(27 Jul 2014, 10:22 am)AdamY wrote Bus was first trialled in Newcastle in 1997. I also thought they were around prior to this date (around 1995-ish) but apparently I was mistaken.

Previous to the HMB/Magic Bus saga, there was competition over similar routes with TWOC and Welcome challenging Busways. However this took place in the latter part of the 80s and lasted until around 1992/93-ish. TWOC were bought out in 1990 (by GNE who immediately sold the company to Busways) while Welcome were bought out in 1993 (also by Busways).

I believe dupes were registered on certain routes to combat the competition but there was no Magic Bus at this time.

Yeah, it was around that time I was thinking of.
Can't find anything online about it, my mind must be playing tricks on me...