2007 King Alfred Buses Running Day

Monday, 1 January 2007

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2008 King Alfred Buses Running Day

Tuesday, 1 January 2008

The key feature to FoKAB's individuality is its annual bus running day, traditionally held on 1st January, New Year's Day, when there are few other buses on the road in Winchester.

For just one day, the preserved buses and coaches can have the streets of Winchester and the surrounding district practically to themselves, re-creating a time now gone but fondly remembered and operating services for both enthusiasts and the local residents around Winchester and central Hampshire.

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The origins of these Running Days can be traced right back to a succession of special tours organised by James Freeman - the first of which used King Alfred 109, a Metro-Scania, and took place on 31 March 1973, just four weeks before The End! After that came the last run of a King Alfred liveried bus, Bridgemaster 106, in November 1975. In the summer of 1978, The King Alfred Memorial Tour used Atlantean 590, brought back from Poole for the day.

In 1980, Hants & Dorset ran the last King Alfred Panther in Winchester and, again, a tour was organised, using 418. A year later, another Panther, 419, by then owned by Rees & Williams, was brought back to Winchester for a tour - coinciding with the surprise return to Winchester of Tiger Cub 104, the first KAMS bus of the modern generation to be preserved.  (Dennis '6' was already in preservation.)

The first "Running Day" proper, when timetabled journeys were operated, was in March 1983, with just one bus (104). A year later, March 1984 saw two buses running (104 and 591) and gradually, year by year, the event has grown.

The first New Year’s Day event occurred in 1986, ‘New Year's Blues '86’. By 1990, it had become necessary to widen the scope to take in other local buses, from the fleets of Hants & Dorset, Wilts & Dorset, Aldershot & District and others, so that in January 2000, some thirty vehicles were in operation on the day, including ten King Alfred. The number of visitors has also continued to rise over the years and this renowned event is now firmly established in the bus events calendar.

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