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From miners' services to Continental tours

16th December 1966
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Page 60, 16th December 1966 — From miners' services to Continental tours
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

BY DEREK MOSES MANY people are concerned with the future prospects of independent bus and coach operators in the light of Government policy towards the passenger transport operating industry. It is becoming increasingly recognized by the large bus groups, however, that there are many instances where independents can provide an adequate service when it is totally uneconomical for the large company operators to do so. Some of these independent companies are old-established concerns and the question arises of what happens to the undertaking when the founder of the business retires. All too often one hears about independent companies with nobody to take over the business.

Sometimes, however, there is a son and heir who has the bus and coach operating industry in his blood. A case in point is that of the Tredegar, Monmouthshire independent R. I. Davies and Son Ltd. where the son of the founder was working as a mechanic for the company when his father died in 1961, leaving him the business.

At that time R. I. Davies and Son Ltd. operated 13 buses and coaches, mainly on miners' contract services, together with day tours and excursions. Today the Davies' concern totals 54 vehicles of which 46 are buses and coaches and operates eightand 14day tours on the Continent as well as stage bus services based on Merthyr Tydfil.

One of the biggest problems facing 26-year-old T. Hilling Davies in 1961 was learning the business almost from scratch. But the enthusiasm was there together with the determination and drive to go ahead. The mainstay of the business has continued to be the miners' services and with the exception of two Red and White vehicles operating to Markham Colliery, Davies runs miners' services on contract to the NCB to all the collieries in the Sirhowey Valley. The company also runs to the NCB laboratory at Abercarn and the area wages office at Six Bells, Ebbw Vale.

In 1962 Haling Davies married and went to the Continent for his honeymoon and from this holiday germinated the idea of inaugurating Continental tours. The following year his company took a party of old aged pensioners to the Continent. From this small beginning the Continental business has gradually built up and private parties have been organized to destinations such as the Rhine Valley, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Germany.

One of the problems was to get a licence to operate advertised excursions and tours to the Continent, the South Wales Transport Co. Ltd. being the recognized operator of such tours from that area. Mr. Davies had already teamed up with a Belgian firm, one of the oldest established operators in Ostend, but he still had to get his passengers to the Continent. He had also established a thriving travel agency business based in the centre of Tredegar, selling holidays for many of the leading tour operators.

After a long fight in the traffic courts, Hilling Davies finally obtained an express licence for a service to Dover and this will begin on Good Friday, 1967. It will be an overnight service to connect with the ferries and his coaches will also be able to carry passengers travelling with Fleetair Holidays, Cosmos Tours and Ramoudts. Next Easter the company expects to have 400 people on the Continent and accommodation has already been booked for an average of 140 people a week thereafter.

To begin with, Haling Davies is concentrating on an eight-day holiday in Paris and a similar length holiday in Brussels, Ostend and on the Belgian coast. A tour of the tulip fields of Holland will also be in the new itinerary.

Private hire demand

One side of the business which has really grown has been the private hire field. Hilling Davies has continued to trade under his father's name which is a good one in the valley and if there is any problem connected with private hire work it is providing sufficient vehicles and drivers to meet the demand, rather than to find work for the coaches. Perhaps there is something in the bleakness of the mining valleys in this part of the Welsh borders officially in England (although while talking to local people I was advised not to get drawn into this perennial argument!) which makes the residents want to escape.

This could be reflected not only in the growing number of

private tours to the Continent, but also in the fact that at home R. I. Davies and Son has one of the longest excursion seasons of any operator I have come across. The same also applies to private hire work and the company runs what one could almost call the Tredegar travel club. Sunday after Sunday the same passengers leave the bleak mining towns with the same driver on tours to Aberavon via the mountains or via Barry and the coast and also to Hereford and the popular beauty spot of Symonds Yat. I visited Tredegar towards the end of November and this weekly touring work had just come to an end for the 1966 season.

Quite apart from the successful touring business and the miners' contracts the company also has contracts to take workers to Richard Thomas and Baldwin's factory at .Llangattock Park, Stradd's clothing factory lower down the Sirhowey Valley and to Lines Bros. toy factory at Merthyr. This latter factory lies in the Taff Valley beneath the shadow of Merthyr Mountain, site of the Aberfan tragedy and it was inevitable that the company should have been involved with some of the relief work.

