Britain has a great history of public transportation logos. The best ones are sleek, simple and instantly recognisable. The London Underground logo is recognised all over the world not only as a signpost of where to catch the tube but also as a logo of the city itself. It has been co-opted countless times over the years by various groups including football fans and more recently after the Grenfell tower fire.

Now Manchester Modernist Society have decided to celebrate a slice of Manchester design and transport history with their new pin badge reproducing the lovely ‘M’ logo of the old Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE).

Buses in Britain were privatised after the Transport Act 1968 to better the lives of people in the cities by encouraging the use of public transport. In true Labour big-is-beautiful style a new National Bus Company was created with Public Transport Authorities (PTAs) responsible for transport in major conurbations like Manchester. The PTA for the Manchester area was originally known as SELNEC (South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire). They were responsible for transport in Ashton, Bolton, Bury, Leigh, Manchester, Oldham, Ramsbottom, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport and took over the running of the impressively named Hyde, Mossley and Duckinfield Transport Board.

Prior to nationalisation each local corporation had their own colour and liveries for the buses that beared the name of their respective areas. Ashton buses were peacock blue and cream; Manchester’s were red and cream and Salford’s were dark green and cream. The city’s bus stations were a veritable rainbow.

(Clockwise from top; an Ashton bus, Manchester bus, Salford bus and Stockport bus)

The creation of SELNEC saw the end of the multi-coloured buses and the implementation of a uniform livery of orange and cream bearing the new SELNEC “lazy-S” logo.

With the creation of the Greater Manchester authority in 1974 the SELNEC name was dropped in favour of Greater Manchester Transport. The new logo designed by Kenneth Hollick was a “double-M” which now graced all of the local authority’s buses, bus stops, trains and literature. While some local corporation liveries did survive on a few buses until the early 80s most buses were now uniform in their appearance until de-regulation opened the market up to private companies in 1986. The only survivour from the day’s of nationalisation was the GMPTE logo which was updated as the logo of their successor Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM)

(A GMPTE bus on the way to Leigh)

Some may wonder why anyone would anyone would want to commemorate a defunct transport authority’s logo in the form of a pin badge and, furthermore, why anybody would want to buy it.

Firstly, it’s a great piece of design. Simple and instantly recognisible. It harkens back to the days when local authorities and government departments would have their own in-house designers and uniformity of brand. The double lines forming what could either be a road or a rail encompassing all the responsibilities of the authority.

Secondly, the logo was something that was a big part of people’s lives. Even non public-transport users would have been exposed to it every day as buses rumbled past them on streets all over Greater Manchester. This was driven home to me the first time I wore my pin and a bloke in my local Co-Op was taken right back to his younger years just by the sight of it. He knew exactly what it was straight away.

So well done to the Modernist Society for continuing to celebrate the extraordinairy that can be found in the everyday.

Buy one here – http://www.the-modernist.org/shop/gmpte-badge