Preston Bus

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

History
Preston Corporation began operating electric tram services in the Borough in 1904, although horse-drawn trams had been running since 1879. It began its first bus service, along Plungington Road, in 1922. Further bus services followed and eventually replaced the trams, the last of which ran in December 1935. The Borough Council continued to run the bus services until 1986 when, in order to comply with the Transport Act 1985, which prevented councils from running bus services directly, the assets were transferred to a new legal entity, Preston Borough Transport Limited, which although 100% owned by the council was required to operate on an "arm's length" fully-commercial basis. In 1993, followed further pressure from the UK government for councils to dispose of their bus companies it was sold to its management and staff in 1993 in a management buyout. The newly-formed company was known formally as "Preston Transport Holdings Ltd" but traded as Preston Bus.

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, the two 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 arm's length from the main Stagecoach business. In January 2011 Preston Bus was sold to Rotala.

Fleet
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.

As at February 2014, the fleet consisted of 102 buses. Until the 1970s, fleet livery was cream and red when a blue and cream scheme was introduced. Upon the sale to Rotala, a cream, green and blue livery was introduced in 2011.