(Oshein) Aston's of Uig

Aston's of Uig was an independent bus operator based in *Uig, Highlands* at the bus depot on Holmster Lane. The company was founded in 1994 by John Aston, a local man born in 1944. Between the years of 1994 and 2004, The business was both legally named and branded as "John Aston Motor Services", although was rebranded to Aston's of Uig in 2004, yet kept the legal name until 2009.

Aston's focused on community transport services around the Oshein Highlands and Midlands, although gained various service contracts from Oshein Parliament throughout its lifespan.

## Community Transport

Prior to 2004, Aston's operations mostly consisted of small school contracts across the middle of the mainland, although in May 2004, John Aston decided he wanted to expand his operation into the community transport sector. The operator set up 4 initial routes terminating at the newly opened Red Hill Shopping Centre in Truro, as opposed to Truro Anchor Interchange where most services with other operators terminated.

These services were;

552 - **Truro** *Red Hill* to **Port Erth** *Point General Hospital* via Brock's Green, Greston Lakes & Ravens Cross

590 - **Truro** *Red Hill* to **Brock's Green** *Crossroads* via Stromness, Myelore Bridge, Kineton & Moraigh

646 - **Truro** *Red Hill* to **Duck Holm** *Lighthouse* via Uig, Cearea & Aird Town

647 - **Truro** *Circular Service* via Red Hill, Treliske and Northway.

Service 647 was withdrawn after only 9 months of operation due to financial unviability, as many other services followed part of its routing with other operators. Over the next two years, Aston's introduced three other services, those being the **558**, **601** and **699**. Aston's operated these routes with a fleet of 8 Mercedes-Benz Vario minibuses.

During April 2012, Aston's began entry into a contract with the councils that the services passed through in order to create a subsidy on the routes due to growing costs. The councils were originally fully supportive of the idea, although after a few months of negotiations, Aston's began demanding that the government pay for a fleet of 10 brand new minibuses to run the routes. The councils and government denied this request, which resulted in Aston's refusing to run the contracts in protest. In response, as the routes had now been placed under a contract, The councils terminated Aston's operating contract for all six, with operations temporarily outsourced across the different councils school fleets. In April 2013, a new holding company named "CBC Community Transport" was set up as a joint venture between all of the councils in order to run the routes, and a fleet of stock Ford Transit minibus vans were branded up for use until the council could fund new vehicles. In 2015, the council ordered 4 brand new Trekkabus modified Mercedes-Sprinter minibuses for use on the routes, as well as four M709Ds that were new to the now defunct Aston's as specially fitted wheelchair ramp buses. All but one were withdrawn in 2021 when replaced with Mellor Stratas. In October 2022 the 10 year contract for the routes was up for renewal. The councils retained routes 558 and 699 under their own operation, whereas routes 552 and 646 were transferred to Oshein Travel and routes 590 and 601 were transferred to Bloxbus. These routes are now under the branding of their respective operators yet still hold a government subsidy for all journeys.

## Other Services

Aston's operated a number of standard commercial and contracted routes around Oshein using more conventional buses, the first of which began operation in 2005. As of Spring 2015, the Aston's route network consisted of;

15 - **Sound** *Lighthouse* to **Esk** *Harbour* via Askernish - Operated using MAN A19 Microbuses

21 - **Port Erth** *Town Service* via North Erth & Point General Hospital - *Operated using Optare Solos*

22 - **Port Moraigh** *Trauthaugh* to **Esk** *Harbour* via Ravens Cross - *Operated using Optare Solos*

24 - **Port Moraigh** *Trauthaugh* to **Falmouth** *Square* via Enor - *Operated using M709Ds*

55 - **Uig** *Bus Garage* to **Longstanton** *Town Centre* via Aird Town - *Operated using MCV Evolutions*

Routes 55 ceased operation when Aston's became defunct in 2015, with routes 15-24 transferring to StrideValley. See the takeover section below for more information.

## StrideValley Takeover

Throughout early 2015, Aston's began developing some serious financial issues. Factors that were suspected to be a partial cause to these include the council dispute in 2012 regarding their community transport routes, as well as the expensive purchase of four MAN A19 Microbus vehicles in 2014 for route 15 to replace aging Optare Solo vehicles that were running the route at the time, in which they didn't securely have the funding for.

At the end of May 2015, Aston's announced that they were accepting bids to purchase the entire business including its operations, property and vehicles. Throughout early June, offers were received from StrideValley and OsheinTravel, with the prior being accepted for an undisclosed amount on the 15th June 2015. All vehicles, staff, routes and the Uig depot were transferred to the StrideValley company, with Route 55 ceasing the day after. StrideValley cascaded some of its older vehicles to the Uig depot in order to cover routes 15-24 whilst a strategy was decided over their future. The Optare Solo vehicles were divided up, with some being sold and others being painted into StrideValley orange livery to be spread across the fleet. The four MAN A19 Microbus vehicles were planned to be converted into Electric buses for usage on route 10 in Truro. Three were converted and transferred to Newtown Bridge depot, with one remaining at Uig as a parts donor.

During September 2015, StrideValley began working on a new strategy with Oshein Parliament for a subsidised network of smaller routes across the mainland, which would include Aston's routes 15-24. In December 2015, the initial plan of the network was revealed to the public, with the initiative being named **ExploreLocal**. Route **15** was to turn into Route **L5**, following its current from Sound Lighthouse although curtailed at Askernish, no longer serving stops all the way to Esk, and only having service on weekends and all week during summer holiday periods. Route **21** was to turn into Route **L1** following the exact same route that it had done previously when it was with Aston's. Route **22** was to become Route **L2** following the same routing, and Route **24** became Route **L4**. Two additional new routes were announced, those being the **CN3** (to start from late 2016 after the rework of StrideLink), and **L6**, which was to be operated by OsheinTravel. More information regarding the ExploreOshein Takeover can be found in it's own article.

After the reform in December 2015 in which the routes and buses were spread across the StrideValley network, Uig depot was turned into Uig Hill Outstation, where StrideValley vehicles, particularly for Routes 1 and 9 would be based from, although no maintenance would be carried out there.

Some ExploreLocal routes have since been divided up between other operators, with a number of new additions added. ExploreLocal was rebranded in early August 2023.

## Legacy

A sign still remains on the building next to StrideValley's Uig Hill Outstation referencing the Aston's of Uig name.

MAN A19 Microbus registered "SO 737" was stationary in the corner of Uig Hill Outstation and used as a spare parts donor for the electric converted A19 Microbuses used on Route 10 by StrideValley. It was stripped of its livery, engine, gearbox and most of its interior when it was still planned to be converted into an electric vehicle with the other members of its batch, although was never completed. In September 2022, it was purchased by an individual for restoration as an exhibit piece for the Oshein Transport Museum.