Busways Travel Services

Preserved Leyland Atlantean in May 2009
Slogan	An Employee Owned Company
Parent	Stagecoach North East
Founded	1986
Headquarters	Sunderland
Service area	Tyne & Wear
Hubs	Sunderland Newcastle Upon Tyne South Shields
Depots	4

Busways Travel Services was an English bus operator that operated services in the Tyne & Wear area. In July 1994, Busways was purchased by Stagecoach.

To comply with the Transport Act 1985, in October 1986 the assets of Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive's bus operations were transferred to a new legal entity named Busways Travel Services.

In 1989, Busways was sold to its employees and management as an Employee Share Ownership Plan company, with the management owning 51% of shares and employees owning 49%. During this time fleet names carried the strap line An employee owned company.

In late 1993, Busways management considered an offer from the employee board members to buy out some of the management shares using one of the employee share trusts. With the fast paced development of the industry this was not thought to be in the long term best interests of the company.

By March 1994, it was considering options of geographic expansion, merging or acquiring other companies, and selling to a national group. The company had become concerned at its proximity to the recently floated Go-Ahead Group, and the fact that United Automobile Services to the south, and Northumbria to the north, were also possible targets for the larger groups. It believed that independently it would struggle to defend the company against expansion by these neighbours in the future.

The Busways board came to the conclusion that a merger with one of the larger groups was the only viable option.

Stagecoach acquired Busways in July 1994. This takeover had to be accepted by around 1,700 employee shareholders, 99% of which accepted. Stagecoach was the preferred and recommended bidder out of two national groups.

Busways was relatively unique amongst new Stagecoach subsidiaries in that it kept its identity for a few years, before the corporate livery was rolled out. During this period fleet names carried the new strap line 'Part of the Stagecoach Group'. On eventual adoption of the striped scheme, the Busways, Blue Bus Service and Economic names survived in the red Stagecoach strap lines. Busways was eventually dropped with the emergence of the second generation Stagecoach livery.

In January 1994, employee owned Busways had been considering expanding in the Darlington area, although by March this study was suspended while other possible futures were being considered. In the months following the Stagecoach takeover, the Busways subsidiary was a key player in the Darlington Bus War.