Waterbus - Request Stop

[mark99]

From the Mike Ashworth Collection.

 

"One of the more interesting marketing initiatives of the old West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive - marketing services as "Metro" - was the introduction in 1983 of regular canal 'bus' services run by barge. Initially run on a section of the Leeds - Liverpool Canal between Shipley and Bingley, two other routes on the Rochdale Canal between Todmorden and Hebden Bridge and between Mirfield and Brighouse on the Calder & Hebble Navigation were added the following year.

 

I'm not sure when they ceased operation but I do recall this - the fixed 'bus stop' posts and flags placed on the towpath as 'stopping points' and seen here in the "Ten Years of Achievement" booklet the PTE issued in 1985"

[Pluto]

The waterbus on the L&LC was originally operated by the narrowboat Apollo, with Water Prince being purchased subsequently. David Lowe will have better details, as I think it was his initiative which resulted in the service. I have attached the 1990 leaflet, and a photo of Apollo towing the West-Country keel Gwendoline down to Rodley in 2001, where it was loaded onto a lorry for delivery to Ellesmenre Port.

1990 Apollo cruises and water bus.pdf

[fanshaft]

The Metro WaterBus was actually the brain child of the newly appointed WYPTE Recreational Transport Officer Colin Speakman, the noted historian, writer and transport activist, with whom I am still in touch.  It was fortuitous as, inspired by the BW Zoo Water Bus service, and the South Yorkshire  service introduced in (I think) 1975 between Doncaster and Conisbrough, I'd had similar ideas myself.   Bus and Canal tours had been operated since 1976 by Bradford, Leeds, Halifax and Huddersfield buses, using 'Apollo', between Shipley and Rodley and these were phased out when the water bus was introduced in 1983.  The publicity was excellent, so much so that people were turned away initially leading to some grumbles.  In the first year WYPTE provided an income guarantee but in fact the subsidy required was only £314, less than the £1750 envisaged. From 1984 the number of trips was increased (eventually daily in the peaks) and with Metro support with promotion and publicity, not to mention the genuine bus stops, timetables cases, and ticket machines, the service then operated and washed its face financially.  Boats used were 'Apollo' (a 1929 Midlands & Coast vessel built by Chrichtons on the Dee, purchased by me in 1971), and 'Water Prince' (formerly 'Wharfe' built by Pimblotts in 1936, converted to a passenger vessel by British waterways in 1958 and purchased by me (Apollo Canal Carriers Ltd) in 1976).  'Apollo' (48 seats) generally did two round trips, and 'Water Prince' (78 seats) one, per day but when the number of days operating was increased it was just 'Apollo' on the service. In the first year over 3000 passengers were carried and the waterbus continued to be a popular feature of the district with the service extended slightly down through Shipley to Windhill, and the junction with the Bradford Canal.  Keeping to the schedule, with three locks in the route, was a challenge, but after BW appointed a seasonal lock keeper at Dowley Gap, Alan would have the locks ready and waiting every time on cue and this was a great help.  After sale of the business in 1998 the new owners, at some point, decided to discontinue the service.  I retained ownership of 'Apollo' (leased initially to the new owners) and the boat has over the last ten years been gradually restored to its historic condition as an Ernest Thomas tug in which guise, shortened to 56 feet,  it had operated on the BCN until the late 1960s.

Another West Yorkshire water bus trial operation in 1983 was on the Calder & Hebble  between Dewsbury and Wakefield but this was not successful and was abandoned,  however a trial service on the Rochdale Canal between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden was deemed to be a success and was continued.  In 1984 Waterways World listed water bus services in Bristol Docks, Colchester, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Mexborough, and on the Thames - but curiously not the well established (1959?) Zoo Water Bus, nor the central London Thames services.  How many water bus services are operated today?  In recent years services have been established in central Birmingham, in Glasgow (on the Clyde), and (marketed unfortunately as a 'water taxi') in Leeds but I believe the Glasgow service no longer operates.  

Photo shows 'Apollo' in water bus mode picking up conductor, lock and swing bridge operator and barman Derek Offord below Hirst Lock, with skipper Jim at the tiller.

 

Edited February 29 by fanshaft

[Mac of Cygnet]

There was a water bus stop sign at Cooper Bridge on the C&H until relatively recently.  We always referred to the mooring there as the 'bus stop'.

[fanshaft]

Interesting - I wonder what service that was?

[Pluto]

Not the service mentioned, but a little bit earlier, in 1926.

[fanshaft]

That is quite a find!  Thanks.  They seem to have 12 passengers which would comply with the Board of Trade Regulations (max 12 passengers plus crew), even though they tended to be ignored on the canals until Jason's Trip was inaugurated in 1951 and the BoT's attention was drawn to it! 

[Pluto]

Glovers got a warning in 1924 for using a motor barge. It seems carrying passengers with a horse-drawn boat was OK. The problem reared its head again in 1943 when they were putting together the 'Holidays at Home' scheme in Bootle and Liverpool. The Bootle Barge Co also had problems in the 1950s when they converted a boat for passenger carrying.

[fanshaft]

Again - really interesting.  As a long time passenger boat operator (for some years chairman of the APCO Passenger Boat Section) I never understood why horse drawn boats were (are?) exempt.  Another exemption was vessels that operated on isolated waterways and were 'not held to be in navigation' as the legal phrase had it, I recall.  Glover's later partner Jonathan Rennard (Canal Carriers Ltd of Shipley) converted wooden motor short  boat 'Fellowship' into a passenger boat to operate between Bingley and Silsden (mainly) before or during WW2 but by around 1960, according to Mr Rennard, 'the Board of trade made it too expensive to operate' so it clearly did have a BoT certificate.  It was my mother's enthusiastic report of a trip on Fellowship around 1956 that excited me as a nine year old and led me to start a passenger boat business on the L&L 15 years later.  A former crew member of mine, George Rance, talked of helping with the Holidays at Home trips which were run by Silsden Co-Op using their horse drawn boats during the last War.  Attached scan is the heading of an article about Jonathan Rennard and 'Fellowship' in the local press in 1969 showing the boat in question.  Note the bike: this was used not only to get the many swing bridges open efficiently but to pedal ahead and ensure that the fish and chips order from the shop adjacent to Silsden bridge was ready to be loaded on board as the boat passed through Silsden bridge ready to wind where the boatyard is now.   Mrs Rennard was in charge of the galley.