page_title: Buses in Portsmouth
section_title: Council operations (1919–1986)
hierarchical_section_title: Buses in Portsmouth / Urban services / Council operations (1919–1986)
caption_attribution_description: English: Portsmouth Corporation bus, a 1966 Leyland Atlantean PDR1 double-decker with Metro Cammell bodywork, pictured in The Hard, Portsmouth, Hampshire, about to leave on route 143.
context_page_description: Buses in Portsmouth are a form of public transport in the city of Portsmouth, England. Motor bus services in Portsmouth began in 1919, and were expanded in the 1930s following the closure of the Portsmouth Corporation Transport tram network. Trolleybuses were also operated between 1934 and 1963. Until 1988 the majority of services were provided by Portsmouth Corporation Transport, a municipal bus company owned by Portsmouth City Council. Other services into the city were operated by Southdown Motor Services, latterly as a subsidiary of the National Bus Company.
  Prior to bus deregulation and the privatisation of National Bus Company in 1986, the Gosport & Fareham Omnibus Company was merged with the western part of Hants & Dorset in April 1983 to form the Provincial Bus Company which was sold to its employees in 1987 and renamed People's Provincial which then expanded into Portsmouth in the early 1990s. Southdown was sold to its management at privatisation. The municipal operation was sold to a consortium consisting of its employees and Southampton Citybus in 1988, and was rebranded as Portsmouth Citybus.
context_section_description: PCT soon faced competition from two private operators, Portsmouth & District Motor Services Ltd and the Southsea Tourist Company, who ran bus services over routes covered by the tram network. Twelve vehicles were added to the fleet in 1924 and two new routes introduced. One of the new routes, which originally terminated at Cosham, was extended to Drayton in 1925 in competition with a route provided by Southdown Motor Services, which retaliated by running more journeys into Portsmouth. A change in legislation in 1927 saw the routes return to their original form. The corporation's livery, previously scarlet and ochre, was changed to red and white in 1931 in response to Portsmouth gaining city status four years earlier.
  The tram system began to decline in the 1930s. Trolleybus services replaced trams on one route in 1934, and by November 1936, all tram services in Portsmouth had been withdrawn. Bus and trolleybus services were reduced during World War II, when the city's dockyards were a target for bombing and its population depleted by evacuation and military service. Unusually, at this time there were two numbers (or letters for trolleybuses) for each route, depending on the direction. In 1946 an agreement was reached between PCT and Southdown to operate jointly on some routes. Leigh Park, which expanded rapidly after the war, was served for the first time in 1949; although this was intended to be a short-term measure prior to the introduction of trolleybus services, the route was never served by trolleybuses.
  A number of new vehicles were added to the bus fleet in the late 1940s and 1950s, and in 1958 one-person operation was introduced. Trolleybus operation in Portsmouth ended in July 1963. From 1963 until the late 1970s PCT standardised on the double-deck Leyland Atlantean for new purchases, retaining much older vehicles for open-top services. In 1971 the company took the unusual step of purchasing twelve Atlanteans with single-deck bodywork.
  Passenger numbers declined in the following decades, and services were reduced. PCT began private hire operation in 1980, and purchased its first coach in 1986. In October 1986, to coincide with bus deregulation and the privatisation of National Bus Company (NBC), Portsmouth Corporation Transport was reformed as Portsmouth City Transport, a limited company wholly owned by the city council.
caption: A 1973 view of a Leyland Atlantean bus in service with PCT
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