Travel Merry Hill
Travel Merry Hill[1] was a bus operator in the West Midlands. It was a subsidiary of National Express.
| Parent | National Express |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 |
| Ceased operation | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Birmingham |
| Service area | West Midlands |
| Service type | Bus services |
History
In 1988, the Merry Hill Minibus company was formed by the former owners of the Merry Hill Centre, Richardson Developments.[2]
Originally launched to compete with West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive's Mini Buzz service, at that time the Merry Hill Minibuses were the major form of public transport linking the surrounding areas with the shopping centre, of which approximately half had been opened by the time the service was launched (the first retailers had moved to the centre in 1985 and it was completed in 1989).
In the early days, the fleet consisted of Carlyle Works bodied Freight Rover Sherpa vehicles.[3] An attraction to customers of the Merry Hill Minibus service was that the buses gave change to passengers not having the exact fare, which was not the case with the incumbent West Midlands Travel. The company intended to operate around 100 vehicles from the time of the centre's completion in November 1989, but stalled at 46 following the early 1990s recession.[4][3] An unusual further attraction was that all the drivers wore bow-ties.
National Express takeover
During 1997 Merry Hill Minibuses was taken over by West Midlands Travel's parent company National Express who continued to run it as a separate subsidiary.[5] The operating centre was moved in 1999 from the back of the Merry Hill Centre to the Pensnett Trading Estate in Dudley. Subsequently the garage was relocated to a larger location elsewhere on the Estate to cater for an increased allocation of vehicles. The routes were mostly withdrawn and the fleet used standard West Midlands Travel buses such as Leyland Nationals and MCW Metrobuses.
On 17 February 2001, following a group restructuring, the Travel Merry Hill services were absorbed into Travel West Midlands with the Travel Merry Hill brand dropped.[6]
References
- Companies House extract company no 2203309 Travel Merryhill Limited formerly Merry Hill Minibuses Limited
- Carlyle at Merry Hill Commercial Motor 12 May 1988
- Brown, Stewart J. (September 1993). Buses in Britain. Capital Transport. p. 110. ISBN 1-85414-158-9.
- Merry Hill grows Commercial Motor 18 October 1990
- Travel West Midlands Ltd Acquires Merry Hill Minibuses Ltd Thomsons Financial Mergers & Acquisitions 25 March 1997
- Brierley Hill Area Action Plan - Baseline Report - Accessibility Dudley Borough Council
