page_title: Tillingbourne Bus Company
section_title: Post-deregulation (1986-2001)
hierarchical_section_title: Tillingbourne Bus Company / History / Post-deregulation (1986-2001)
caption_attribution_description: English: Tillingbourne Bus Company bus 202 (reg. R202 YOR), a 1997 Mercedes-Benz O 405 single-decker with Optare Prisma bodywork. It was delivered new to the company. It's pictured here in service in Horsham in May 1999. Tillingbourne closed down two years later following finiancial problems.
context_page_description: Tillingbourne Bus Company was a bus company based in Cranleigh, Surrey. The company operated bus and coach services in Surrey, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire from 1924 until 2001.
  It was founded as Tillingbourne Valley in 1924, and became a limited company in 1931, taking the name Tillingbourne Valley Services. It initially operated routes in the Guildford area from a garage in Chilworth using small single-deck buses painted in a maroon livery. Coach hire and excursions began in 1931, but two years later these activities split into a separate company, Tillingbourne Valley Coaches, which operated independently for a further 24 years. Until 1970 Tillingbourne was owned and managed by three generations of the Trice family, before being sold to Trevor Brown.
  The company changed its name to Tillingbourne Bus Company in 1972, changing its livery to blue and yellow, and moved to a garage in Gomshall in the same year. A second garage in Ewhurst was opened in 1974. An expansion of operations in the late 1970s and early 1980s, much of it through the award of county council contracted routes, took the company's vehicles into West Sussex and Hampshire as well as Surrey.
context_section_description: Following deregulation in October 1986, a small number of service changes were made, with a new route from Guildford to Chiddingfold being introduced and a service to Gomshall withdrawn. At the same time, a new brand name, Hobbit, was introduced for Tillingbourne's minibus operations. Barry King left the company in December 1986 and was replaced as Managing Director by Chris Bowler.
  In early 1989, operations in Horsham were reduced, following the loss of the tendered route to Barns Green. A new service to Billingshurst was briefly introduced in February 1989, but withdrawn after two months. In July, a new service between Guildford and the British Aerospace site at Dunsfold Aerodrome was introduced. Further expansion eastwards came in November 1989, when the operation of eleven tendered routes, requiring six buses, was won from the county council. These were operated under the Hobbit name. A new service linking Normandy and Christmaspie to Guildford two days a week was introduced in October 1989. A second route to the two villages was added in 1995. In January 1999 a new route from Farnham to Tongham via Normandy was launched, as was a direct service from the village to Guildford. In 1998 an outstation was opened in Aldershot following the award of contracted work in Reading to Tillingbourne.
  Tillingbourne introduced a new tourist route in the summer of 1995. Operating on Sundays for six months of the year, it provided a circular service linking Guildford, Godalming and Cranleigh with a number of nearby rural locations not served by other routes. Although similar services were operated by London & Country and Nostalgiabus, the new service was designed to avoid any direct competition. The route was operated with a Bristol SU single-decker acquired from a bus preservationist.
  In September 2000, Tillingbourne controversially reduced the number of journeys on contracted route 516, which linked Dorking, Leatherhead and Epsom. Although this was within the terms of the contract, it was criticised by residents of intermediate villages, who claimed the communities relied in particular on a cancelled morning journey. Operations were moved to a new larger site, still located in Cranleigh, in February 2001. The company believed this would reduce operating costs and allow for future expansion.
caption: Optare Prisma bodied Mercedes-Benz O405 in Horsham in May 1999
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