Preston Bus

Preston Bus

Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B5L in Preston in May 2013
Parent	Rotala
Founded	June 1904
Headquarters	Preston
Service area	Preston
Service type	Bus services
Fleet	102 (February 2014)
Chief executive	Bob Dunn
Website	www.prestonbus.co.uk

Preston Bus is a bus operator running within the city of Preston, England. It is a subsidiary of Rotala. It gained some notoriety in 2009 when the Competition Commission ordered Stagecoach to sell it.

Preston Bus was founded in June 1904 as Preston District Travel and operated a number of services in the Preston area. To comply with the Transport Act 1985, in 1986 the assets were transferred to a new legal entity, Preston Borough Transport Limited. In 1993 it was sold in a management buyout.

In 2006, Preston Bus was subject to some high profile competition from Stagecoach North West. Competition escalated into a bus war with Stagecoach offering lower fares on the busiest routes.

The managing director of Preston bus was concerned Stagecoach could force his company out of business.

Both companies accused each other of unprofessional behaviour. On 10 June 2008, both companies agreed to a code of practice by the traffic commissioner. The competition continued, with Stagecoach operating routes within Preston and Preston Bus commencing a service between Preston and Penwortham, and a limited service between Preston and Southport, duplicating existing Stagecoach routes.

On 23 January 2009, Preston Bus was sold to Stagecoach.

The routes operated by Preston Bus were rebranded as Stagecoach in Preston from March 2009.

In November 2009 the Competition Commission ruled that the takeover by Stagecoach had adversely affected competition in the area and ordered Stagecoach sell Preston Bus.

Following this ruling, the Preston Bus name and logo was reinstated and the company was operated at arms length from the main Stagecoach business. In January 2011 Preston Bus was sold to Rotala.

The Preston Bus fleet was originally all double deckers, but latterly the company moved to single deckers and minibuses, with the most common vehicle in 2008 being the Optare Solo midibus.