Council ownership bodied
Leyland Titan at
Preston bus station in May 1971 Preston Corporation began operating
electric tram services in the Borough in 1904, although horse-drawn trams had been running since 1879. On 23 January 1922, Preston Corporation began its first bus service, running along Plungington Road using a fleet of
Leyland buses. Expansions of these bus services soon followed and eventually replaced Preston's trams, the last of which ran in December 1935. On 12 October 1969, the £1.1 million ()
Preston bus station was opened on Tithebarn Street, the site of a
Ribble Motor Services station, after two years of construction. With the station being owned by the Borough Council, bus routes ran by Preston Corporation were rerouted from terminating at points around the city centre to centrally serve the station's 80 departure gates. at
Preston Bus Station in November 1997 Preston Borough Council continued to run the bus services until 1986 when, in order to comply with the
Transport Act 1985 and ensuing
deregulation of bus services from 26 October 1986, the assets of Preston Transport were transferred to a new "arm's length" legal entity, Preston Borough Transport Limited, trading as Preston Bus. when talks began with the operator's management and staff towards selling Preston Bus in a
management buyout. The management buyout of Preston Bus from the Borough Council was eventually concluded with the sale of Preston Bus for £3 million () in April 1993. In late 1999, Preston Bus launched the 'Quality Bus' scheme in partnership with both the Borough Council and
Lancashire County Council, which saw improvements to routes 33 and 35, running from Preston bus station to
Tanterton, including road realignments, the moving of bus stops, and the issuing of Traffic Regulation Orders enforced by the
Lancashire Constabulary, with the aim of reducing delays on the services. Preston Bus launched a fleet of seven
East Lancs Lolyne bodied
Dennis Trident 2 low-floor buses for use on the revised 33 and 35.
Preston bus war In 2006,
Stagecoach North West introduced various services with a fleet of
Optare Solos,
Alexander Dennis Enviro400s, and
Dennis Dart SLFs, branded as 'Preston Citi', to compete with Preston Bus. This competition escalated into a
bus war, with Stagecoach offering lower fares on the busiest routes. The managing director of Preston Bus was concerned Stagecoach could force his company out of business. Both companies accused each other of unprofessional behaviour, with reports of Stagecoach drivers throwing eggs at Preston Bus vehicles. On 10 June 2008, the two companies agreed to a code of practice by the North West of England
Traffic Commissioner. The two companies remained in competition under the restrictions of this code of practice, with Stagecoach beginning to operating routes within Preston while Preston Bus commenced a service between Preston and
Penwortham, with a limited service running between Preston and
Southport, duplicating existing Stagecoach routes.
Stagecoach in Preston bodied
Scania N94UB at Preston bus station in November 2010 On 30 December 2008, Stagecoach approached Preston Bus to negotiate a potential sale. On 23 January 2009, Preston Bus was sold to Stagecoach for £6.4 million (), with the company as
Stagecoach in Preston from March 2009 onwards. On 28 May 2009, the
Office of Fair Trading announced that it was referring the purchase of Preston Bus by Stagecoach to the
Competition Commission. The provisional findings suggested that the acquisition reduced competition and may potentially harm the interests of passengers. Possible remedies included the sale of part or all of the business and measures to encourage new entry by other operators, as well as controls on fares and requirements to maintain service levels. On 11 November 2009, the Competition Commission ruled that the takeover by Stagecoach had adversely affected competition in the area and ordered Stagecoach to sell Preston Bus. Stagecoach made an appeal to the
Competition Appeal Tribunal following this ruling, stating that the Competition Commission's decision was "perverse and irrational" and that the commission had committed an error in law with its use of the counterfactual argument and handling of Stagecoach's responses. Despite the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruling in May 2010 that the Competition Commission had imposed a disproportionate remedy based on inconsistent evidence, agreeing with some of Stagecoach's appeals, Stagecoach began actively looking for a buyer, reinstating the Preston Bus name, livery and logo and operating the company at arm's length from the main Stagecoach business.
Rotala ownership In January 2011, Preston Bus was sold to
Rotala for £3.2 million (), beating a bid for another management buyout that had received £25,000 of funding from Preston Borough Council. Rotala reorganised Preston Bus as a subsidiary of its nationwide bus operations and remained separate following the formation of
Diamond North West in
Greater Manchester in March 2015, despite Diamond being based in Preston. In June 2011, Preston Bus announced it was to surrender its commercial operation of the
Preston park and ride services to Lancashire County Council, claiming that services could not continue with Preston Bus due to a lack of financial support from the council. The service resumed with Preston Bus under tender from the council, and following a series of cuts reducing it to one route, was eventually tendered to
Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire in July 2019. ==Fleet==