The year 2022 was quite a momentous year for the bus
world in the Dorset coastal town of Bournemouth along with neighbouring Poole
and Christchurch in that the long established bus company, Yellow Buses ceased
to operate at the beginning of August.
Fellow local operator and competitor, Go South Coast’s Morebus brand
stepped in at very short notice to operate most of the former Yellow Buses
services. This meant drafting in buses
from other parts of their south coast empire to provide cover in the short
term. On this programme you will see buses from Southampton’s Bluestar and
Salisbury Reds from that Wiltshire city.
It was helped by the delivery of a fleet of 15 new ADL Enviro400MMC
double-deckers for the Unibus contract arriving at about the same time. We see them newly delivered at Poole bus
depot and on training duties as these buses have rear view video cameras rather
than traditional wing mirrors and are seen before they had their colourful
branding applied. These buses were
drafted into service on the busy m1 and m2 routes while their predecessors were
used on a number of former Yellow Buses routes, as you will see on this
programme.
This DVD programme was filmed
over a number of months in 2022.
Starting in July when the Yellow Buses were still running (you can see
them in detail on our ‘Bournemouth's Yellow Buses – The End’ programme),
through to the Yellow Buses last day and then from the second day after they
had ceased operating and through the autumn into winter concluding with shots
of some former Yellow Buses in service in Yorkshire, Lancashire and
Cardiff. Our filming locations include
Christchurch, Poole and a number of locations in Bournemouth including Gervis
Place, Bath Road, Railway Station, Bourne Avenue and Westover Road to name but
a few. The council subsidised services
were originally taken on by Morebus, but later changed to be run by Eastleigh-based
independent Xelabus using Dennis Darts and some former Yellow Buses Wright-bodied
double-deckers. Our cameras take a ride
on brand new, first day in service, 1692 (HJ22 UYC), an ADL Enviro400MMC with a
79-seat body on the m1 route to Poole bus station. We also see 1608 (HF65 AYB), an ADL Enviro400
in the Platinum Jubilee livery for HM Queen Elizabeth II in service around
Poole. The final shots of this bus were
filmed in Verwood on 7th September, the day before the Queen’s death
when the bus was withdrawn from service on the day after and repainted into the
latest Morebus livery. Morebus obtained
two former Yellow Buses vehicles being Volvo B7TL East Lancs Vyking convertible
open-toppers. They have been numbered 1812
(YBZ 223) and 1813 (YBZ 223) in the Morebus fleet and our cameras follow 1813
at the end of the summer season as it travels from Alum Chine to Hengistbury
Head.
Our filming concludes at the busy
bus station situated at Bournemouth University.
Here we see a variety of buses passing through. Mostly the ‘new’ Unibus Enviro400MMCs, but
also Xelabus operating the 36 route with a Dennis Dart and a former Yellow
Buses vehicle.
We conclude this
programme with video shot at the Squarepeg independent depot in Leeds as well
as the Firstbus depots in Halifax and Leeds.
At Leeds we travel through the workshops onboard former Yellow Buses
5092 (BL14 LTE), a Volvo B9TL with Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodywork. Soon to become First West Yorkshire 36112 –
we also see it in service in its new guise.
More filming takes place at Burnley and Halifax. Our final shots see former Yellow Buses 4042
(SN65 OJA), an ADL Enviro400MMC now operating with Cardiffbus. Big changes have taken place in Bournemouth
adding a lot of interest to the ever-changing bus scene!