(Editor’s note: This article was published in print before LTCOA announced its transition to becoming the UK Coach Operators Association).
Although Centurion Travel only started trading in 1989 under the directorship of Martin Spiller, coaching has been in the family for four (and now five) generations, with Martin’s great, great grandfather George running charabancs from 1925.
Martin’s son Steve now has more operational responsibility for the business. It runs a mixed fleet of coaches on a variety of work, including tours, home-to-school transport and a wide range of private hire. Centurion operates from a one-acre site in Midsomer Norton. That doubles up as an MoT testing location for cars and light vans, as well as being an Authorised Testing Facility for PSVs and HGVs. Centurion Travel has been a member of LTCOA since 2015.
I spoke to Steve just before Christmas, when it looked as though a more severe lockdown was in the offing and that the road to recovery had once again become clouded in mist.
We started by talking about clean air and the pressure being put on the coach industry to upgrade vehicles. “The problem is not to do with coaches, but the number of private cars that are on the road,” Steve muses.
“Bath is a particular problem. But in summer 2020, with significantly less traffic around, the city centre recorded its cleanest air in living memory. However, it is always the coach and bus industry that appears to be hit.”
He continues: “It would be interesting to conduct a survey to see how many coaches of Euro V and below are currently sitting in yards and fields, unlikely ever to turn a wheel again and ultimately ending up as scrap. That surely cannot help the planet. Many of those coaches are perfectly serviceable and acceptable for more years of service. They could be used to take cars off the road.”
The conversation turned to future technologies and the possible introduction of Zero Emission Zones in London at the turn of the next decade. How will that apply to tourist coaches? “The challenge for the industry,” says Steve, “is to come up with tried and tested technology in less than 10 years that can meet those requirements.
“It does not exist in a reliable form yet, and it is unlikely to come on stream anytime soon. Anything that does is likely to cost significant sums of money. Many of us will find it hard to justify the investment, especially if teething issues have not been eradicated by the time those vehicles are needed.
“The best we can hope for is a form of diesel-electric hybrid coach that operates in diesel mode on the motorway but can automatically switch to battery power when approaching central London. But even that is not going to be cheap. Another thought: Will the infrastructure be there in London if we do need to recharge?”
The latter point is something that LTCOA is discussing with Transport for London at the moment.