Hifling Davies is a member of the Round Table who have done a lot of work to help the survivors and this has included the organization of trips to all parts of the country. Coaches from the fleet of R. I. Davies and Son have been largely employed on these excursions.

Stage services

Higher up the Taff Valley to the north of Merthyr Tydfil is some magnificent scenery in the area approaching the famous Brecon Beacons and quite a lot of residential development has taken place in this area. Until 1965 the firm of Wheatsheaf Motors Ltd. operated stage services to Cefn-Coed and Pontsticill via Trefechan, the former service operated jointly with Merthyr Tydfil Corporation Transport. In 1965 R. I. Davies purchased Wheatsheaf Motors and took over the running of Wheatsheaf's share of these routes. The Cefn-Coed service operates on a 20-min. frequency while the other service operates a 30-min. frequency as far as Trefechan, where a new housing estate has been established; six journeys a day operate beyond Trefechan to Pontsticill. In the summer this latter route attracts a good deal of tourist traffic and Hilling Davies is toying with the idea of introducing an open-top double-decker. Not far beyond the terminus lies the Taf Fechan reservoir and the area is a popular one for rambling and fishing.

Since R. I. Davies has taken over these services a vast improvement in time-keeping and reliability has been reported. Two Leyland PD2 double-deckers, two Tiger Cubs and a Ford R192, the latter with Strachans body, are normally used. An interesting point is that conductors are employed on all the journeys—Mr. Davies told me that he was quite happy employing conductors and in any case there was too much traffic at peak periods for one-man operation. Setright Speed ticket machines are employed.

At one time there was a garage in Merthyr but the vehicles are now based along with the rest of the fleet at a large new garage above Tredegar. Apart from the erection of the actual framework most of the construction work on the new depot has been done by, the company's own employees.

There .are two buildings—a large garage with two bays, stores, rest room, offices and two 60 ft. pits with a workshop area at one end. A separate building is used as a body shop and this building will eventually be extended. It, too, has a maintenance pit.

The present fleet consists of 19 Leyland Tiger Cubs, one Leyland P01 double-decker in addition to the double-deckers already mentioned, one Leyland PSI single-decker, 11 Bedford coaches (six VAL, three YAM and two SB), six Ford, one Atkinson, one Guy and one Daimler CVD6 which has been acquired for service during the winter when underfloor-engined buses tend to stick in the snow. Nine of the Tiger Cubs were purchased from George Ewer Ltd. and have Harrington bodies although Plaxton and Duple bodies are employed on the new coaches.

All maintenance work apart from crankshaft regrinding is done by the company and the fleet is kept in a very smart condition. Normal livery is two shades of grey with a red band but there are variations to this and one of the coaches is painted in a blue and silver livery, the colours of the Tredegar Travel Centre agency. This has been done purposely to keep the coaches before the public's eye and to advertise the holiday tour side of the business. Another coach, a Plaxton Panorama on a VAL chassis, is fitted with television, and carries the name Telerama.

It is interesting that despite the mountainous terrain, vehicles powered by the Leyland 0.40:1 diesel engine predominate in the fleet and give a very satisfactory account of themselves. A staff of seven mechanics is employed together with three men in the body shop.

It was in the garage that I saw an example of the company's enterprise. A Leyland Tiger Cub formerly belonging to the Western Welsh Co. and badly damaged in an accident was being completely rebuilt as a service coach. Modifications to the vehicle included the fitting of an offside emergency door in place of the rear emergency door formerly fitted to the MCW body, a coach flash was being applied to the exterior and new coach-type seats and new lining panels were being fitted inside the vehicle.

Finally, to return to the miners' services, an intriguing philosophy is found here. As conditions underground are so unpleasant the miners expect the most comfortable vehicles to be employed on their services. As most of the miners use the pithead baths and travel to and from work in clean clothes the same coaches can be used for the weekend excursions.

However there is a small nucleus of "dirty" miners. These are mostly elderly men who for one reason or another do not like to use the pithead baths provided for them and two "dirty" buses are retained for these miners. I can only say that these so-called "dirty" buses appeared to be in a remarkably smart condition.

His fleet having mushroomed from 13 to 46 p.s.v. in five years, Haling Davies' next task is to consolidate his present operations. With the securing of the new Dover licence and the obvious goodwill that his company possesses in these mining valleys, Mr. Davies should have no difficulty in remaining one of the most enterprising and notable operators in South Wales.


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