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Coventry Corporation Transport Society

Works Bus Routes


Coventry Corporation works bus routes were the life blood of the City's post-war industry.  They were a less obvious activity than the service buses that transported the general population around the city.  They ran at peak times to take workers to and from their places of work.  At the end of the day shift, there would be a stream of bicycles from the factory gates, together with a seemingly endless procession of works buses.  The destination blinds of works buses displayed either the name of the works such as A.C.WICKMAN or the location such as FLETCHAMSTEAD.

Each factory had its own allocated works services, although some factories had routes in common with other nearby factories.  So A C Wickmans and Massey Ferguson had all their routes in common because they were both situated at the north end of Banner Lane.  By the same light, AWA Baginton and Rootes Ryton factory also had all their routes in common.  Incidentally, the north end of Banner lane was the western terminus of Service 13 and AWA Baginton/Ryton alternated as the eastern termini of the same service route.

Sixteen different works were served by some forty five works services on a daily basis.  Each of the works has its services listed separately.  We have reconstructed the routes from the fare tables of 1957 and 1962 although, by 1962, some of the works services had been discontinued.  For each works service, we have tried to recreate the most likely front destination blinds.