Alder Valley

Alder Valley

Preserved Leyland National in April 2010
Parent	National Bus Company
Founded	1 January 1972
Ceased operation	16 October 1992
Headquarters	Aldershot
Service area	Berkshire Hampshire Surrey
Depots	11

Alder Valley was a bus operator in South East England.

Alder Valley was formed when National Bus Company (NBC) subsidiaries Aldershot & District Traction (A&D) and Thames Valley Traction (TV) merged on 1 January 1972.

The name Alder Valley was an amalgamation of the former names, but not representing any geographical feature or area. Despite the merger, the company initially maintained two divisions, Reading (covering the former TV area) and Aldershot covering A&D's area, each of which continued to issue its own timetable booklet. From 1 November 1973 these divisions were renamed North and South. Thames Valley had also managed the South Midland express services between Oxford and London, but these were transferred to City of Oxford Motor Services in 1971. The new company's head office was at the former TV headquarters in Reading, but the Aldershot office was retained as a divisional headquarters, and in 1981 became the head office, allowing the Reading site to be sold for redevelopment.

The buses began to be painted in dark red and cream, with small Tilling-style Alder Valley fleetnames with gold coloured lettering in early 1972. In keeping with the NBC policy, however, poppy red was soon applied (from December 1972), with a white stripe at waist level (single-deckers) or above the lower windows (double-deckers), along with white double-N logo, bold white fleetnames and light grey wheels. The logo later appeared in red and blue on a round-cornered white rectangular background.

In the early days of the NBC livery, cream coloured NBC-style fleetnames/logos were applied to those vehicles which retained A&D two-tone green/cream or the early red/cream liveries. Alder Valley coaches were painted white all over with the red and blue "NATIONAL" fleetname and logo, with the Alder Valley fleetname less-prominently. "Dual-purpose" vehicles (i.e. bus -bodied vehicles fitted with coach seats and used mainly on long-distance stage-carriage services but also on express services, private hire, excursions and local stage-carriage services) were painted poppy red below waist level and white above, with red fleetnames and logos.