Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd
Encyclopedia
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. The company operated bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
and coach
Coach (vehicle)
A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...
services in Mid and West Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
and East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
from 1911 until 1998. The company's surviving operations were absorbed into Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Essex in England. It is a regional division of Arriva.- History :...
.
Early years
In 1908 a hired DarracqDarracq
Automobiles Darracq S.A. was a French motor vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1896 by Alexandre Darracq.Using part of the substantial profit he had made from selling his Gladiator bicycle factory, Alexandre Darracq began operating from a plant in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes...
-Serpollet steam bus
Steam bus
A steam bus is a bus powered by a steam engine. Early steam-powered vehicles designed for carrying passengers were more usually known as steam carriages, although this term was sometimes used to describe other early experimental vehicles too.-History:...
made a trial run from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
. A public service commenced a week later between Maidstone and Chatham
Chatham, Medway
Chatham is one of the Medway towns located within the Medway unitary authority, in North Kent, in South East England.Although the dockyard has long been closed and is now being redeveloped into a business and residential community as well as a museum featuring the famous submarine, HMS Ocelot,...
. In July, a further service was introduced between north Maidstone and the Athletic Ground via Maidstone West railway station
Maidstone West railway station
Maidstone West railway station is one of three railway stations which serve the Town Centre of Maidstone, the County Town of Kent.It lies approximately halfway along the Medway Valley Line from Paddock Wood; from Strood) and train services are provided by Southeastern.- History :Due largely to...
. The venture was not entirely successful, but an increase in fares was not enough to prevent the vehicles being re-possessed. In 1910, the undertaking was purchased by Walter Flexman French, who named the company the "Maidstone, Chatham, Gravesend & District Motor Omnibus Service". It was registered as Maidstone & District Motor Services Limited in March 1911.
British Electric Traction
British Electric Traction
British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentokil Initial.- Early history :The company was founded as...
(BET) acquired part of M&D in 1913. A year later, new routes were introduced from Maidstone to Ashford
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...
, Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
, Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
, Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...
and Tenterden
Tenterden
Tenterden is a Cinque Port town in the Ashford District of Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother....
, and between Chatham and Faversham. By 1917 fourteen services were in operation using letters for identification. A later expansion of services resulted in letters being replaced by numbers.
Tilling Group acquired an interest in the company in 1921 while Maidstone & District became a public company in 1922. M&D opened the first bus station
Bus station
A bus station is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can stop...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, sited in Palace Avenue, Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
in 1922. In 1929, M&D acquired the Chatham & District Traction Company, but retained the Chatham & District fleetname as a separate operation until 1955.
The advent of the Road Traffic Act 1930
Road Traffic Act 1930
The Road Traffic Act 1930 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom introduced by the then Minister of Transport Herbert Morrison following the 1929 election which resulted in a hung parliament in which the Labour party won the most seats for the first time and Ramsay MacDonald became...
saw the demise of a number of independents, many of which were acquired by M&D. The formation of the London Passenger Transport Board
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
(LPTB) in 1933 required M&D to surrender most its operations in Dartford
Dartford
Dartford is the principal town in the borough of Dartford. It is situated in the northwest corner of Kent, England, east south-east of central London....
and Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
, together with garages in Dartford and Northfleet
Northfleet
Northfleet is a town in the Borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. Its name is derived from North creek , and the settlement on the shore of the River Thames adjacent to Gravesend was known as Norfluet in the Domesday Book, and Northflet in 1201...
. M&D acquired Autocar Services in 1928, keeping it as a separate company until the purchase of its rival, Redcar in 1935.
In 1935 M&D took over the Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
Tramways Company, which brought trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es into the fleet. The Hastings Tramway fleetname was retained for the Hastings trolleybus system
Trolleybuses in Hastings
The Hastings trolleybus system once served the town of Hastings, East Sussex, England. Opened on , it gradually replaced the Hastings tramway network....
until 1957. During the Second World War Gillingham depot was destroyed in a bombing raid in August 1940.
Post war M&D
Leyland Atlantean
The Leyland Atlantean is a model of double-decker bus built by Leyland in the United Kingdom from 1958 to 1986....
s to facilitate this.
