On Saturday 29 October 2011 Stagecoach Strathtay ran a Routemaster bus on the Tayway service to mark the 25th Anniversary of their involvement with this service.
This Routemaster, formerly RM560 with London Transport, has been painted into Alexander Midland livery but never actually operated on the Tayway service.
The Tayway service as such actually started in November 1980 and was run jointly by Tayside Regional Council, Northern Scottish and British Rail. An integrated timetable with standardised fares was produced for the route between Carnoustie, Monifieth, Broughty Ferry and Dundee. So, if you wanted to travel from Monifieth to Dundee the fare would be the same no matter which bus or train operator you chose to travel with. For many years "Corporation" buses generally operated within Dundee and Alexander (Northern) outwith the boundary leaving them unable to pick up passengers when travelling in to the city.
Despite an Ailsa bus being used in the promotional photograph Tayside Region actually operated Daimler Fleetline buses on the Tayway route. New in December 1972 the 26 buses purchased were the first dual-door double deck buses bought by Dundee Corporation and originally operated the 1A/1B route to St. Mary's. They would also become the first buses to operate outwith the city boundary and into Monifieth.
The Tayside Region buses actually did have "Carnoustie" on their destination blinds but never operated there when with Tayside Regional Council. However a vehicle shortage did lead Northern Scottish to hire some Tayside buses and operate them as far as Arbroath.
PYJ461 (number 161) is photographed in Dundee High Street with full Tayway branding and may be the only surviving "original" Tayway bus. It is now in the care of
Taybus Vintage Vehicle Society but requires a huge amount of work and TLC to get it back on the road. Stripped of its seats and with some of the bodywork already cut in a local scrapyard this bus very nearly didn't make it into possible preservation.
The shared Tayway service continued until bus deregulation in 1986 when Strathtay Scottish (established in 1985) took over sole control the route.
Later Stagecoach did try to operate a rival Tayway service in competition with Strathtay. Apparently the buses were supposed to be branded "Tay Tigers" to echo their successful "Perth Panthers" service until it was pointed out there was an Ice Hockey team in the city of the same name. However the travelling public remained loyal to Strathtay and Stagecoach withdrew from the route after a short time - only to return many years later having taken over the Strathtay company.
Can you help?
We are looking for the following items in relation to PYJ461L, its history and the Tayway service. Please
get in touch if you can help.
- an original copy of the Tayway publicity photograph with coach, bus and train;
- a copy of the stylised coach, bus and train graphic as used on the large side advert on the bus;
- any colour photographs of PYJ461L in service and especially in the green Corporation livery.
