In 1981 when Smiths applied for a regular daily bus service the Navy
Days/Week restriction was emphasised for objectors Western National by
their advocate Jeffrey Jones at a Traffic Commissioners sitting in
Weymouth. Unfortunately the period of operation restriction had
been omitted over the years by the Traffic Commissioners office when
renewing the licence. The Commissioner pointed out that
Southern/Western National had not objected to Smiths taking over the
licence from Saunders, nor to the subsequent renewals, and granted
Smiths their regular timetable.
In 1977 the operation had outgrown its base in Easton and
moved to
Southern
National's former garage in Victoria Square, Portland. As
mentioned above, Smiths came back
into the bus business in 1981 with three return journeys a day between
Weymouth
and Portland. In 1982 this became ten journeys and in 1988 this
had grown
to sixteen return journeys a day. The business was incorporated
as Smiths
of Portland Ltd in 1983. Douglas Smith retired in 1987 and was
followed in
the business in turn by his son Rodney. By now Weybus
were also competing on Weymouth area routes - indeed competition
between the
three operators was fierce and sometimes aggressive.
Early in 1989 the Smith family sold the business to
neighbouring
Portland
Plant Ltd who in turn sold the business in summer 1989 to the Cawlett
group, who
now owned Southern National. A co-ordinated timetable was
operated with
former rivals Southern National. Cawlett sold off the Smith
business in
1994 to a Plymouth businessman called Rimmer. With Weybus coming
onto the
Portland route with a fifteen minute frequency in 1995, Smiths
introduced a joint timetable with Southern National to Portland and
responded
further with a competing half hourly service from Weymouth to
Littlemoor Estate. In
April 1996 this new service was extended westwards from Weymouth town
centre to
Hereford Road, creating further competition, and leading to progressive
fare
reductions as all three operators vied for trade.
Such a situation could not continue indefinitely, and from
June 1996
the
Traffic Commissioner banned Southern National from the Portland route -
which
was immediately and somewhat cheekily registered by their sister company Dorset
Transit! So still three operators in competition on the
Portland
service. In the autumn of 1996 Smiths withdrew from Littlemoor
and then in
December from Hereford Road. Vehicles used included Bristol
REs until 1996, and then some Freight Rover Sherpa/Carlyles and also
some Dormobile/Ivecos. In September 1997 more arrived from
Cityline Bristol and ran for two years.
In January 1998 the Smiths business was repurchased by the
Cawlett
group and
in July the Weybus services ceased to operate when their licences were
revoked
by the Traffic Commissioner. So Cawlett had Portland to
themselves again,
albeit with two operations: Dorset Transit and Smiths. April 1999
saw
Cawlett acquired by the First group, and Smiths ceased to trade
separately in
September 1999, all services then coming under the First Southern National
banner.
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