First last day

Saturday 18th February 2023

It’s the end of an era for buses in Southampton today as First Bus closes its bus garage doors for good bringing to an end 143 years of bus operation that can be traced back to 1879 when horse bus operation began and in due course Southampton Corporation Transport took over the Southampton Tramways Company.

The city’s bus routes will henceforth be dominated by blue liveried buses instead of a long tradition of red as Go-Ahead owned Bluestar, part of the expanding Go South Coast (GSC) empire, enlarges its network and ensures no passengers are left without a bus.

Recent history is repeating itself for GSC after sister company, morebus, filled gaps left behind when Yellow Buses ceased trading in Bournemouth last summer.

Whereas that change happened with no (official) advance notice, First Bus announced its intention to cease operations in Southampton at the end of November last year enabling an orderly departure and a well planned update to Bluestar’s network.

What’s more, to First’s credit, there’s been no running down of quality or attempts to cut costs in these last few weeks. A high standard of operations has been maintained right up to today’s finale.

Once again Go South Coast has organised the recruitment of the additional drivers it will need from tomorrow as well as drafting in extra buses to ensure the new services run as planned.

I’ve taken a ride on some of First’s bus routes on a couple of occasions recently and found a modern fleet with friendly drivers carrying average numbers of passengers on most journeys. Nothing exceptional, one or two were very busy as shown below and one or two were quiet but on average there were average numbers travelling.

It was all very average. Just not enough.

What was self evident from just a short time travelling around, especially up and down the busy Shirley Road to the west of the city centre for example, was just how many buses there were – both red and blue.

Almost always one in sight.

It was the same to the east of the city, over Itchen Bridge to Woolston and other residential areas.

Buses seemed to be everywhere. It’s no surprise when you see that level of duplication the situation in Southampton has been financially unsustainable. It makes perfect sense for this intense competition, particularly over the last few years when both operators have trodden on each others toes (so to speak) to cease and operations consolidated into one network.

I wrote about this back in December 2019 observing then that this was unsustainable.

And, so it’s proved.

Long experience in Brighton and Hove when there was a similar rationalisation in 1997 with Brighton Buses selling to Go-Ahead showed urban areas of up to around 250,000 population are best served by one bus operator. Two operators struggle, particularly if there’s duplication of coverage to residential areas. There’s an inevitability eventually the smaller company will give up or sell out (as in Bournemouth and Poole, and now Southampton) or will be the subject of formal partnership arrangements with an organised share out of routes and frequencies (as in Oxford).

The recent announcement of First Bus acquiring Ensignbus is another example of area wide consolidation with the most efficient use of overhead costs spread over a manageable network of bus routes – not too small and not too large.

The Competition and Markets Authority may not like it, but it’s a “fact of running buses life” that with the all conquering car as a competitor, buses need a near modal monopoly to prosper and be able to invest and deliver the high standards that’ll attract passengers out of those cars.

First Bus has done a good job at raising standards in Southampton in recent years, bringing in the CityReds branding which has been consistently applied and along with Bluestar has given the city a quality bus network.

The City Council deserve praise too for facilitating the provision of information about the networks of both companies in a professional way.

… and ensuring bus stop plates have been kept up to date over the years with both companies’ brands.

First Bus has also provided good publicity and marketing including an attractive network map in a promotional leaflet…

…. as well as displaying the map around the city at bus stops.

It wasn’t so long ago it had a travel office facility in the city too and a Portacabin style Control Room as pictured below.

The buses have also been well looked after with attractive interior posters on the cove panels including promoting the city itself…

… and the history of buses in Southampton as well as route diagrams.

Although I doubt many have heeded the advert for bus drivers over the last few weeks.

Bluestar of course also has also been doing all this including a city centre Travel Shop …

… and commendably had details of all the new bus routes, maps and timetables on its website weeks ago as well as in print too.

It’s a shame to see the end of an era with First Bus as the successor to Southampton City Transport ceasing to serve the city but it’s an exciting time for the city as a new era beckons. There’s no doubt the ending of competition will not stop Bluestar continuing to provide an excellent bus network (as in Brighton and Bournemouth) of which the city will be proud. With a supportive council there are exciting opportunities ahead.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: Next week is New Bus Route Week on the BusAndTrainUser Blog. Look out for a blogpost every day, Monday to Friday featuring a recently introduced brand new bus route. First up on Monday is route 100.