 |
Golden Miller was the three-time
Derby winning racehorse that inspired the name
behind south-west London bus company
Tellings-Golden Miller. But yesterday it was
quietly led out to pasture and dispatched. Not
with the usual .303, but with £20 million that
Travel West Midlands have ponied up (ouch! More
horse gags to come, as many as I can fit in!) to
add the company's London bus operations to their
existing stable. And it wasn't as if this horse
was lame. In fact, the financial media had
observed that TGM had been fattening itself up
for an acquisition in the last couple of years -
though such small nibbles as Wing's Buses,
Link-Line and Crystals would barely have filled a
nosebag. Indeed, Crystals got somewhat stuck in
the horse's throat and came straight back up. TGM
did take bites out of London United's flanks,
though, and trampled to death White Rose in their
own paddock.
Travel London
are pretty competent for a knacker's yard, though
what they are going to do with TGM's Surrey
operations is not clear (and more than one donkey
has gelded itself trying to run buses in that
part of town). However, it's probably safe to say
that dreary Livingstonian red will replace the
white, yellow and blue livery over the coming
months.
Just inside
Surrey, TGM upgraded its local routes and former
White Rose acquisitions with a number of new Mini
Pointer Darts like 326 (KN52 NFP), seen at Hersham on
29th April.
|
