Bright yellow buses ran like clockwork

and regular service. The firm was swallowed in the mid-1990s by the Stagecoach UK Bus Group. Back in the East Kent days the town prided itself in

While there are more and more cars on the road and the town centre streets are often gridlocked, many of us are still reliant on the town’s bus service. The service for many years was operated by East Kent Road Car Company who operated a largely faultless having a fleet of EK Minilink buses which were originally Fords (known as bread vans) and latterly switched to larger Ford Iveco longer wheelbase buses around 1988. Both the aforementioned were painted bright yellow and were especially popular in suburban areas and those routes difficult to negotiate with longer buses such as Leyland National single decker’s which were in use in the time. The buses were a familiar sight in and around the town until the Stagecoach takeover. The buses were replaced by new Mercedes buses of a similar size, many of which are still in use throughout Britain to this day. One former bus of the Ashford fleet even makes a regular appearance on ITV’s Emmerdale! This week’s Remember When takes a look back to around 1993 when the brightly coloured EK Minilink buses were still very much in use and the bus operations in the town ran like clockwork. Have you any photographs or slides that you would be willing to loan to me, to enable them to be scanned for feature in the Kentish Express? Please don’t delay, get in touch! Write to me: Steve Salter, Kentish Express Remember When, 34-36 North Street, Ashford, Kent. TN24 8JR. Email me: rememberwhen_ kmash@hotmail.co.uk Follow me on Twitter @ SteveKMAshford. Or you can also leave a telephone message for me with brief details by calling 01233 623232.

Tufton Street, 1993: One of the once familiar Ford Iveco East Kent Minilink buses that use to frequent the town of Ashford. The bus has just left Bank Street for Harvey Hospital and Tesco, formerly route 505.

Bank Street, 1993. Occasionally some of the Minilink buses were sponsored by local firms and covered with advertising such as this one in K&V Lipscomb Peugeot Dealership livery