MILLAR’S TALES
The editor’s sideways view of the bus scene
Please send any stories, photos, (digital, prints or slides), cuttings and other information of off beat bus matters direct to: Buses, PO Box 14644, Leven, KY9 1WX Or e-mail: alan.millar@keypublishing.com
Nick Thomson tells me that the Bus Stop café in the Warrington suburb of Stockton Heath has recently had a makeover; one he feels sure was influenced by the municipal bus service that calls directly outside.
Stockton Heath is one of the prime stops on Warrington’s Own Buses’ Cheshire Cat services, each of which crosses the Manchester Ship Canal to enter this villagelike community. The café opened a couple of years ago, at the first stop after the canal bridge, and adopted a London Transportstyle roundel as its logo.
If Transport for London was a multinational organisation, I could imagine expensive legal advisers being cranked into action to protect its trademark and demanding that small enterprises like these desist forthwith.
Last year, with the launch of the Cheshire Cat services, the bus stop flag was replaced with a bespoke orange one. The roundels disappeared in the makeover of the café, which was given a coat of orange paint in place of its previous pale green.
