THE clock rolled back on Monday as a fleet of vintage buses rolled into Winchester for their first running day to take place in spring.

More than 20 buses from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s ran free services through the city and surrounding villages.

For decades, Friends of King Alfred Buses have donned their traditional green uniforms on New Year’s Day. But this year they moved to May to take advantage of the bank holiday sunshine and the centre of operations was the park and ride at Bar End.

“The weather’s hotter, not just on the day but getting these buses up and running,” said membership secretary Keith Andrews. “It wasn’t the first time I’d found myself in a snowstorm trying to wash a bus.”

Rowland Cook, who travels from Oxfordshire most years to relive his past working for King Alfred Motor Services, hopped on a 1970s Leyland Atlantean.

“I came to these events for 20 years when they were in January,” he said. “The weather’s much better now, although they were pretty lucky when it was New Year’s Day.

“I worked on the buses for 40 years as an engineer – they have so many of their old, original buses.”

The charity has been running the fleet since the 1980s, but Mr Andrews said its future is uncertain.

He added: “The problem is the buses are all at least 42 years old – we’re all getting older. We have some younger members but not as many.

“As the drivers get older, once they’re over 65 they’ve got to have a medical every year.”

The new running day format also included a reconstruction of the old evening service on Sunday which drew a lot of people to The Broadway.

David Ledbury, crew and events coordinator for FoKAB, said: “It went very well. We had nice weather and the St Catherine’s car park at Bar End was full. We were having to turn cars away.

“The feedback I got was that people thoroughly enjoyed it. There haven’t been any complaints.”

Mr Ledbury said the friends were totting up the figures but it was too early to say whether more passengers were carried than on the traditional January 1 event.