporation subsequently purchased. It was not until 1927 however that pneumatic tyres were first fitted to a bus.

In 1931, Pool Meadow Bus Station was opened to cater for nine main routes into the city. The following year the first tram route was abandoned and plans were drawn up to gradually replace the whole system.

The general manager T R Whitehead retired in 1933 and was replaced by Ronald Fearnley, a post which he held for nearly three decades. He became a pioneer in the transport industry, and worked closely with the Daimler Company in the development of an advanced lightweight all-metal bus with 60 seats yet within the maximum length and weight regulations of the time.

The last remaining independently operated services in the city were purchased in 1936, and the department could then complete its coverage of the area with routes to Baginton, Burton Green and Berkswell.

The substantial damage caused by the air raid of 14 November 1940 finally led to the tramway system being completely abandoned. It was later reported that the 2700 tons of material salvaged from the tramway track was sufficient to make 180 heavy tanks.[2]

Despite considerable damage to buses and premises, on 16 November, some services were resumed operating from the outer termini to as close to the city centre as conditions permitted. Within a week regular services were almost back to normal, ensuring workers could reach the factories for vital war work.

By February 1941 only 73 buses out of the total fleet of 181 were undamaged[3] and vehicles had to be hired from many other operators around the country. Overnight parking was dispersed to temporary facilities at Highfield Road football ground and the Lythalls Lane greyhound stadium.

Supply of new buses was limited during the war and those that were delivered were of government controlled austere construction, the most striking feature being the wooden slat seats.

In 1948 restrictions on purchasing new vehicles were relaxed, and the bus fleet was quickly standardised almost entirely on locally-built Daimler double deckers with an open platform at the rear and the diesel engine at the front. The last petrol-engined bus was replaced in 1949. Many of the wartime specification buses were in poor condition and had to be re-bodied, some at the department's Keresley works.

Notable exceptions to the Daimler purchasing policy were a London Transport style AEC and a Crossley which had a distinctive mainly cream colour scheme and initially had an automatic gearbox. There was also a batch of nine of the last buses built by the Maudslay company.

Services which in the war had finished at 8:30 in the evening were gradually extended to 11:00 pm. 1950 was the peak year of operation; 110 million passengers were carried but the increased ownership of private cars had a progressively adverse effect on public transport. Many of these cars were produced in city factories and it also became increasingly difficult to attract sufficient bus drivers with the wages being paid by such industries.

In 1954 a new garage was built at Sandy Lane with covered capacity for 150 buses, half the fleet, and the Foleshill site was closed. Odd and even numbered vehicles were then split between Sandy Lane and Harnall Lane respectively.

Up until 1965, all vehicles required a crew of two, a driver plus a conductor who took the fares. However, in that year, new rear-engined front-entrance double deckers were purchased and these could be operated by one man. In addition they were built to a newly permitted length of 30 feet and could thus seat a dozen more passengers. Although initially Leyland vehicles were used, the fleet subsequently again became standardised on Daimlers, using their Fleetline chassis.

With these new vehicles a distinctive feature of Coventry buses since the 1930s was omitted, the twin side-by-side destination displays. Thereafter the service number and destination displays adopted numerous different layouts.

To speed up the process of passengers boarding, in 1968 a batch of vehicles with separate entrance and exit doors entered service, but within a few years the standard reverted to a single-door design.

Continuing difficulties in recruiting drivers led the Corporation to try another approach. Although conductresses had been employed since the First World War, it was not until 1970 that the first two women drivers completed their training. It was the department's policy that drivers should first qualify as conductors and that inspectors should have previously been drivers. Subsequently, one of these ladies did became an inspector, a unique achievement.

Starting in 1970, new buses were painted in a lighter red and ivory scheme, which was intended to gradually replace the maroon and cream that had been used on previous buses. The department also operated several coaches but for some years these had sported sky blue colours.

On 1 April 1974, the entire bus operation was taken over by the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) and Coventry Corporation Transport ceased to exist. The fleet at that time comprised 185 front loading double deckers, 116 rear loading double deckers, two single deckers, one coach and one minibus.[4]

With the city coat of arms removed from every bus, the familiar maroon and cream paint scheme also began to disappear from the city streets. As buses were due for repainting they gained the blue and cream colours of the Birmingham company.