The last vestige of a transport empire that plied London streets for more than 40 years, has ended.

Blue & White Taxi has been sold and owner Jamie Donnelly, the second-generation Donnelly in the ground transportation business — his father, Jim Donnelly, owned Aboutown Transportation — has retrenched in St. Thomas.

“I have mixed emotions,” said Donnelly, 39. “It is tough in ­London. I grew up in London, born and raised, but it had become a ­challenge.”

Donnelly still owns Cox Cabs in St. Thomas, but will rebrand it. It also runs an accessible transit service for Western University.

“With the economic environment in London and a driver shortage, and Uber and all the new rules, it was time to get out of London,” the younger Donnelly said.

Blue & White in London will become Your Taxi, owned in part by Jason Kukurudziak. There are no business ties between the St. Thomas and London taxi businesses, he’s quick to add. “It’s over now,” Kukurudziak said of the Donnelly cab business in London.

“The Donnellys have zero to do with this company. That is important. There was a bad vibe here.”

Blue & White under Donnelly had lost two-thirds of its drivers in six years, a fleet of 180 cut to 60.

Kukurudziak, who’s been driving cabs since 1998, said he believes he can turn the business around by attracting drivers and a better business plan.

“I did the numbers . . . It was losing money. It was bleeding cars.”

There was a problem with the brand, staffing had to be cut and a garage at Clarke Road and Oxford Street inflated costs, said Kukurudziak, president of Your Taxi.

“I have not had so much fun in my life,” Kukurudziak said of running the new business. “I am raring to go. We are building here from the ground up. I am excited every day.”

The sale ends what, in recent years, had been a tumultuous time for the Donnelly clan.

In 2013, Aboutown Transportation, Jim Donnelly’s business, was placed in receivership. Its assets were seized and sold to pay $1.6 million in debts, including taxes. It also faced a Labour Ministry probe for not paying its drivers.

Jim Donnelly is now retired, said his son.

Jamie Donnelly came under similar scrutiny as drivers at Blue & White, before Christmas, claimed they were not paid before the business was sold.

“That’s an over-dramatization,” said the younger Donnelly. “Christmas is tight, there are highs and lows. It was not dire.”

But Kukurudziak said he had to line up investors to pay drivers.

Kukurudziak was a part-owner of Green Taxi when Jamie Donnelly approached Green to buy it in April.

“We had a chance to buy Blue & White in the spring. There was a lot of back and forth to make the deal happen,” he said.

Jamie Donnelly opened Blue & White in 2012.

His father came to London in 1970 and drove for Aboutown, before buying the business in 1974.

ndebono@postmedia.com

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The empire that was

Some Donnelly businesses over the years: Aboutown Taxi; Blue & White Taxi; Cox Cabs, St. Thomas; taxi limousine service; airport shuttles to Toronto and Detroit; charter buses; Chatham transit service; NorthLink bus service from Owen Sound to London area; operated St. Thomas city transit; London airport, taxi service; operated London Transit paratransit service school bus division; Western University student shuttles