Bus Vannin

Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TL in February 2010
Parent	Department of Infrastructure
Founded	October 1976
Headquarters	Douglas
Service area	Isle of Man
Service type	Bus services
Hubs	Banks Circus, Port Erin & Ramsey
Stations	Douglas, Port Erin & Ramsey
Fleet	67 (January 2015)
Website	www.gov.im/categories/travel-traffic-and-motoring/bus-and-rail/bus-vannin/

Bus Vannin (Manx: Barroose Vannin) - styled as bus vannin - is the government-owned and operated bus service on the Isle of Man. The name was adopted in June 2009 to replace Isle of Man Transport. The company was founded on 1 October 1976, as the National Transport, which was an amalgamation of two other operating companies.

The first omnibus services on the island were provided by the Manxland Bus Co Limited, in addition to several smaller operators which operated independently. Primary means of long-distance travel was by way of either the Isle of Man Railway to the west, south and north (via the westerly side of the island) or Manx Electric Railway on the east coast.

When bus competition became a threat to the Isle of Man Railway, it bought out the bus company and operated it as Isle of Man Road Services in conjunction with the railway. In addition to the island-wide services Douglas Corporation also operated a fleet of buses around the capital, distinctive by their yellow livery. As the railway company began to falter, it relied more heavily on the bus operation, and when the railway lines closed for the first time in 1965 the bus services were intensified to replace the rail services.

The vehicles of Road Services carried an allover red livery with two off-white bands and the Railway Company crest was modified to include a facsimile of a bus instead of a railway locomotive. The buses of Douglas Corporation which only operated within the borough, carried an allover yellow livery with two red bands and corporation crest.

Both operators used the bus station on Lord Street in Douglas as their base although today this site has been given over to car park whilst buses use roadside lay-bys on Lord Street itself. The two companies operated services independently from this site until the operations began to falter in the early 1970s at which time government intervention was required to ensure continued operation.

When the service was nationalised in 1976 the buses carried National Transport logos and a new livery, predominantly of red with white trim, having previously carried a variation of this colour scheme under the Road Services banner. The nationalised service was characterised by its use of many second hand vehicles from England, a practice which continued until relatively recently, from a variety of sources including Liverpool Corporation, Preston Corporation and Ribble Motor Services. Such vehicle types included Leyland Atlanteans from Merseyside PTE, Portsmouth Transit, SELNEC and Tyne & Wear PTE, Leyland Olympians from Devon General, Dublin Bus and Stagecoach, and Leyland Lynxs from Halton Transport.