Arthur Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Currently (9:00 to 10:00 pm) on BBC 4 a documentary about coach travel in the 30's, 40's and 50's. Some nice footage of the era along with some preserved vehicles. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptic Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Thanks for the reminder, Arthur Missed it last night, but caught up this morning via IPlayer. A thoroughly enjoyable programme.(Apart from Messrs Marples and Beeching !) A good collection of remincences from all and sundry, interspersed with some evocative Colour film, (And B&W). By the way, my Brother-in-law, Arthur, had his own private enterprise / local coach company, working under the name of Kilner Coaches, based in Loxwood, on the Sussex / Surrey border. His bread and butter income used to come from the school bound (and back) children of the local inhabitants, but, occasionally, Arthur did put on a trip to (IIRC) Spalding ( Lincs, Flower Centre), plus other organised coach trips to the sea-side resorts of Southsea, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Worthing, Brighton, etc. Where are these enterprising guys, now, I wonder ?. Cheers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 Yes, I thought that Marples and Beeching wouldn't go down too well on this site! As you say Ceptic, some really nice period footage. Over the years countless small operators mist have merged, been taken over or gone to the wall. Interesting that genteel Cheltenham was such a hub of long distance coach operations. I liked the bit with the 'chalked tyre roulette', simple pleasures eh! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERS Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Not seen all of the programme yet but had the benefit of some early insight into it during the making of it. There was some superb archive material and the dialogue looked to be both informative and interesting, I'll look forward to catching up with it on iPlayer. Like the railways in the Beeching era, coaching has declined rapidly as tastes and needs have changed, how many of us own cars and how many holiday in seaside resorts now as against 40 years ago for instance. New coach registrations reached an all time low of 619 in 2009, in recent years it has been around 8-900 and in 1960 it would have been over 3000. Cost of an average coach today is in the region of £220,000 against less than £2000 in 1960, added to which operators have significantly greater operational costs to shoulder so it takes a lot to generate a return on that level of investment. Coaches will always have a part to play in our transport infrastructure but as far as the golden age is concerned, it really has gone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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