Cleveland Transit

Cleveland Transit was a municipal bus operator based in the former county of Cleveland in northern England, operating from 1974 until its purchase by the Stagecoach Group in 1994.

History
The non-metropolitan county of Cleveland was formed by the Local Government Act 1972, incorporating the County Borough of Teesside districts of Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Langbaurgh-on-Tees as its non-metropolitan districts, with Middlesbrough becoming Cleveland's county town. Upon Cleveland's inauguration as a county in April 1974, the six-year-old Teesside Municipal Transport's operations were brought together with bus operators in the other three boroughs, with the exception of Hartlepool Borough Transport, and a joint council committee named Cleveland Transit was formed.

The municipally-owned company would operate bus and coach services across the new county for the next twelve years, adopting a green and primrose livery for its fleet. Cleveland Transit standardised on a fleet of Northern Counties-bodied Leyland Fleetlines, which were rebodied in the 1980s, Bristol VRs and Dennis Dominator double-decker buses and Leyland Leopard single-decks in this period, also experimentally operating a Rolls Royce-engined Leyland Fleetline converted to run on liquid petroleum gas, the first LPG-powered double-decker in the United Kingdom, in the mid-1970s.

Deregulation in 1986 saw Cleveland Transit take on a new green, white and yellow corporate identity and be reincorporated as an 'arm's length' company by Cleveland County Council. After a protracted period of negotiation between Cleveland Transit staff and the councils involved in the joint committee, during which the company became engaged in a bus war with rival Trimdon Motor Services in Stockton-on-Tees, the company was purchased by its employees in 1991 in an employee share ownership plan, with the company adopting the slogan 'Employee Owners Working for You'.

In 1992, Cleveland Transit's coaching arm Cleveland Coaches was reorganised, becoming a National Express contractor as well as offering coach holidays to various destinations. Cleveland Transit would purchase Kingston upon Hull City Transport (KHCT), a former municipal bus operator located in the non-metropolitan county of Humberside that was losing £100,000 a month, from the city council for over £2 million in December 1993. Employees at KHCT would retain 49% ownership of the company and the livery of KHCT would be changed to one similar to Cleveland Transit.

In November 1994, Cleveland Transit and KHCT were both purchased by Stagecoach Holdings for £8.3 million. The Cleveland Transit identity was originally retained by Stagecoach for a short period, with new Northern Counties Palatine bodied Volvo Olympians being delivered with 'Part of the Stagecoach Group' slogans on the Cleveland Transit logos, however full Stagecoach identity would be adopted for the Cleveland Transit fleet by 1995. The operations of Cleveland Transit are today part of Stagecoach North East.