Initially a part of the Bristol Omnibus Company, it was privatised in September 1986 and sold to Badgerline Holdings in a management buyout.

[2] Badgerline was established as a company in its own right and sold to a group of its managers and staff on 23 September 1986.

[7] It went on to buy two travel agencies, Roman City of Bath, and NBC subsidiary National Travelworld.

It sold its share in Red Admiral to Southampton Citybus[4] but their operations in Poole and Salisbury lost £962,000.

[7][15][16] The company expanded into South Wales and Essex[17] and then floated on the stock exchange as the Badgerline Group in November 1993,[18] followed by acquisition of Potteries Motor Traction and Yorkshire Rider in 1994.

[27] First Somerset & Avon was created on 30 May 2003 to combine the operations of both Badgerline and Southern National under the First brand.

The allocations on 1 January 1986 and 30 November 1989 were:[4] The first years of operation saw the delivery of three different models of minibuses, Ford Transits, Freight Rover Sherpas and Iveco Dailys.

[32] The town's bus station was closed in 1987 when maintenance facilities were transferred to a new depot in Warne Road.

[4] The livery established in 1985 was yellow with a broad diagonal green panel on each side (about a third of the vehicle) sweeping up and forward.

Some vehicles carried a white livery with one band each of yellow and green, horizontal along most of the side but up swept at the rear.

Open top vehicles in Bath carried Roman City livery for a while but were then changed to primrose yellow with olive and Brunswick green bands with both Badgerline and Guide Friday logos.

This was plain green and with a larger badger logo and the company name in yellow serif lettering.