Red&White
Red & White Services Ltd, Head Office: Bulwark, Chepstow, Monmouthshire.
RED & WHITE was a bus and coach operator (based in Chepstow) which provided services in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and the Glamorgan valleys between 1929 & 1978. The companies influence spread much farther than this area. 

The company's origins can be traced to 1921 when John & Arthur Watts of Lydney started two bus companies: Gloster Transport (Lydney) & The Valleys Motor Bus Services (Tredegar). Both companies expanded rapidly by acquiring nearby operators. In 1926 the Lydney business adopted the name Gloster (Red & White) Services. By 1928, the companies were operating buses between Gloucester, Hereford and South Wales.

In June 1929 John Watts formed RED & WHITE Services Ltd to bring together the various bus companies he had formed or acquired. In 1929 it entered the long distance coach market, initially from Gloucester and between London and South Wales. In the early 1930’s coach operators were acquired further afield, with services between London, Liverpool and Glasgow and between Cardiff and Blackpool.

RED & WHITE expanded rapidly during the 1930s, by now from new headquarters in Bulwark, Chepstow. It acquired several bus companies in the Swansea area and elsewhere in South Wales. In 1933 ‘Red & White’ acquired the business of Red Bus Services of Stroud. 1934 saw Associated Motorways express coach services consortium formed.

By 1937 RED & WHITE and its subsidiaries had a fleet of over 400 vehicles. In that year Red & White United Transport Ltd was formed as a public company to hold the group's various interests. The group's operations in the Swansea area were brought together in 1939  as United Welsh Services Ltd. In 1939, the group also bought Cheltenham District.

Expansion continued even during World War II. In 1944 the group bought Newbury & District and in 1945 Venture Ltd (Basingstoke). 1945 also saw RED & WHITE acquire South Midland Motor Services (Oxford), which ran express coach services between Worcester, Oxford and London.

The Labour Government of 1947 planned to nationalise all road and rail transport, so in 1950 the Directors of RED & WHITE sold their UK bus operations to the British Transport Commission (a state quango). Then in 1962 RED & WHITE was transferred to the ‘Transport Holding Company’ (once part of Thomas Tilling Group). 

In 1968 (the year our coach was new), RED & WHITE had 13 garages and 392 vehicles: 221 buses, 23 dual-purpose buses, 86 decker's & 62 coaches. Full details here (PDF). In 1968 they carried 36.5 million passengers and made a profit of £72,685 (in £/S/D).

RED & WHITE became a subsidiary of the National Bus Company on 1 January 1969. The fleet name RED & WHITE was used until 28 April 1978 (when the company merged with Western Welsh) to become the National Welsh Omnibus Company Ltd.

RED & WHITE was briefly used as a fleet name by Stagecoach during the mid-1990's. Today, 'RED & WHITE Services Ltd' remains the legal title of their operations in South Wales.

For the full history of RED & WHITE Services Ltd click here.

Our Links page has further websites about RED & WHITE.
Fleet numbers 
In 1951 RED & WHITE introduced a unique alpha-numeric numbering system. It was ingenious, but requires some explanation. First there was the vehicle type letter(s). For saloons the codes were:
S = Single deck bus; 
C = Coach; 
U = Underfloor engined bus; 
UC = Underfloor engined Coach; 
R = Rear engined bus; 
RS = Rear engined Short bus; 
RC = Rear-engined Coach (this is Ruby's designation); 
RD = Rear engined Dual-purpose bus.

Then the last two numbers represent the year each vehicle was new. In Ruby's case the '68' means year 1968.
The number(s) between the letters and year indicate the vehicles' sequence in deliveries that year. So Ruby is a Rear-engined Coach, the 9th of that type delivered in 1968. Hence . . .
Fleet number: RC.968
Complete fleet list for RED & WHITE from 1930 to 1975.
Thanks very much to Richard Smith who has prepared these detailed fleet list for us all to enjoy.
Route 73
CARDIFF - Newport - Chepstow - 
Lydney - GLOUCESTER  
In 1969 (when this picture was taken at Cardiff Bus Station), route 73 ran daily, every hour. It took 2 hours 45 minutes to travel the 59 miles between Cardiff & Gloucester.
It was one RED & WHITE's longest bus routes, which could trace its history to 1927.
What a fantastic journey on-board LAX 124F, a 1967 Bristol RELL bus, powered by a Leyland O.600 diesel engine! 
Tredegar
 Ruby spent most of her working career with RED & WHITE (and successor National Welsh) based at their Tredegar depot. 
Tredegar Bus Station and depot was officially opened by Aneurin Bevan MP on 30 January 1959. 
He is best known as the Minister of Health in the Labour Government of 1945
who introduced the National Health Service (NHS). 

Tredegar Bus Station is pictured (below) the day it opened in 1959. The depot was behind the brick station building on the right.
 To view an official RED & WHITE drawing of Tredegar Bus Station and the depot site, from 1963, click here.
The depot closed March 1985 and was demolished August 1993.

    • RED & WHITE shared their operating area with a number of other bus & coach operators.

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