Peter O’Neill, founder and mastermind behind the success of highly respected and award-winning Gillingham coach operator The Kings Ferry, died on 23 December 2024. He was 80.
Described as a man who was excellent company and good fun but also hardworking, straight talking and unafraid of taking risks, Mr O’Neill developed The Kings Ferry from a one-vehicle operation that he founded with an 11-seat Dormobile minibus in 1968 into a business that had 85 coaches of all sizes upon its sale to National Express in 2007.
Since then, he kept a close eye on the coach industry and offered encouragement to many younger people in the sector. Early in his career, Mr O’Neill benefited from mentorship by Shaws of Maxey proprietor Harry Shaw, who sold The Kings Ferry its first large coach and was described by Mr O’Neill as his “fairy godmother.”
Born to Irish labourer Peter O’Neill Sr and his wife Eve, Mr O’Neill gained an interest in buses during his youth, including via rides on the Brighton trolleybus network. That developed into cycling trips with friend John Watts to explore operators in other areas and included a first visit to the UK Coach Rally in Brighton during 1959.
His career path first took Mr O’Neill into a papermill apprenticeship and later a bread round with a sideline in sales. A move into hydraulics followed but was cut short when a six-week driving ban for speeding cost him that job.
From there came an entry into the coach industry. The initial Dormobile 11-seater cost £70, and business was helped when a pub darts team, let down by another operator, used it at short notice. The darts party was impressed by the service and reliability delivered.
Mr O’Neill toured other pubs locally to generate trade and The Kings Ferry was underway in earnest. However, the well-known business name came about only after intervention by Mr O’Neill’s wife of 59 years, Carol.
He had intended to call the operator Pete’s Coaches, but she advised that a different approach may work better. The Kings Ferry Charter Coach Company thus came into being, inspired by the Kingsferry Bridge that connects mainland Kent with the Isle of Sheppey.
Coaches carried the simpler fleet name of The Kings Ferry. Mr O’Neill long said that came about after a signwriter arrived to decorate the first vehicle, which was called out at short notice on a hire, meaning that the job in hand could not be completed beyond the first three words.
Mr and Mrs O’Neill had two children, Steve and Vanessa, both of whom worked within the family business. Steve recalls that while The Kings Ferry was founded in 1968, a Willowbrook Expressway-bodied Bedford YRT (pictured) wasted little time in claiming the Coach of the Year accolade at the 1974 UK Coach Rally.
That vehicle formed part of expansion a year earlier into providing ‘band bus’ services, including to acts such as Eric Clapton, Elton John, and Rod Stewart. The Bedford Willowbrook was initially borrowed as a demonstrator, but badly damaged. Mr O’Neill thus felt obliged to buy it.
Steve notes that the coach was of a revolutionary specification for its time, including items such as television and a microwave oven. It was christened The Monarch by Mr O’Neill and came with a petrol generator to provide the necessary power for amenities when parked.
On his father, Steve notes that even after retirement Mr O’Neill watched goings-on in the coach industry very keenly and retained his enthusiasm for the sector. “He was still interested, with coaching being in his blood.”
The 1980s saw The Kings Ferry expand into Spanish shuttles and rail replacement. It also grew into what became one of its signature areas of expertise: Commuter coaches to London from Kent, fostered by passenger dissatisfaction with rail services on the Medway Towns line. That arm grew to 20 services and was regularly replenished with new coaches to maintain quality.
Mr O’Neill was also shrewd with the marketing of surplus coaches to subsequent owners, maximising exposure by taking large trade press adverts in order to generate the best price.
Further expansion of The Kings Ferry saw it reach a fleet of 90 vehicles after a depot at East Court Lane in Gillingham was secured, carrying the by then well-known green and yellow colours that were the fleet’s trademark.
Innovation continued by the founding of Coach Connections, a brokerage that sought work and shared it among The Kings Ferry and other trusted operators. Although the business was now a large one, it was only in 2007 – shortly before sale to National Express – that it transitioned from being a sole tradership to a limited company.
Multiple other successful coach operators have been founded and furthered by people who were granted their start in the sector at The Kings Ferry and gained experience of the workings of the industry through time with the Gillingham operator.
Mr O’Neill is survived by his wife Carol and children Steve and Vanessa, along with four grandchildren and one great grandchild in Florence, who was born in 2024. Mr O’Neill’s brother Lawrence remains employed by National Express.
The funeral will be held on Tuesday 28 January at 1400hrs at Vinters Park Crematorium, Bearsted Road, Maidstone, ME14 5LG. Family flowers only have been requested. An online tribute page has been established through which donations to the Heart of Kent Hospice may be made.
