Peter Newman is one of the industry’s elder statesmen, building Ensignbus from a small operator with one bus to a business that now excels in all of the fields that it’s active in. Where did the journey start?
A sign outside Ensignbus’ Purfleet premises makes a bold statement: Omnibus Suppliers to the World. But it’s a true one; Ensignbus has exported vehicles globally, complementing its domestic sales activity and a successful local service operation.
But it wasn’t always thus. Ensignbus was founded in 1972 by Peter Newman, who remains its Chairman, assisted by an experienced team that includes his sons Ross and Steve. Their warm welcome to visitors will be familiar to many routeone readers.
Since then, Ensignbus has seen many changes. It started much as it is today, buying and selling buses as well as operating them. But Peter’s experience in transport goes back further.
An East End boy, he left school at 15 and took a job with Co-op Travel in Regency Street. Among his tasks was issuing rail tickets to far-flung destinations throughout Europe. It was no mean feat in pre-computer days, but something that he enjoyed.
“The Co-op was good to me, and when I was 18 I was appointed assistant manager of the travel counter. But a union agreement meant that I couldn’t receive the commensurate wage until I was 22. ‘Time for a change’, I thought.”
That took him to famous London coach operator Grey-Green. Summers were busy, but part of Peter’s role in the off-season was visiting subcontractors. One day he went to Osborne of Tollesbury on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex.
“Joe Osborne said that he wanted a double-decker bus. We didn’t have any at Grey-Green, but he insisted that I would know where to find one.
“So I called London Transport (LT) and did a sale-or-return deal on an AEC Regent. Joe liked it and he gave me a cheque. I paid LT and made £100. That was the very first bus I sold, in 1960 or 1961.”
Onward and upward
Peter then started working for Super Coaches of Upminster during the winter and Grey-Green in the summer. Around the same time, building on the successful deal with Osborne, he and two business partners formed Passenger Vehicle Sales (London) Ltd.
Operation of shuttle buses for the Port of London Authority (PLA) followed, and Super Coaches was purchased by the trio when the owner retired. Things were busy – too busy, and he needed time away from a consistent seven-day working week.
“I walked away from everything. Then, in 1972, I founded Ensignbus. I bought a double-decker from Portsmouth Corporation for school work in Southend.”
That ticked over nicely, and the PLA work later came into Ensignbus’ hands. Peter also gained the licence earlier granted to him and his former business partners to run sightseeing services in London, and he continued to buy and sell used buses.
Things were going nicely, but just around the corner was a development that propelled Ensignbus into the big leagues.
The big bang
LT had taken over 2,600 Daimler Fleetline double-deckers from 1971 onwards, but they were unreliable. In 1979 it decided to dispose of 1,800 of them via a single tender, and Ensignbus was the successful bidder.
“They came over a number of years but we had to tread very carefully. LT was saying that they were dreadful and couldn’t be kept on the road, but we were telling prospective customers that they could be reliable vehicles,” Peter recalls.
Just as it does today, Ensignbus offered various modifications to make the Fleetlines suitable for second lives.
When ‘de-Londonised’, they gave excellent service to many buyers; Ensignbus also carried out heavy upgrades on a number of them, converting them to semi-coaches and many other configurations.
Pride of London
At around the same time, Ensignbus founded London Pride. It became the capital’s largest sightseeing operator, carrying over 1.5m passengers per annum.
To foster that growth, Ensign displayed the commercial nous that resurfaced years later on its Essex network with a number of innovative developments. “We learned lots with London Pride, and many of the things that we introduced are now considered standard,” he explains.
“We incorporated more stops, and commentary in several languages. We also did very well with tickets that were valid for 24 hours, rather than just on the day of purchase. But one of the biggest things was hop-on, hop-off, along with selling additional products such as entry to the Tower of London.”
Hop-on, hop-off meant that instead of a seat being occupied by one passenger for the duration of a tour, London Pride could sell it several times over. It also engaged with a cruise operator on ticket acceptance over a segment where demand was high, further increasing passenger turnover.
One of the best-remembered aspects of London Pride was its use of MCW Metroliner double-deck coaches that were converted to open-top. The Metroliner failed as a motorway cruiser, but on slow-speed work it proved highly capable. At 12m long, it also allowed London Pride to capitalise on passenger demand.
Shifting focus
While the sightseeing operation was in full swing, sales continued. Ensignbus also took its first step into local services via the tendering process in London, but eventually it exited both markets.
The stage carriage work – then managed by Leon Daniels – was sold to a Hong Kong-based company; London Pride went to another buyer.
“In the early 1990s sightseeing was our focus. Then, in 1998, venture capitalists waved a cheque under our noses. We weren’t looking to sell, but the heyday had gone,” says Peter.
“London Pride was a trading name. To get it, the venture capitalists had to purchase Ensign Bus Company Ltd. The original deal was that they would take the whole company, and Ross, Steve and I would have no more involvement.”
The purchasers changed their mind at the last minute, and the Newman family retained the sales arm of the business.
London Pride briefly returned to their ownership later, and today Ensignbus has no involvement with sightseeing buses despite a successful later venture with the global City Sightseeing brand, which it also subsequently sold.
Back to basics
Ensignbus was judged Small Bus Operator of the Year at the routeone Awards in both 2016 and 2017, but the idea to re-enter the local service market came from a long-term rail replacement contract in Kent.
Buses were travelling to and from Purfleet via the Dartford Crossing, and if they ran in service, no toll would be payable.
“That generated the seeds of the current network,” Peter explains. At the time, services in Grays and Purfleet were with a number of operators, generally on daytime-only schedules.
Ensignbus began to compete with them, but with more extensive timetables. That was a shrewd move; in contrast to its previous largely-tendered nature, the network is now almost entirely commercial, operated with many double-deckers in place of the previous midibuses.
“We look at services from a particular perspective. In south Essex we have lots of people who go to work very early or finish very late. Because of our timetables, we take them there and we also take them home. For example, we have a journey at 0400hrs that carries 35 people, but on that basis it actually generates 70 passenger trips.”
Hard work all round
Taking the local network to a mature stage has involved lots of work. Some is as basic as getting out and looking at when and where people travel; careful scheduling is another element, and Peter takes an active involvement in both.
The remainder of the business – a busy sales operation coupled to extensive in-house workshops along with vintage bus hire – has also been built on hard work. Ross and Steve hold senior positions, and Peter ensured that they both earned their stripes driving and controlling before that.
And what of Peter? He will remain involved for as long as he enjoys it. Based on his obvious enthusiasm, that will be for a long time yet. His six decades in the business have been marked by many achievements, and that’s a delight to see for one of the coach and bus industry’s true gentlemen.