M&D also purchased a number of single-deckers for one-person operation of rural services, initial examples being based on the Albion Nimbus
Albion Nimbus
The Albion Nimbus was an underfloor-engined, ultra-lightweight midibus or coach chassis, with a four-cylinder horizontal diesel engine and a gross vehicle weight of six tons. It was happiest on light rural bus duties and private hires. Operators who used it on heavy-duty bus routes found it...
chassis. AEC Reliance
AEC Reliance
The AEC Reliance was a single-deck bus or coach chassis with a mid-underfloor-mounted engine, built by AEC in Southall, west London, England between 1953 and 1979. The name had previously been used between 1928 and 1931 for another single-deck bus chassis....
s were purchased until the mid-sixties, when several batches of Leyland Panther
Leyland Panther
The Leyland Panther was a rear-engined single-deck bus chassis built by Leyland between 1964 and 1972. It gained a reputation for unreliability, which to some extent was common to many of the first generation of rear-engined single-deckers....
s were ordered. At the same time, the Daimler Fleetline
Daimler Fleetline
The Daimler Fleetline is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis built between 1960 and 1973 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, and from 1973 until 1980 in Farington, Lancashire, England. However, the last complete vehicle did not enter service until 1983...
with lowheight Northern Counties bodywork succeeded the Leyland Atlantean as the standard double deck intake.
National Bus Company
Maidstone & District became part of the National Bus CompanyNational Bus Company UK
The National Bus Company was, from 1969 to 1988, a nationalised bus company in England and Wales. NBC did not run buses itself, but was the owner of a number of regional subsidiary bus operating companies.-History:-Background:...
in 1969. The company made its first loss in 1971, necessitating some rationalisation. A partnership with East Kent Road Car Company
East Kent Road Car Company
The East Kent Road Car Company Ltd was a bus company formed in 1916 and based in Canterbury, Kent. The company operated bus and coach services in Kent...
evolved and the running of the company transferred to Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
. The company ordered an unusual fleet of 30 two-door Marshall single deck vehicles based on Daimler Fleetline 33 ft. chassis for operation in the Medway Towns. In 1971 these were sent to Northern General in exchange for Daimler Fleetline double deckers. National Bus Company introduced standard liveries in 1972 and the traditional green and cream livery gave way to NBC leaf green. The company purchased several batches of Leyland Leopard
Leyland Leopard
The Leyland Leopard was a mid-engined single-deck bus and coach chassis built by Leyland between 1959 and 1982. It was popular with bus and coach operators throughout the British Isles...
s for both bus and coach work, together with ECW bodied Bristol VRTs
Bristol VR
The Bristol VR was Bristol's rear-engined bus chassis, designed as a competitor to the Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline.-Development:...
. M&D also bought several batches of Leyland National
Leyland National
The Leyland National is a British single-deck bus built in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries - the National Bus Company and British Leyland. Buses were constructed at a specially built factory at the Lillyhall...
s including some dual purpose buses for a proposed network of limited stop services.
1973 saw transfers of services between East Kent and M&D, with M&D gaining operations in Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
and Rye
Rye, East Sussex
Rye is a small town in East Sussex, England, which stands approximately two miles from the open sea and is at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede...
and reducing services in Ashford
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...
and closing its depot. In 1974 services were renumbered in a common sequence with those of East Kent Road Car Company
East Kent Road Car Company
The East Kent Road Car Company Ltd was a bus company formed in 1916 and based in Canterbury, Kent. The company operated bus and coach services in Kent...
. Services were re-numbered according to area with most services receiving three digit numbers, the first of which indicated the area of operation.
In 1975 trial batches of the MCW Metropolitan
Scania Metropolitan
The Scania Metropolitan was the first double decker bus model built jointly by MCW and Scania division of Saab-Scania. It was built between 1973 and 1978.It was also the second bus model jointly built by these two companies...
, Volvo Ailsa B55
Volvo Ailsa B55
The Volvo Ailsa B55 was a front-engined double-decker bus chassis built in Scotland by Ailsa, Volvo's British commercial vehicle agency. It was in production from 1973 to 1985, and was a relatively successful alternative to the ubiquitous rear-engined Bristol VR, Leyland Atlantean and...
and Bristol VRT series 3 entered service at Silverhill, eventually transferring to the Medway Towns. M&D went on to buy large numbers of Bristol VRTs, although it also took two batches of MCW Metrobus
MCW Metrobus
The MCW Metrobus is a double decker bus model manufactured by MCW from 1977 until 1989, with over 4,000 examples built. The original MkI model was superseded by the MkII model in 1981/1982, although production of the original MkI continued for London Transport until 1985...
es.
Services in Chatham
Chatham, Medway
Chatham is one of the Medway towns located within the Medway unitary authority, in North Kent, in South East England.Although the dockyard has long been closed and is now being redeveloped into a business and residential community as well as a museum featuring the famous submarine, HMS Ocelot,...
began to serve the new Pentagon Bus Station
Pentagon Bus Station
Pentagon bus station is the main bus interchange in Chatham, Kent, England. It is an integral part of the Pentagon Shopping Centre. As a result, 80% of local services start, terminate or pass through the Centre....
in Spring 1976, while Lower Stone Street Bus Station in Maidstone was redeveloped using NBC's standard layout. This enabled the closure of the original bus station in Palace Avenue, although the booking office building was purchased by the Kent & East Sussex Railway and re-assembled at Tenterden Town railway station
Tenterden Town railway station
Tenterden Town railway station is a heritage railway station on the Kent and East Sussex Railway in Tenterden, Kent, in the United Kingdom.When the railway line first opened in 1900, Rolvenden Station was known as "Tenterden". Its name was changed when the line extended north three years later and...
