Bradbus Ourcity

**Bradbus Ourcity** (Branded as cityconnect) is a large bus operator within Ourcity, which operate services commercially and under contract with Transport for Ourcity (OurcityBus). Founded in 1995 as Bradford's Buses, Bradbus has gained a large fleet and number of routes across its time of operation, having over 3000 vehicles across 6 garages. It's headquarters are in the newly constructed Summer Row near Barbican and New Street, which holds its main control centre and management quarter along with the rest of the Bradtravel companies. Bradford's Buses was originally founded as a small commercial bus operator in 1995 after the already successful Bradrail's open-access operations. When founded, it only boasted 14 vehicles across 3 routes, Those being the B191, B192 and B193 (now merged to form different routes). The B191 ran between Etford Hants Hospital and Kings Vale Road in Southall, The B192 ran between Heathwood Airport and Etford Broadway and the B193 ran between Maidenhead and Kings Vale Road in Southall. Their original depot was at Etford Common, Close to where the current one stands to this day.

Bradbus is currently the leading operator for electric bus technology, operating over 60 fully electric vehicles across its many garages.

During late February 2022, Management held extensive talks focusing on the possibility of rebranding Bradbus's services from "Bradbus Ourcity" to "cityconnect" to better line up with other similar mass-transit divisions under the Bradbus Group such as "LondonConnect" and "BristolConnect" on the mainland UK. The decision was made on March 1st 2022 and the rebranding process began shortly afterwards.

## Garages, Depots and Outstations

Bradbus has 6 overall garages with 3 further outstations. These are;

- **Central Garage [CG]**, Situated in the Snow Hill area just north of the City Centre.

- **Mile End [ME]**, Situated near Westferry and Wharf Station.

- **Westbourne Park [WB]**, Situated near Padsgate and the North-West gate to Westbourne Park.

- **Etford Common [ET]**, Situated near Etford Common metro station on the Metropolitan Line.

- **Shawford [SH]**, Situated on the site of the old Shawford Cattle Market and next to the Borough Line depot.

- **Putney [PT]**, Situated next-door to Putney Central metro station.

- ***Heathwood [HWO]***, Outstation consisting of 14 parking spaces near Heathwood Airport

- ***Stanlow & Moorford [SMO]***, Outstation consisting of 19 parking spaces situated on Ilkeston Road, West Stanlow.

- ***Sydenham Road [SYO]***, Outstation consisting of a small garage storing 9 buses situated in Sydenham.

## Coachlines

Bradbus operates the lucrative 'Coachlines' operation which operates long-distance coach services out of Belgravia Coach Station, Heathwood Coach Station, Oakley Airport Interchange, Riverside Bus Station and Archway, and have coaches based out of many Bradbus depots. These services operate across the country, including some services overseas to Republia, France, Germany, Sweden and Spruce Villa.

Coachlines also operate the Oxminster Tube services out of Belgravia Coach Station towards Hillingdon, Oxminster University and Oxminster City Centre. These services run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at a frequency of every 20 minutes. This service is focused on Commuter traffic.

## Retirement of Articulated Vehicles

Bradbus lead the industry in usage of articulated vehicles between 2003 and 2019, operating up to 170 of the vehicles at the peak of operations. The first articulated or "bendy" buses were introduced in 2003, those being Mercedes Citaro G's on the Route 287 RedLine between Shawford and Easthill Road near Watergate. Bradbus built up its usage of Articulated vehicles until they peaked in 2009 at a total of 170 vehicles. After 2009, There was a slow decline in the usage of these vehicles, Mostly due to issues regarding cyclists on the streets of Ourcity, as well as payment problems. Bradbus retired it last articulated bus in 2019, This being on the 287 route, the same service that initially introduced bendy buses. Once the articulated vehicles were withdrawn from the 287, all RedLine branding was dropped for the final time.

Prior to Bradbus withdrawing all of its Bendy vehicles, TM Travel has now become the leading operator of articulated vehicles, and now remains to be the only operator with bendy buses still in service.