Barrow bus company CMS announced a £500,000 investment at its Hindpool Road depot in February 1993 which, reported The Mail, would save the town’s ageing bus and truck centre from closure.

Barrow and Furness MP John Hutton cut the ribbon at a ceremony to unveil the company’s new £2.2 million fleet of buses for its Barrow routes.

And managing director Barry Hinkley said he had just finalised plans for new workshops at Hindpool Road to maintain the fleet.

The development would include a new Department of Transport test station for public service and heavy goods vehicles.

Work would start in May that year on a new engineering block to house maintenance facilities for CMS.

The existing test station, reported The Mail, had been threatened with closure, leaving bus and lorry operators with the next nearest facility at Milnthorpe.

Chris Blackledge, garage manager with Barrow hauliers T Brady and Son, welcomed the news, which he said would save an 82-mile round trip for each of their vehicles which needed testing.

“We need the test station in Barrow,” he said. “It’s essential to our operation and it saves us a lot of time and expense.”

Earlier Mr Hutton, who told those gathered at the ceremony that he had once been a bus driver himself, greeted the new fleet as a significant investment in local infrastructure.

"Not only will it significantly improve the level of service, but the working conditions and morale of the people who drive these buses," said Mr Hutton.

CMS commercial director Ben Colson said surveys showed the staff of the Barrow bus service to be very highly regarded.

An undated cutting in The Mail's archives, possibly from around 20 years ago, stated it was hoped to stage a major vintage transport gathering in Barrow to mark the 120th anniversary of the first public road transport in the town.

The event was being planned by the Barrow Transport Group and Stagecoach Cumberland and it was hoped a large collection of vintage vehicles and buses would be involved.