DAVID JENKINS begins his look at current developments in Greater Anglia by considering the relative positions of the four big groups with routes and businesses in this diverse region
While East Anglia has long been home to many independent operators, the dominant state-owned companies were Eastern Counties and Eastern National.
When the National Bus Company broke Eastern Counties into smaller units in 1984, it spun off the Cambridgeshire operations into a separate company, Cambus, which Stagecoach has owned since December 1995. Everything else has become part of First, though there is much less of it than there once was.
On the way, First hoovered up some smaller companies, including the municipal Blue Bus in Great Yarmouth, and in 1999 was reporting a 5% annual growth in passenger numbers. A fleet of 452 buses was spread across six main depots and 18 outstations, and the company was part of a quality bus partnership in Bury St Edmunds, to which it had committed new low-floor Dennis Darts.
Somewhere along the line, that impressive growth record stalled. Not only is there no First depot in Bury St Edmunds (closed March 2012), there are no First buses at all, while at King’s Lynn, the sole route is the …
