2011 – Issue 2 of 4

CARDIFF’S FIRST BUS WAR (The C.K. STORY):
The following article has been condensed from a 63 page study conducted by the Transport &
Traffic Studies Unit of UWIST. Grateful thanks to those students staff at UWIST in 1983 and
to the late, great ‘Gren’ of the South Wales Echo. The comments in italics are mine. (V.C.)
THE BACKGROUND;
C.K. Coaches (Cardiff) Ltd. took its name from its founders, husband and wife Carol &
Keith Morris. They established the firm in 1973 and built up a substantial contract hire
and tours business in the Cardiff area in the years up to the 1980 Transport Act. This
included a number of school contracts which they held for some years, some of which
South Glamorgan County Council (SGCC) had apparently had difficulty in finding an
operator, and which CK had taken on at short notice. In 1980 CK extended its
operations to include late night stage carriage services to the Cardiff suburbs and to
Barry and Penarth. Cardiff City Transport (CCT) made no objection as these services
did not compete with their own services. When the 1980 Act became law, CK further
extended its operations into Express and Stage Carriage activities. At its peak, CK
operated 21 vehicles with a garage at Portmanmoor Road, Splott. The maximum
number of staff employed was 38.
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EXPRESS SERVICE;
CK started an express service
between Cardiff and Swansea on 13 th
Oct. 1980 with eight buses a day at £1
single and £1.50 return. A service to
Bristol was also announced. However
the Swansea service was suspended
after only three days allegedly because
the company was unable to agree
stopping places with the local
authorities.
In January 1981 CK applied for short
period licences (sp) to operate hourly
stage services within Cardiff to
Cyncoed and Llanrumney. The
proposed fare to the latter was 30p as
against 44p for CCT. On all services
CK planned to charge pensioners and
children a standard fare of 10p. Conductors would be used on all buses to speed up the
journey. The Cardiff Transport Committee Chairman commented “Anything they try to
do, they will have competition – you can bet your boots on that”.