Teesside Municipal Transport

The creation on 1st April 1968 of Teesside County Borough heralded the amalgamation of the operations of Middlesbrough Corporation Transport, Stockton Corporation Transport and the Tees-side Railless Traction Board (T.R.T.B) into the new Teesside Municipal Transport undertaking (T.M.T).

A new livery of turquoise with a cream band was adopted. Repaints of Stockton, Middlesbrough and T.R.T.B. vehicles into the new livery had begun some time prior to the formation of T.M.T. and indeed, all vehicles delivered in 1967 to the three undertakings carried the turquoise livery from new.

All three depots acquired with the constituent undertakings continued in use with T.M.T. as North Depot (Church Road, Stockton), South Depot (South Bank) and Central Depot (Parliament Road, Middlesbrough), which became the head office for T.M.T.'s operations.

A wide variety of buses were inherited by T.M.T. From Stockton came 107 buses, consisting of 15 single-deckers (4 Leyland Panther Cubs, 10 Leyland Panthers and a solitary AEC Regal) and 82 double-deckers (18 Leyland Atlanteans and no fewer than 74 Leyland PD2s). Three more Atlanteans that had been ordered by Stockton were delivered on T.M.T.'s first day of operation. Middlesbrough's fleet was a little more modern, being made up of just 2 single-deckers (a pair of Leyland Panther Cubs) and 100 double-deckers (60 Daimler Fleetlines, 31 Guy Arabs and 9 Dennis Lolines). T.R.T.B's contribution to the amalgamated fleet was 6 single-deck motor buses (4 Leyland Leopards and 2 coach-bodied Leyland Tiger Cubs), 29 double-deck motor buses (6 Leyland Atlanteans and 23 Leyland PD2s) and 15 double-deck trolleybuses used to work a small trolley system from North Ormesby to Eston and Normanby. Vehicles retained their pre-T.M.T. fleet numbers until 1970 when a common series of fleet numbers was introduced.

Having already adopted a standard livery, T.M.T's next objective wasto update its fleet and adopt a standard vehicle policy to enable the extension of one-man operation throughout its network of services. Outstanding pre-T.M.T. orders completed through the course of 1969-70 were twenty fivefull height dual-door double-deckers (ten Daimler Fleetlines ordered by Middlesbrough and fifteen Leyland Atlanteans ordered by Stockton). The standard then became the low-height, dual door Daimler Fleetline of which no fewer than seventy six were purchased between 1971 and 1973, allowing much of the old stock to be eliminated from the fleet. There were exceptions to this policy of standardisation and modernisation however. Remarkably in 1969, five Sunbeam trolleybuses were acquired second-hand from Reading Corporation, though these would prove to be short-lived as the ex-T.R.T.B. trolley system was closed down on 4th April 1971. In 1970 further unusual second-hand purchases were eight twenty-year old Leyland PD2s, acquired from Leicester Corporation as cover for a short-term vehicle shortage. To follow in 1971 were twelve Leyland Atlantean double-deck motorway coaches from W.C. Standerwick of Blackpool. These were rebuilt to bus specification before entering service one by one between March 1972 and July 1974. T.M.T. also entered into the private-hire coaching business, taking a Duple-bodied Bedford YRQ coach in 1972 and five Leyland Leopard coaches in 1973.

Prior to the formation of T.M.T. relatively few services were operated jointly between the undertakings. Middlesbrough and Stockton shared the O service (North Ormesby - Middlesbrough - Stockton - Norton Green), the 11 services (Middlesbrough - Haverton Hill - Billingham, and Middlesbrough - Acklam - Thornaby - Stockton) and the I service (Middlesbrough - Acklam - Thornaby New Town) as well as numerous works services.. Noteworthy is the use by Middlesbrough of letters rather than numbers for its routes. The T.R.T.B. did not operate any joint services. Apart from the trolleybus services, it had few other stage services with most of its motor buses being employed on works and school contracts. T.M.T. soon set about rationalising and standardising the services it had inherited, also enhancing the network with the introduction of new services across the fomer boundaries. The implementation of a common series of route numbers was a gradual process lasting several years, and it was not until November 1975 that the final Middlesbrough-inspired route letters were replaced.

On 1st April 1974, a further reorganisation of local government led to the formation of the new County of Cleveland, covering the territory of the outgoing Teesside County Borough, together with the borough of Hartlepool. On the same date T.M.T.'s bus operations passed to the Langbaurgh, Middlesbrough and Stockton Joint Committee, trading as Cleveland Transit. The turquoise and cream livery was replaced by a new livery of green and jasmine.

In its short life T.M.T. made much progress in bringing together the old traditions of Middlesbrough, Stockton and T.R.T.B. as one. Its legacy to Cleveland Transit was a greatly-updated fleet, and a standardised, integrated network of routes, with one-man operation being employed on many of these routes.

Mark Wilson