A
family business still and nearly ninety five years old, the firm was
founded
in
1924 by Mrs Annie Newman, and is now run by the fifth generation of the
same family. Calling themselves Surrey's premier coach and bus
operator, Safeguard have been providing local bus services
and
luxury coaches to Guildford and the surrounding
areas from
the days of the charabanc to the present modern fleet of some
seven
buses and thirty coaches. The first bus route commenced in 1927
with two 14 seat Chevrolets going from town via Woodbridge Hill to the
Aldershot Road estate at Woodside. A third vehicle followed and a
new service to Onslow Village via Guildford Park. Competition was
ever present from Aldershot & District but agreement was reached in
1929 that Safeguard would operate to Woodside, Aldershot & District
to Onslow Village and both companies would serve Guildford Park.
In time the Woodside route was extended to Westborough and in later
years to Park Barn; whilst the Guildford Park route would reach
Dennisville. The limited company was incorporated in 1933.
With
Guildford lying on the boundary line between London Transport's Country
Buses and Aldershot & District there was always some scope for
independent operators like Safeguard, Yellow Bus Service and
Tillingbourne. There were some challenging and unprofitable years in
the 1930s but the wartime
years bought Safeguard heavy loadings and post-war years bought further
route
development with a route for Northway starting in 1947 (terminating
temporarily in Westway until a link road into Northway was completed in
1951) and in the following year 1948 Park Barn
was reached from Westborough. With increasing loadings on the
Dennisville route a double-decker HWA787 was acquired in 1950, a second
hand
Guy Arab II / Weymann from Sheffield Corporation. It was the
firm's only
double-deck vehicle and stayed for just two years; subsequently the
continuing heavy loadings required the introduction of the first 36
foot long single deckers in the area. The first was AEC Reliance
/ Willowbrook 1637PF, a 53-seater. In 1963 the
Dennisville route was diverted to serve the Cathedral then in 1970
certain
journeys were diverted to serve the new University of Surrey. Coaching
activities continued to grow in importance and the business of Cookes
Coaches of Stoughton was bought in 1966. Excursions, weekend breaks and
holiday tours were further developed, and additional licences were
obtained from Conway Hunt of Ottershaw in 1975. This extended the tours
pick-up area into Woking and Chertsey.
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A
major reorganisation of all operators bus services in Guildford took
place in 1979. Vehicles of local operators were operated under the
Weyfarer brand name with an interavailable ticket. The Safeguard
services to Park Barn were not
altered but the Northway route was incorporated into one of Alder
Valley's services (as successors to Aldershot &
District). Joint operation continued to Dennisville but
Safeguard gained an extension from this as a cross-town route from Royal
Surrey County Hospital to Bellfields Estate (being
shortened to G3 town centre to Bellfields in a further reorganisation
in 1984). In earlier years Bellfields had been the province of Yellow
Bus of Stoughton. The route diversions
to the Cathedral and University were discontinued at this time through
insufficient patronage. The fleet in 1981 comprised nineteen vehicles:
six buses, twelve coaches and a minibus. By the time of Safeguard's
diamond jubilee in
1984 there were
twenty vehicles in the fleet; a souvenir booklet was produced at the
time. A proposal was put forward about that time jointly by Safeguard,
Tillingbourne and Blue Saloon
to take over all of the town services themselves. After some favourable
consideration by the local authority it was impractical to proceed.
Another significant acquisition by Safeguard was
that of the business of Farnham Coaches in 1988.
There
were periods of intense inter-operator competition on the town services
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, notably with Guildford & West
Surrey and to a lesser extent with Blue Saloon. (Guildford & West
Surrey was created in 1990 when the Guildford operations of the then
new Alder Valley company were sold to London & Country, which was
owned at the time by Drawlane as one of the predecessors of Arriva). In
2000 Safeguard gained the contract for
the Guildford Shuttle, a free service connecting various parts of
Guildford town centre. Then in 2002 Safeguard lost some school
bus work and the Onslow routes 10 and 11 passed to Countryliner after
ten
years operation. At the time the bus fleet was cut from ten to seven
vehicles. By the year 2006 the fleet comprised seventeen coaches and still seven buses. In August 2008 the Guildford Shuttle was withdrawn with the
council saying it was costing too much. There was considerable
opposition to this, so from January 2009 Safeguard reintroduced the
service commercially. It was finally withdrawn in May 2010, at
which time further changes took place to the town services in
Guildford. Safeguard withdrew from shared operation with Arriva on the
G3 route to Bellfields Estate and in exchange took full control of the G4
and G5 routes, connecting Park Barn and the Royal Surrey County Hospital
with the town centre.
The timetable below represents the local
service operations as they were in 1988, including not only the
traditional town services in Guildford but also the post-deregulation
expansion onto the hourly Aldershot to Camberley route 550 (operated by
Safeguard as a Surrey county council contract from 1986 to
1992).
Coming forward
to the spring of 2014 we find Safeguard still operating the circular
services from Guildford to Woodbridge Hill, the Hospital and Park Barn
(services 4 and 5 according to direction as successors to G4 and G5
below).
The Merrow park and ride service 300 passed to another operator in
August 2013. With a fleet of nine buses and twenty six coaches and a
1956 heritage AEC Reliant bus (200APB) the company continues to serve
the Guildford area as it has done for ninety years, and has even
equipped their buses with wifi for passengers use. Coming up to date to
last year (2019) Safeguard still run the Park Barn circulars (now simply as the 4
and 5) and to Bellfields, now the 3s.
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