.
Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
area services were recast as part of a co-ordination scheme with London Country Bus Services
London Country Bus Services
London Country Bus Services was a bus company that operated in South East England from 1969 until split up and sold in 1986 under Margaret Thatcher's government's bus deregulation scheme.-Creation:...
. London Country took over a number of town services from M&D, and M&D's Gravesend Depot closed 18 months later, the remaining local services passing to London Country's Northfleet
Northfleet
Northfleet is a town in the Borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. Its name is derived from North creek , and the settlement on the shore of the River Thames adjacent to Gravesend was known as Norfluet in the Domesday Book, and Northflet in 1201...
depot.
1979 saw the replacement of the former Green Line
Green Line
- Geographic demarcations :* Green Line, a name for the Gothic Line or "Linea Gotica", a German defensive line in Italy during World War II, renamed the "Green Line" in June 1944...
719 service between London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Wrotham
Wrotham
Wrotham is a village situated on the Pilgrims' Way in Kent, at the foot of the North Downs. It is located one mile north of Borough Green and approximately five miles east of Sevenoaks. It is within the junction of the M20 and M26 motorways....
and the Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
- Tenterden
Tenterden
Tenterden is a Cinque Port town in the Ashford District of Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother....
extension of National Express
National Express
National Express Coaches, more commonly known as National Express, is a brand and company, owned by the National Express Group, under which the majority of long distance bus and coach services in Great Britain are operated,...
008 with a limited stop service 919. It was initially operated with dual purpose Leyland Nationals. Between Wrotham and Farningham
Farningham
Farningham is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent in England. It is located on the River Darent, south of Dartford, and has a population of 1,289...
, the service called at most bus stops, taking over three hours end to end. Despite the subsequent introduction of coach specification vehicles, the service was not a success.
In the early 1980s, expectations of a complete merger with East Kent began to grow. Vehicles and operations were interchanged, including some M&D Atlanteans, which were swapped for AEC Regents. In 1980, the first Market Analysis Project (MAP) was completed in the Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
area, leading to the adoption of the "Hastings & District" name for buses operating from Silverhill, Hastings and Hawkhurst
Hawkhurst
Hawkhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. The parish lies to the south-east of Tunbridge Wells. Hawkhurst itself is virtually two villages...
depots. Services were cut and Bexhill
Bexhill-on-Sea
Bexhill-on-Sea is a town and seaside resort in the county of East Sussex, in the south of England, within the District of Rother. It has a population of approximately 40,000...
depot was closed in April 1980. A group of former M&D drivers formed Bexhill Town Bus Services, initially operating a number elderly Leyland Nationals acquired from Plymouth Citybus
Plymouth Citybus
Plymouth Citybus is one of the principal bus operators serving the City of Plymouth, England, and the surrounding area. Plymouth Citybus's route network serves almost exclusively the boroughs and inner-city areas of Plymouth, with the majority of rural services handled by First Devon and...
.
The Hastings & District operation became a separate company in 1983, although Hawkhurst
Hawkhurst
Hawkhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. The parish lies to the south-east of Tunbridge Wells. Hawkhurst itself is virtually two villages...
depot remained with M&D while Rye passed to the new company. Hastings & District was eventually purchased by Stagecoach
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...
, who combined it with parts of Southdown Motor Services
Southdown Motor Services
Southdown Motor Services Ltd operates bus and coach services in East and West Sussex and parts of Hampshire, in southern England. It was formed in 1915 and had various owners throughout its history, being purchased by the National Bus Company in 1969...
company to form South Coast Buses.
The 1980s saw a number of depot closures, notably the Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
depot in Knightrider Street (following co-ordination of local services with Maidstone Borough Council Transport under the Maidstone Area Bus Services banner) and the relatively new facility at Tonbridge
Tonbridge
Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...
. The company's Central Works in Maidstone also closed, maintenance being devolved to a new company Kent Engineering (based in Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
and Hawkhurst
Hawkhurst
Hawkhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. The parish lies to the south-east of Tunbridge Wells. Hawkhurst itself is virtually two villages...
), who also undertook maintenance for East Kent.
The express coach services between London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the Medway Towns and Maidstone were re-branded Invictaway
Invictaway
Invictaway was an express commuter coach service from Kent to London in the 1980s and 1990s, and was also a holding company for the emerging Arriva group...
in the early 1980s, this name also being applied to route 900 between Gillingham and Gatwick Airport. An all-over black livery was used. To enhance these services, several batches of Leyland Olympian
Leyland Olympian
The Leyland Olympian was a double-decker bus built by British Leyland/Leyland Bus in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production before the demise of Leyland Bus.-Construction:...
s with ECW double deck coach bodies were acquired and painted in a green and white livery. This was later applied to the whole Invictaway fleet.
