Bath Bus Company

Bath Bus Company

Unvi Urbis-bodied Volvo B9TL tour bus in The Circus, Bath in 2015
Parent	RATP Group
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Bath
Service area	Bath Cardiff
Service type	Bus services Open top bus tours
Depots	2
Fleet	36 (October 2014)
Chief executive	Martin Curtis
Website	www.bathbuscompany.com

The Bath Bus Company is a bus operator in the United Kingdom which runs open top tours in Bath, Bristol and Cardiff, and the 'Bristol Air Decker' service between Bath and Bristol Airport. The company has been a subsidiary of the French RATP Group since 2011.

History

Alexander ALX400-bodied Volvo B7TL on an 'Air Decker' service in Bath in 2015

Bath Bus Company was formed in May 1997 by Martin Curtis and three other former Badgerline managers. It commenced operating open top tours in Bath with Bristol VRTs and an AEC Routemaster. It later diversified into the operation of tendered services. In 1999, Bath Bus Company became a City Sightseeing franchisee.^[1]

In June 2004, the business was purchased by Ensignbus, who transferred its existing City Sightseeing operations in Cardiff, Eastbourne and Windsor to become part of Bath Bus Company.^[2][3] In February 2011, the business was purchased by RATP Dev, the overseas division of RATP Group.^[1][4][5]

A service was started in March 2013 that linked Bath with Bristol Airport and branded 'Air Decker'. It offered through ticketing with Abus services in the Bristol area.^[6] On 21 November 2014, the company began a short-term service between Bristol and Bath using the country's first bus powered entirely by human and food waste. The biomethane gas is generated at Bristol sewage treatment works in Avonmouth, which is run by GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water.^[7] The introduction of the Bath Clean Air Zone in March 2021 caused the Bath Bus Company to invest heavily in new buses for its services.^[8]

The Bath Bus Company introduced a new tour in nearby Bristol on 17 May 2021 which was branded Tootbus Bath. Bristol tours had been operated by Rubicon Tours from 1994 until 2020. The Tootbus Bath brand would also appear later that year on some tours in Bath but others would retain the more familiar City Sightseeing branding.^[9]

Services

As well as open top bus tours in Bath, Bristol and Cardiff, the Bath Bus Company operates a service from Bath to Bristol Airport branded as 'Air Decker'.^[10][11]

Fleet

The fleet consisted of 36 buses in October 2014.^[1]

References

1. "In Focus: Bath Bus Company" Buses issue 716 November 2014 page 81
2. Martin Curtis: Top draw sightseeing in Bath Bus & Coach Professional 30 August 2006
3. The History of Ensignbus Ensignbus
4. Tour de France: city bus firm bought by European business Archived 18 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine Bath Chronicle 2 March 2011
5. RATP Dev announces the acquisition of the Original Tour Archived 12 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine RATP Group 11 September 2014
6. Curtis, Martin; Walker, Mike (2013). Badgerline: Bristol's country buses. Ian Allan Publishing. pp. 82–83. ISBN 978-0-7110-3634-5.
7. "UK's first 'poo bus' goes into service between Bristol and Bath". BBC News. 21 November 2014.
8. Curtis, Martin (May 2021). "Bath clears the air". Buses. pp. 36–37.
9. Curtis, Martin (July 2021). "A new bus tour for Bristol". Buses. pp. 8–9.
10. "Airport Service". Archived from the original on 16 October 2014.
11. "Contact Us - Bath Bus Company". Air Decker. Retrieved 12 September 2022.

External links

• Official websites:
  • Air Decker
  • City Sightseeing Bath
  • TootBus Bath