125th ANNIVERSARY OF ROYAL BLUE COACHES

Royal Blue Run

The 125th Anniversary of the inauguration of Royal Blue was marked by an historic journey from London Victoria to Bournemouth on Friday 24th June and from Bournemouth to Exeter on Saturday 25th June 2005. This was the largest gathering of Royal Blue vehicles since the Royal Blue Centenary Run which was over the same route in 1980 . 

Royal Blue vehicles assembled in Battersea Park on the morning of the 24th, whilst 5 vehicles crossed the Thames via Chelsea Bridge to enter Victoria Coach Station. The vehicles left Battersea Park and Victoria at approx. 10:15 on Service X1 and followed the original route, as near as possible from London to Bournemouth, via Staines, Egham, Camberley, Bagshot, Hook, Winchester (former Coach Station in Worthy Lane), Southampton, Lyndhurst, New Milton, Christchurch.

. On the evening of the 24th 25 ex Royal Blue employees joined the vehicles for a tour around Bournemouth including Rutland Road (site of the former Royal Blue depot) and Mallard Road.

The following morning additional vehicles joined at Terrace Mount Car Park, which overlooked the former Royal Blue Coach Station in The Square. The vehicles departed on Service X10 and followed the route to Exeter via Parkstone, Poole, Bere Regis, Tolpuddle, Dorchester, Bridport, Axminster, Honiton and finally into Exeter Coach Station.

Former Royal Blue employees together with vehicle owners and drivers

Royal Blue vehicles assembled at Bournemouth's Terrace Mount Car Park prior to the departure for Exeter

(Left to Right - HOD 30 (RB 1228), LTA 729 (RB 1250), LDV 847F (RB 2375), HDV 624E (RB 2365), EDV 502D (WN 1420), 837 SUO (RB 2351) & OTT 98 (RB 1299)

Royal Blue History

Founded in the horse drawn era of wagonettes, lanaus, brakes and stagecoaches, Thomas Elliott obtained his hackney-carriage driver's licence in September 1880 and established his business in Avenue Road, Bournemouth. The business expanded rapidly and Royal Blue gained a reputation for attention to detail and the turnout of its coaches and teams of horses. Royal Blue converted from horsedrawn carriages to motorised char-a-bancs before the First World War and was a pioneer in the development of long distance express services in competition with the railways.

Continued by Thomas Elliott’s sons, the business was eventually sold, on 1 January 1935, to Thomas Tilling Ltd and merged with the express services of subsidiaries Western and Southern National who continued to use the Royal Blue name.  The Tilling Group was nationalised in 1948 and formed a major constituent of the National Bus Company from January 1969.  Royal Blue routes were absorbed into the National Express Network in the 1970s but the Royal Blue name continued to be used on Western and Southern National coaches even after de-nationalisation, the final Royal Blue liveried vehicle being withdrawn in 1994.

Royal Blue Vehicles

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