 |
| Slogan |
"The really good bus company" |
| Parent company |
Wellglade Group (Holding Company) |
| Founded |
1989, through merger of Trent Buses and Barton Transport |
| Headquarters |
Heanor, Derbyshire |
| Service area |
Derbyshire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, |
| Service type |
Bus |
| Hubs |
Alfreton,Belper, Burton on Trent, Buxton, Derby, Heanor, Ilkeston, Long Eaton, Mansfield, Nottingham |
| Operator |
Trent Barton |
| Web site |
www.trentbarton.co.uk |
Trent Barton is one of the very small number of significant independent bus operators in the UK. It was formed as the result of merging Derbyshire's Trent Buses with Nottinghamshire's Barton Transport.
It employs 1,000 people in various parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, running a fleet of around 330 modern buses on a network of local routes. Trent Barton claim every single bus in the fleet is now low floor (not including coach services on the Red Arrow, Transpeak and Commuter Express), although it is not uncommon for a bus primarily used at sister company Notts and Derby to stray onto a Trent route, especially during university vacation periods, where large numbers of buses used on the unibus services are lay idle. It operates services from Manchester in the north to Loughborough in the south as well as Ashbourne, Burton upon Trent, Chesterfield, Derby, Ilkeston, Mansfield, and Nottingham.
Service
Many of the routes are branded with their own bus livery and name, with the route brand name registered as the service number. The 'Rainbow' services are a group of frequent services radiating from Nottingham to its outer suburbs:
- Rainbow 1 - Nottingham - Kimberley, Eastwood, then Heanor/Ripley or Alfreton
- Rainbow 2 - Nottingham - Ilkeston, Cotmanhay Farm
- Rainbow 3 - Nottingham - Hucknall, Newstead, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Mansfield
- Rainbow 4 - Nottingham - Bramcote, Stapleford, Sandiacre, Spondon, Derby
- Rainbow 5 (now "indigo") - Nottingham - Beeston, Long Eaton, then Derby or Sawley/East Midlands Airport/Loughborough
The less frequent 'Connection' services run from Nottingham to some of its smaller suburbs, for example the Ruddington Connection, Keyworth Connection and the Calverton Connection. A few services with conventional numbering still remain on smaller services around local areas, for example the 23 in Ilkeston.
In Derby, Trent Barton run some urban services, such as the non-stop 'Spondon Flyer' service, and 'The Mickleover' and 'The Allestree'. There are then a number of longer distance services for example 'The One' to Ashbourne and 'The Sixes' to Belper and Matlock with their unusual numbering system: 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 and 6.X. The 'Villager' services run south to Burton on Trent, and a number of services run north towards Ilkeston and Heanor such as the 'Black Cat' and 'H1' or 'Happy One' as it is known by passengers.
Trent Barton then operate a number of express services around the East Midlands, such as the very successful 'Red Arrow' service that speeds customers (the emphasis at Trent Barton being on them not just being passengers) from Nottingham to Derby faster than they could go by car or even train. 'Pronto' connects Nottingham, Mansfield and Chesterfield (operated jointly with Stagecoach), and the X38 connects Derby and Burton on Trent in just 25 minutes. Now the X38 runs every 15 minutes to comply with Arriva's Town Linx (operated jointly with Arriva Midlands), and services like the Bingham Xprss, Long Eaton Xprss and Commuter Xprss run direct from Nottinghams outer suburbs into Nottingham. The Transpeak service is Trent Barton's longest distance service, from Nottingham through Derby, Belper, Matlock, Bakewell, Buxton and Stockport to Manchester.
Towards the northern end of the Transpeak route, Trent Barton also operate a small number of services around Buxton town, and the 'Skyline 199' service from Buxton to Stockport and Manchester Airport.
Many of the services operate through to 3am on Friday and Saturday evenings, which Trent Barton promote with some very clever advertising.
List of routes
Office and depots
The head office is at Heanor, the main depot at Langley Mill near Heanor, with depots also at Ashbourne, Belper, Cropwell Bishop, Derby, Dove Holes, Hucknall, Matlock, Nottingham and Sutton Junction.
Other associated companies
The original Kinchbus logo.
Trent Barton's holding company, Wellglade, also owns two other East Midlands bus operators - Kinchbus and Notts + Derby.
Kinchbus is based in Loughborough and was formerly an independent company established by Gilbert Kinch and better known for coach operations than stage carriage. It operates various local services around Loughborough, service 2 from Leicester to Loughborough and Skylink from Derby to Loughborough via East Midlands Airport. It has a fleet of about fifty buses, (although their entry in Leicestershire Bus Web lists 44 vehicles).
Notts + Derby is a bus operator, operating mainly subsidised services under contract to Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire county councils. It also operates services to the University of Derby's campuses in Derby and Buxton under the Unibus brand. Notts + Derby uses Trent Barton depots for its vehicles which are mainly former Trent Barton buses eg C-registered Leyland Olympians with ECW bodywork. Notts + Derby was formerly called Blue Apple.
External links
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