The 1980s was a decade of change in the bus industry. 1980 itself saw the Market Analysis Project (MAP), which, although primarily aimed at subsidiary companies of the NBC in an attempt to recast local bus networks and identify which services would require local authority subsidy, did also involve independent operators. The Transport Act of 1985 paved the way for the deregulation of the bus industry, culminating in the dissolution of the National Bus Company and the enforced splitting up of the member companies and their eventual sale. Many independent operators continued as they always had. Some hitherto purely coach operators tried their hand as bus operators. Some well-known independent names disappeared. This book, featuring previously unpublished images, illustrates the range of independent operators, both bus and coach, during this decade of upheaval.

Richard Stubbings has been a keen bus enthusiast since the age of about 5. Although working as a professional musician and teacher, he started getting into bus photography during the 1970s and has over the years amassed a large collection of both bus and train photographs. He lives with his partner in Somerset.