McVicar's Bus Service

McVicar's Bus Services

McVicar's Bus Services depot in Lidcombe
Former type	Private company
Industry	Transport
Fate	Dissolved
Successor	Bankstown-Strathfield Bus Service Drummond Transit South Western Coach Lines
Founded	1919
Founder	Archibald McVicar Senior
Defunct	1978
Headquarters	Joseph & James Streets Lidcombe, Australia
Area served	Canterbury-Bankstown
Services	Bus and coach
Owner	McVicar family

McVicar's Bus Services was an Australian bus operator that operated services in the south-west suburbs of Sydney from 1919 until 1978.

McVicar's Bus Service grew to be one of the largest in New South Wales. It spanned three generations of the McVicar family, operating from 1919 to 1978. The company began when Archibald Robert Brownlow McVicar began a bus service from Lidcombe railway station to Berala. McVicar extended the service to Regents Park and gained permission to run from Lidcombe to the Lidcombe State Hospital on Sunday afternoons: there was considerable business for bus operators running to hospitals and cemeteries on Sundays. In 1923 McVicar's weekly service to the hospital was increased to a daily frequency.

By 1927 McVicar was operating from Bankstown to the Milperra Soldiers' Settlement as well as Picnic Point, East Hills and Panania. In 1930 McVicar's began running between Bankstown and Burwood. The McVicar depot was developed on the corner of James and Joseph Streets, Lidcombe, and in 1935 Arch was joined by his son, Arch McVicar Junior, as an apprentice mechanic and in that year the first diesel engine bus was acquired for the firm.

World War II saw the firm restricting the number of vehicles to 12 despite the heavy passenger demands operating to and from essential industries, working a daily three-shift operation. By 1950 McVicars had 31 vehicles in daily service and several others in the workshop. The peak period for the private bus industry was said to have been up to the mid-1950s. There were relatively few cars on the roads and bus patronage was high, with timetables drawn up in a way to attract customers rather than economic necessity. However, with rising costs from big wage claims and declining patronage to greatly increased car usage, the company this time suffered difficulties though this was partly offset by revenue generated from the school bus services.