Open top buses in Weston-super-Mare

Route 1 runs from the town centre of Weston-super-Mare to the sea front. Here it turns northwards and runs alongside the promenade past the Grand Pier to Birnbeck Pier. It then follows a cliff-top road along the lower slopes of Worlebury Hill through Weston Woods to Kewstoke village. It then runs along the sea front of Sand Bay to the terminus. It serves Weston-super-Mare Railway Station.

First West of England has operated route 1 since April 2018. This replaced Crosville Motor Services' route 100 that it operated from April 2012 until it ceased trading in April 2018.^[1] Until July 2013 First Somerset & Avon had operated route 1 along a similar route, but not serving the southern end of the sea front.^[2]

On 13 May 1902, the Weston-super-Mare Tramways opened a tramway along the sea front from the Sanatorium at the south end of the Beach Lawns (today the site of Royal Sands) to the Old Pier, using a mixture of double-deck open top tram cars and open-sided "toast rack" single-deck cars.^[3] The Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company started to operate buses in the town in 1910 and opened a garage on the sea front (on the site of today's Carlton Mansion) in 1928.^[4] It started a seasonal bus service between the Sanatorium and Old Pier on 19 May 1934 which deprived the tramway of much of its profits and, three years later, it paid the Weston company to stop operating, which it did on 17 April 1937.^[5]

Buses continued to operate sea front services. These used conventional vehicles with roofs, although by this time some seaside resorts were operating similar services with open top buses.^[6] It was 1950 before open top buses appeared on service 152 (as it was known) between the Sanatorium and Old Pier. Three old vehicles of a type not usually found in the fleet had their roofs cut off and were painted cream and green. They proved popular with passengers but were replaced after a year or two-year with more conventional Bristol buses which had their roofs removed.^[7]

The Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company was renamed the Bristol Omnibus Company in 1957, 16 years after it had last operated any trams.^[4] Their old converted vehicles were replaced by new purpose-built buses in 1961, by which time some buses ran beyond the Sanatorium to Uphill. These "convertible" buses had removable roofs that could be replaced in the winter to allow them to operate ordinary services. Although these buses carried the name "Bristol" on their sides, this was replaced a couple of years later with the coat of arms of Weston-super-Mare.^[8] In 1966, when all the company's routes were renumbered,^[9] the sea front service became number 103.^[8]

A scenic tour started operating in 1972.^[7] This started from the bus station, ran along the sea front to the Old Pier, and then through Weston Woods to Sand Bay. It then came around the eastern end of Worlebury Hill to reach Upper Bristol Road and South Road, then back to the bus station. This became Tour A when a second, Tour B, was started the following year, offering a similar trip around the Mendip Hills on the south side of the town. Tour C, which combined the two tours, was run in 1980 but this was the last year that Bristol Omnibus offered open top tours in Weston. These tours required more buses so two second-hand convertibles were acquired in 1973, and a vintage open top arrived for the following season.^[10] A further open-top vehicle, converted from an accident-damaged bus, arrived in 1976.^[11]

The widespread application of National Bus Company liveries from 1972 had little effect on the open top fleet although the shades used now were slightly different, but in 1976 the whole fleet except the vintage bus were turned out in varied colours that represented the defunct tramway systems in different towns where Bristol Omnibus operated. Each bus also had a picture representing that town painted on them and received Western names.^[7]

From 1979 the sea front route was extended to run beyond the Old Pier to Sand Bay as route 100, the whole route now being from Uphill to Sand Bay.^[7] Driver-operated buses that did not require conductors were introduced in 1980, at first with a variety of second-hand vehicles. This saw the reintroduction of a cream and green livery and a "Coastrider" brand name was soon added. This brand was retained in 1982 when a new cream livery appeared with a pale blue skirt along the bottom of the sides. The word "coast" was in large pale blue letters beneath the lower deck windows with "rider" in cream immediately beneath on the skirt.^[12]

1984 saw a new white and dark blue livery and the buses again carried names with appropriate pictures. Six new convertible buses were delivered in this livery but a few older buses were retained and repainted in the new livery.^[13]

Bus operations around Weston-super-Mare were divested to the new Badgerline company in 1986.^[12] The Coastrider buses received a blue and yellow version of the Badgerline livery but this was later replaced by a green and yellow livery which matched the main fleet of buses. A plain green livery reappeared for a while and the Coastrider brand reinstated, but FirstGroup livery of grey with blue and pink relief is now used. Buses have also appeared from time to time in special advertising liveries for local attractions.

In the summer of 2000 Rexquote operated a scenic tour with heritage open top vehicles from the Sea Front. This ran through Weston Woods to Sand Bay and then ran north of Worlebury Hill to Worle and Banwell before returning to the railway station and sea front.^[14]

A service 137 operated between Burnham-on-Sea and Brean Down from 1977, which entailed occasional open top buses running from Weston-super-Mare to Burnham-on-Sea. It was renumbered as route 146 in 1981 and from 1983 it was combined with the Weston-super-Mare service to run through from Burnham to Sand Bay as service 151.^[12] From 2017 until 2020 First West of England operated some services on route 20 from Weston-super-Mare to Burnham-on-Sea with open top buses branded "Somerset's Coaster".

Other scheduled First Somerset & Avon services outside Weston have included various routes around Cheddar including Park and Ride services and a "Topless-Stopless" service from the holiday camps at Brean to Cheddar Gorge. The open top bus service in Cheddar Gorge continued for many years but provided by Longleat Enterprises in conjunction with their caves and attractions. It has now ceased.

Special services have often seen the buses carrying victorious sports stars such as Robin Cousins in Bristol, and the England cricket team around London following victory in the 2005 Ashes series. Other uses have been as grandstands at The Derby or for charity collections in local carnivals and at Christmas.^[8]