The infamous Manchester bus wars sparked by 'cheerful boxes on wheels'

They were mini buses that zipped around Manchester and passengers could hail then like a taxi. The city's 'bread van' buses are remembered fondly across our region as a quirky relic from the past.

In the 1970s and '80s, public transport in Manchester was synonymous with orange buses. In the mid-1980s, the Conservative government introduced The Transport Act of 1985, which deregulated bus services across Britain.

This restored powers to bus operators by removing the public sector's role in setting fares, determining routes, and determining bus frequencies. Thatcher's privatised model is said to have sparked the 'bus wars' as operators fiercely competed for passengers.

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One operator to take advantage of deregulation was the Bee Line Buzz Company, which started operating a minibus service across Greater Manchester in January 1987. Instead of opting for traditional double-deckers, the new high-frequency service saw the 18-seater yellow minibuses operate every seven or eight minutes.

Dubbed 'bread van' buses, they were unique for their 'hail-and-ride' service, where passengers could flag down the buses anywhere along their route, much like a cab. The branding also helped set the single-decker buses apart, adopting the yellow and black colours synonymous with the Manchester worker bee. At the back of the little buses was the slogan 'The eaziest [sic] way from A to Bee'.

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In March 1987, the Manchester Evening News reported that the "cheeky, cheerful boxes on wheels" carried 30,000