As has been said in this thread on the Leyland Fleetline/DMS at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/vehicle-history-leyland-fleetline-was-dms-discussion.214021/ London Transport historically tended to believe that London was a special case and as such needed its own bespoke design of bus, whereas operators elsewhere have by and large tended to opt for standard off-the-shelf designs.
Can anyone think of any examples of operators other than LT (or its predecessors or successors) that had (or currently have) either an all or largely bespoke bus fleet or at least one vehicle design that was a bespoke model for that operator?
The most obvious example that I can think of is Nottingham City Transport's Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlanteans and East Lancashire bodied Volvo B10Ms. These may not have been entirely bespoke designs of vehicle as such but I would say that they had certain features that were unique to NCT such as the front end design and the narrow front entrance.
Likewise, SELNEC/Greater Manchester PTE had a large fleet of Northern Counties bodied Atlanteans built with "Greater Manchester Standard" bodies, although I'm not sure to what extent that counts as a bespoke design for SELNEC/GMPTE as it was based on a standard design.
And what about the Sedans used on the Manchester Piccadilly to Victoria station "Centreline" service in the 1970s and 80s?
According to Wikipedia Walsall Corporation ordered some non-standard short-wheelbase Fleetlines.
Can anyone think of any examples of operators other than LT (or its predecessors or successors) that had (or currently have) either an all or largely bespoke bus fleet or at least one vehicle design that was a bespoke model for that operator?
The most obvious example that I can think of is Nottingham City Transport's Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlanteans and East Lancashire bodied Volvo B10Ms. These may not have been entirely bespoke designs of vehicle as such but I would say that they had certain features that were unique to NCT such as the front end design and the narrow front entrance.
Likewise, SELNEC/Greater Manchester PTE had a large fleet of Northern Counties bodied Atlanteans built with "Greater Manchester Standard" bodies, although I'm not sure to what extent that counts as a bespoke design for SELNEC/GMPTE as it was based on a standard design.
And what about the Sedans used on the Manchester Piccadilly to Victoria station "Centreline" service in the 1970s and 80s?
According to Wikipedia Walsall Corporation ordered some non-standard short-wheelbase Fleetlines.