more developments in Bournemouth

Tuesday 4th July 2023

Today marks exactly eleven months since the demise of Bournemouth’s Yellow Buses on 4th August 2022 and Go-Ahead’s morebus stepping in to provide continuity of service.

Aside from Eastleigh based Xelabus taking a trio of tendered services for six months, morebus became the only show in town providing an integrated network and ticketing within less than 48 hour’s frenetic mobilisation.

Xelabus pulled out in February after the initial six months period running the three services (18, 33 and 36) which passed to morebus thus sealing its dominance across the area.

However, another operator has recently appeared on the Bournemouth scene in the form of transporabus – the company with disparate operations in Blackpool, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Newport and Dorset as well as the Routemaster sightseeing tour in London.

Transpora gained a number of school contracts in Dorset (Corfe Mullen, Dorchester, Poole, Puddlestown) as well as the Weymouth Park & Ride, but it’s on the back of school contacts in the Bournemouth area the company registered a 20 minute frequency route 2 between Boscombe and Bournemouth operated by two buses from 09:25, after the morning contracted school journeys, until 14:00 with three further journeys between 17:00 and 18:00, after the afternoon contracts.

The route operates via Ashley Road and Holdenhurst Road between Boscombe, Bournemouth railway station and Bournemouth Square and Triangle whereas morebus’s route m2 and the frequent former Yellow Buses’ routes 1a/1b/1c use Christchurch Road. It’s morebus’s half hourly route 22 now facing head to head competition on Ashley Road and Holdenhurst Road from the upstart 2.

Transpora has also introduced an open-top route numbered T1 on the traditional route between Bournemouth Pier, Boscombe Pier and Hengistbury Head branded Bournemouth Coaster which is running in competition with morebus Breezer routes 70 and 80.

Yet another development in the Boscombe area is a recently introduced route 99 branded Boscombe Beach Bus operating a one way circuit linking Pokesdown railway station with Boscombe Pier and Boscombe bus station every half an hour.

Introduced for a six months trial on 1st April it’s being funded by the Bournemouth Towns Fund with money from the Government Department of Levelling Up as well as BCP Council. Morebus operate the service with a branded single deck bus. The idea is to link Boscombe’s retail and town centre, together with Pokesdown station with the beach and pier.

With all that excitement, I thought a visit to Bournemouth to check out how things are going on the ground was timely so popped over last Thursday to take a look.

I have to admit to only becoming aware of Boscombe Beach Bus 99 when changing trains at Southampton Central and spotting a poster promoting it on platform 4 – which just shows the power of involving train companies in these things as I noticed SWR’s logo and the advantage of connecting at Pokesdown railway station being extolled and which of course is actually officially called ‘Pokesdown for Boscombe’.

Luckily my train was stopping at Pokesdown so instead of continuing to Bournemouth I alighted there to catch the 99 with a convenient seven minute connection.

There’s a bus stop right opposite the station exit used by the 99 but as there was a bit of time I walked along Christchurch Road to the previous stop where the bus soon appeared.

Sadly it wasn’t the promised bespoke branded bus but a former Salisbury based Park & Ride bus being one of those drafted in last August to ensure morebus had sufficient additional buses after the Yellow Buses’ collapse.

I was the only passenger for the 14 minute journey to the Pier via Boscombe’s well heeled residential and guest house/hotel area.

Sadly on this journey the bus was a couple of minutes late so just as we arrived at the Pier, open top buses to Hengistbury Head (Beach Breezer) and Bournemouth Pier (Coaster) were just leaving.

On the positive side it gave me half an hour to enjoy the pier …

… and quiet seafront with some eye catching cloud formations …

… as well as check out the bus stop …

… which was displaying timetables/departures for all the routes now serving the pier …

… and the morebus routes on the flag.

Morebus Beach Breezer branded open tops 70 and 80 run half hourly between Alum Chine, Bournemouth Pier, Boscombe Pier and Hengistbury Head with the 70 commencing further west at Rockley Park and Poole and the 80 continuing east to Christchurch, Mudeford and Hoburne Holiday Park.

Four buses operate the 70 and three on the 80 so it’s quite a commitment along with the other Breezers morebus operates across Portland and Purbeck.

While I waited for the next Hengistbury Head bound bus a westbound route 70 arrived which disappointingly was a closed top bus…

… but thankfully the live tracking function on the company’s website confirmed all the other six buses out on Thursday were open top and sure enough the next eastbound bus soon arrived …

… and I hopped aboard …

… for the iconic ride along the coast to Hengistbury Head.

As we headed along the seafront road the next Bournemouth Coaster T1 passed us heading towards Bournemouth Pier.

Arriving at Hengistbury Head I’d planned to catch the next transpora route T1 Coaster back to Boscombe at 12:30 – the one I’d seen leaving the Pier heading towards Bournemouth.

The T1 commenced its ‘high season’ 45 minute frequency timetable (with an extra half hour gap at lunch time) at the end of May.

