Accueil / Bus & Coach Gallery / Bus & Coach Events Gallery / Bus & Coach Events 2019 / TRANSPO 50 Day One, Manchester - 19th of October 2019 67


Is it really 50 years since the foundation of the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive (South East Lancashire North East Cheshire) as it was called until 1974, when it became the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive following the local government reorganisation of that year). I remember it well, and the many local bus liveries from the various towns in the area prior to the arrival of the yukky orange and white corporate SELNEC livery, and it's always great to see them at the transport museum on Boyle Street in the city, and at the various bus rallies throughout the area. This weekend was special though, and to mark that a cavalcade of some 15 buses from throughout the history of the area were making a circuit around the city centre before parading outside the cathedral for the rest of the afternoon. Very good they looked too, and attracted a lot of attention from passers by. Funnily enough when I arrived at the site about an hour before it was due to start (well I like to check these things out beforehand, I'm a bit obsessive like that), there was a pro-Brexit demonstration going on, so if you see a few protestors in the background it's because there were a couple of buses placed at the site during the morning, and I thought they might make for an interesting shot or two. Thankfully they'd all marched off before the cavalcade arrived.

I might not be around for the 75th and 100th anniversaries (but I plan to try and be), so it was an event that I didn't want to miss, and was glad to be in attendance that day. I would also be back the following day for the second part of the event at the Transport Museum, and you can find this in a separate collection. My thanks to all the folks at the GMTS and Transport for Greater Manchester. for making it happen and making it such a memorable day. I can only wonder what the local bus scene might have looked at if we hadn't had the horrors of deregulation forced upon us back in 1986 and an integrated transport system had been allowed to develop.

The images from Day 2 can be found HERE:

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