Privatisation
On 7 November 1986 the company was sold to its management, one of the first NBC companies to be privatised. NBC's standard green livery was retained, although the white relief was later changed to cream. M&D took a cautious approach to deregulationBus deregulation
Bus deregulation in Great Britain came into force on 26 October 1986, as part of the Transport Act 1985.The 'Buses' White Paper was the basis of the Transport Act 1985, which provided for the deregulation of local bus services in the whole of the United Kingdom except for Northern Ireland and...
, mainly registering inter-urban routes which followed major roads. Casualties included the routes serving North Downs
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...
villages south of Sittingbourne
Sittingbourne
Sittingbourne is an industrial town about eight miles east of Gillingham in England, beside the Roman Watling Street off a creek in the Swale, a channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent...
and Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
together with the majority of Sunday services. There were also some improvements, including increased frequency on the trunk 70-74 group of services westwards along the London Road from Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
together with improvements local services in the Medway Towns.
M&D were not a great follower of the minibus
Minibus
A minibus or minicoach is a passenger carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is used to describe any full-sized passenger carrying van. Minibuses have a...
, although some Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
vehicles were acquired for service in Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...
and Chatham
Chatham, Medway
Chatham is one of the Medway towns located within the Medway unitary authority, in North Kent, in South East England.Although the dockyard has long been closed and is now being redeveloped into a business and residential community as well as a museum featuring the famous submarine, HMS Ocelot,...
. M&D purchased Northern Counties bodied Olympians in significant numbers post-privatisation. Joint operation of services with East Kent Road Car Company
East Kent Road Car Company
The East Kent Road Car Company Ltd was a bus company formed in 1916 and based in Canterbury, Kent. The company operated bus and coach services in Kent...
ended with deregulation in August 1986. The long-established route 10 between Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
with Ashford
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...
and Folkestone
Folkestone
Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...
was split in two at Ashford, with M&D no longer operating on the route.
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Boro'line Maidstone
Boro'line Maidstone, previously Maidstone Borough Council Transport was the municipal bus operator in Maidstone and the surrounding villages. Maidstone Borough Council Transport was formed in 1974 from Maidstone Corporation Transport following local government reorganisation...
. Buses continued to be garaged in Boro'line's depot in Armstrong Road. In 1991 Boro'line was put up for sale, so M&D decided to register a number of town services in direct competition. In 1992 it was sold to Maidstone & District for £950,000. M&D moved into Boro'line's depot, which at one point became the head office of M&D, Kentish Bus and Londonlinks. Most of Boro'line's fleet was disposed of, with the exception of one former Maidstone Corporation
Maidstone Corporation Transport
Maidstone Corporation Transport was the operator of trams, trolleybuses and motorbuses in Maidstone, Kent from 1904 to 1974. The operations of Maidstone Corporation passed to Maidstone Borough Council Transport in reorganisation of local government in 1974, expanding the Borough...
Leyland PD2/Massey which passed into M&D's heritage fleet and is now privately owned.
The end of M&D
M&D was acquired by British Bus, who also owned the neighbouring Kentish Bus operation, in 1994. The Invictaway services were re-branded as Green Line. Vehicle replacements saw Bristol VRTs replaced by Olympians. In 1996, the Cowie Group acquired British Bus. A new livery, designed by Ray Stenning and based on M&D's traditional green and cream including a stylised scroll fleetname, was introduced. It first appeared on a batch of Plaxton PointerPlaxton Pointer
The Plaxton Pointer is a successful single-decker bus body manufactured during the 1990s by Plaxton and latterly built by Alexander Dennis.With the launch of the Dennis Dart in 1989, Plaxton's subsidiary Reeve Burgess made the Pointer body on the short 8.5 m...
-bodied Dennis Dart SLFs, many of which were acquired under a Quality Partnership scheme with Kent County Council
Kent County Council
Kent County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Kent in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 84 elected councillors...
for three routes in Maidstone.
The application of the new livery across the fleet was curtailed by the decision of the recently-renamed Arriva
Arriva
Arriva plc is a multinational public transport company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Sunderland, United Kingdom. It has bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus operations in 12 countries across Europe, employs more than 47,500 people and services over 1.5 billion passenger journeys each...
group to introduced a corporate livery and rename its subsidiaries. In 1998, the company became Arriva Kent & Sussex, becoming part of the holding company Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Essex in England. It is a regional division of Arriva.- History :...
. Arriva have retained the M&D name to prevent use by competitors.