History

Tyrers Past and Present

In 1972 R. S. Tyrer & Son was established in Adlington by Bob Tyrer. Bob had been a coach driver for over 30 years and started the business at the age of 58, with one vehicle; a Bedford with a Leyland engine and a Plaxton body. In 1973, Bob took delivery of his first brand new coach; this being a Ford with a Plaxton body.

Over the years his fleet expanded to five vehicles before he sadly passed away in November 1992. His daughter Sylvia and her husband Gordon carried on the successful business with two new coaches being delivered in 1996, a 33-seat Mercedes Benz midi-coach and 1997, a well-appointed Van Hool bodied Volvo B10M executive coach – the first of many Volvo vehicles to enter the fleet over the years.

The business continued to expand slowly with the help of Sylvia and Gordon’s sons Richard and Matthew and it moved into the school bus market alongside its ever present coaching activities. A depot was opened in Chorley whilst the booking office remained in Adlington for the excursions and holidays. Tyrers began operating many home-to-school routes in Lancashire including to Runshaw College in Leyland – a college now served by nearly 20 Tyrers vehicles every day.

After another new coach delivered in 2006, more new deliveries followed in 2015 as the first of what would be five brand new VDL Futura 2s were delivered. The first two accessible coaches joined the fleet in 2014 and we have taken great strides to make our fleet as accessible as possible with 17 of our coach fleet now wheelchair accessible. The bus fleet is similarly accessible with more than 96% of our buses being wheelchair accessible and accessible to all.

High capacity double deckers became a feature of the Tyrers Coaches fleet and in 2009 two brand-new 100-seat Optare Olympus bodied Volvo B9TLTs joined the fleet to serve Runshaw College and to also provide a different dimension for schools and other parties needing to transport large numbers – the ever-versatile pair have even made the trip Wembley with rugby league supporters! Building on the success of these new double deck deliveries, two brand-new high-specification Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMCs followed in 2017.

Expansion south into Greater Manchester followed in 2011 when the first school routes for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) were successfully gained with this side of the business growing steadily ever since. In 2015, Tyrers opened a second depot in Farnworth to serve this growing side of the business. A new Chorley depot was also opened in 2019.

Local bus services between Chorley and other Lancashire towns brought Tyrers’ friendly little service buses to the roads in 2012. This side of the business grew in 2019 when Tyrers took over the services operated by Cumfybus in Bolton, who continued to run services around Merseyside. Our friendly bus services can now be found across south and west Lancashire and around north-west Greater Manchester.

From small beginnings as Bob Tyrer’s one coach firm in 1972, Tyrers has transformed into the reliable, successful coaching business that it is today.