Tributes Paid to Father of Minibus Revolution

NEWS ROUND-UP After acquiring that business with four colleagues in a Tributes paid to father management buyout from NBC in the summer of 1986, the success of minibus revolution of the Exeter experiment led Blundred to launch Thames Harry Blundred OBE was the owner of Transit Holdings and he was Transit a year later in Oxford. credited with spearheading the minibus revolution of the 1980s The new operation was in direct competition with City of Oxford Motor Services, his old employer. obituary It was during this period that The family of bus industry Blundred introduced the Oxford entrepreneur Harry Blundred Tube coach service between OBE has announced that he Oxford and London, initially at passed away in hospital a 20-minute frequency before in Barbados on August 23 ramping up the service to every following complications from 10 minutes throughout the day. surgery. He was 75. Meanwhile, in 1991 the former Blundred is credited with Portsmouth municipal operation leading the minibus revolution was acquired from Stagecoach. that saw the widespread While a small minibus network introduction of small 16-seat launched in the late 1980s in buses across Britain in the London’s Docklands failed to mid-1980s. With an acutely Harry Blundred with prosper, Blundred eventually sold one of the original his businesses to the emerging commercial and entrepreneurial Devon General mind, he advocated simplified, minibuses at a bus transport groups. FirstGroup high frequency bus networks that rally in 2013 acquired the Portsmouth business ADAM SUTTLE ADAM responded to customer demand. in 1996 with Stagecoach snapping Blundred began his career in Bus Company subsidiaries sceptical about an NBC plan to up the remainder of Transit the bus industry with Potteries East Midland and Southdown, introduce small minibuses in early Holdings in 1997. Motor Traction in Stoke-on- he joined the NBC’s Oxford 1984 on a pilot high frequency Awarded an OBE in June 1994 Trent in 1962. Initially employed operation as traffic manager in low fare network in Exeter, but for services to the bus industry, as a bus conductor, after a 1979. However, in early 1983 he as patronage on this embryonic Blundred retained a number year on the buses he went into moved to Devon General after network grew and grew, Blundred of business interests, including the administration side of a reorganisation of the NBC’s became a convert. By 1990 the Transit Australia, a small bus the business. Following spells Western National business. entire network of what was operation in Queensland, in planning and operations It was here that Blundred Devon General was entirely Australia. He retained ownership management with National made his mark. He was allegedly operated by minibuses. until April 2008. ‘the original ultimate traffic person”. “He was not Leeder recalls Blundred “He was tapping into something an analytical person,” Leeder told experimenting with route branding completely different that hadn’t been disrupter’ Passenger Transport this week. “He while traffic manager of Brighton- tried before,” Leeder adds. “While Leeder pays tribute to was an instinctive person. He knew based Southdown in the late 1970s. things like high frequency services Harry Blundred OBE what the customer wanted and at “That was unheard of at the time,” he and simplified, branded networks are Industry figures have paid tribute the time, in the 1970s and 80s, that said. “Harry subsequently did a lot of commonplace today, the industry to Harry Blundred OBE who has was revolutionary. stuff that is commonplace today.” has lost sight of the advantages passed away aged 75. “He was a Thatcherite, but he He adds that while the National of the minibus. 16-seat minibuses David Leeder, founder and chief was also a Ridleyite. He believed in Bus Company played a key role in became 24-seat minibuses which executive of Metropolitan European Nicholas Ridley’s vision of a highly introducing minibuses in Exeter in became 33-seat midibuses and now Transport, spent four years as competitive and market responsive 1984, once Blundred was convinced they are back to full size buses once Blundred’s assistant at Transit bus industry. Harry was the original that the high frequency, low fare again. Stagecoach has brought the Holdings in the early 1990s. disrupter; he utterly believed in concept of the service would work, minibus back in Ashford, maybe their He describes Blundred as “the shaking up the market.” “he ran with it”. time has come again?” www.passengertransport.co.uk 8 September 2017 | 03.

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