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Tanat replaces Abermule with new bigger, better depot
New site includes a five-bay workshop
Tanat Valley Coaches has adquired new and improved premises for its 'southern' operations centred on Newtown, Powys.

Located in the village of Kerry, facilities at the premises include a five-bay workshop housed in a steel-framed building together with traffic office and staff rest room.

The new depot at Kerry replaces that at Abermule which, for many years, has been the hub for buses operating the Llanidloes-Newtown-Welshpool-Shrewsbury service and which currently uses the route number X75.

In an interesting twist of fate, Nick Culliford, operations manager at Tanat Valley Coaches, was responsible for the creation of Abermule during his time as area manager for Crosville Wales.

Mr Culliford told CBW: "The catalyst for opening Abermule was the need to move our buses out of Welshpool because the owners of the Smithfield wanted to redevelop the site. Additionally, our employees that had lived in Llanidloes had retired or moved on, which meant staff were travelling there from Newtown to drive the buses outstationed at Llanidloes. Therefore, the opportunity arose to concentrate our operation in one location. We came across a site next to the old railway station at Abermule. We then made arrangements with the owner of the site, Mr Fred Edwards, and it opened around 1989/90."

The depot subsequently passed through the hands of Midland Red North, Arriva Cymru and then back to Arriva Midlands, which Midland Red North had by then become.

The Powys County Council tender to operate the X75 was won by Tanat Valley Coaches in 2006, with operations being taken over in November of that year. Since then, the initial allocation of three Optare Tempos and a spare has increased to seven, plus a spare.

Mr Culliford continued: ?We took the opportunity to acquire a commercial and car repair business in Kerry. Whilst the business continues to operate as previously, it also provides us with excellent facilities to maintain our fleet at that location and augments our main site at Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant.?

Phil Bradley of Tanat Valley Coaches paid tribute to the old Abermule depot which, whilst small, appears to have been known of far and wide in the industry. he told CBW: "I was fortunate to operate the last bus into Abermule to finish clearing out the office. It has been a great place for all the companies that have operated from there, be it Tanat Valley, Arriva Midlands North, Arriva Cymru and of course Crosville Wales. It has seen its fair share of good and not so good vehicles over the years but the new Kerry depot puts our operations on a firm footing for the future."