 By the time that the post-war government of Clement Attlee merged both Tilling and the railway companies into the British Transport Commission on 1 January 1948, and Crosville was nationalised, the coach operators were a sustainable competitive entity.New Bristol double-deckers had become the standard fleet purchase for all Tilling/BET fleets, which allowed the company to serve the post-war boom until 1950, when traffic began to fall again thanks to the increase in the number of private cars.The combination of this, plus the Suez Crisis of 1956 and a lack of staff due to low wages, lead to a general contraction of the network out of countryside routes and to reduce operations by at least half on a Sunday.