I’m guessing there’s an error in the timetable as the 1445 ex Hengistbury Head should surely be 1515 as there’s no bus to operate a 1445.

The timetable takes two buses whereas the ‘low season’ is a one bus operation. Unfortunately for me so was last Thursday’s late morning operation as despite seeing both open tops on the road earlier (as evidenced above) the 12:30 departure failed to turn up and run.

I caught the next Breezer back to Boscombe Pier instead …

… and after arriving there the next Hengistbury Head bound T1 Bournemouth Coaster arrived …

… which had changed from an open top to a closed top former Yellow Buses bus and you could barely make out the destination display. Unsurprisingly it left with no one on board.

I gave up on a Bournemouth Coaster open top ride and instead made my way on the wrongly branded Park & Ride Boscombe Beach Bus 99 which had just arrived, inland to Boscombe bus station…

… to see a route 2 just departing …

… and two Transpora buses laying over in between school runs …

… including blocking one of the stands.

Twenty minutes later the next route 2 arrived and I found one of the missing open tops from the T1.

It had obviously been redeployed from the T1 to keep the 2 going.

The driver was obviously doubling up as the control person as before leaving the bus station he was running around the parked buses talking into his mobile about which vehicle would do which school run.

It all felt a bit ‘rough and ready’. However there was a good supply of timetable leaflets onboard for both routes 2 and T1 …

… and it was good to see timetable displays in bus shelters along the route for the 2….

… as well as on the real time departure signs at Boscombe bus station.

But there were very few passengers on both routes.

I’m sure the Bournemouth Coaster will do well at weekends and in the upcoming summer school holidays with holidaymakers just turning up at stops if it’s the next departure rather than a Beach Breezer but the latter’s half hour frequency on the well used section and more prominent branding will ensure it takes the lion’s share of the market.

However, based on my experiences on Thursday both operators could usefully pay attention to ensuring open tops rather than closed tops do run and properly branded buses are used on all the routes I’ve mentioned. Although looking at the morebus website I see a standard morebus liveried bus was officially launched on the 99, so perhaps there is no bespoke liveried bus after all?

Although it was good to see bus stops had been installed on the otherwise bus-less roads served by the Boscombe Beach Bus 99…

… it’ll need a consistently applied high profile with widespread availability of information, leaflets and promotion at Pokesdown railway station etc etc to give it any hope of success.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS

37 thoughts on “more developments in Bournemouth”

  1. There have been open top operations in Bournemouth over many years. Bournemouth Corporation, previous incarnation of Yellow Buses operated a 15 to Hengistbury Head and also ran an open trolleybus on an occasional circular 39. I am only aware of Hastings also operating an open top trolleybus from the last Coronation in 1953. The vehicle used was later converted to diesel operation with a Deutz engine and survived into preservation. I don’t know what happened to the Bournemouth open top trolleybus.
    Rockley Park was also a summer destination for the Royal Blue Coaches back in the 1960s.
    Boscombe also had its own station until closure along with Bournemouth West during the Beeching cuts. The latter is still in use as a rail stabling point.

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    1. John Crowhust – The East Anglian Transport Museum has former Bournemouth Trolleybus 202, a Sunbeam dating from 1935 and preserved in its open-top condition. It is believed to be the only surviving open-top trolleybus in the World. As an aside, it is fascinating to ride on the top deck and observe how the booms behave under the wires.

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    2. There’s a Bournemouth open top trolleybus at the East Anglia Transport Museum at CArlton Colville. The Hastings vehicle, Happy Harold, has a Commer TS3 engine – more info here: https://www.1066.net/trolley/brief-history . Deutz engines were, I think, largely confined to Gosport & Fareham.

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    3. Hastings had eight open top trolleybuses, numbered 1A to 8A, Bournemouth had three, 200 to 202, the latter may be seen at the East Anglian Transport Museum.
      For a couple of years, the Bear Cross Bus Company ran a heritage route, using preserved Bournemouth buses, including an open top Atlantean. There is the annual Bournemouth Bus Rally, held in early July (next date 7 July 2024).
      Yellow Buses ran route 12 to Hengistbury Head, using two open toppers which have been acquired by Morebus and rebranded as Beach Breezers
      Transpora will stop operating the T1 after 24 August, given that Morebus are participating in the £2 fare for any single journey, and Transpora are charging £3 for a child and £5 for an adult, no surprise that the venture has proved unsuccessful

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  2. There is a branded vehicle for the 99 – in quite a garish livery – but I understand it’s off the road at present.

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    1. Indeed there is. Do a Google search for Morebus 2710 and you’ll find it. It’s in workshops at the moment, so hopefully back out soon.

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  3. The explosion of open-top services this summer in the South West, Bournemouth, Swanage, Minehead and Weymouth (where First now roster eight each day) is welcome, and of course hardy Souls can travel all year on the Swanage-Bournemouth 50 if brave enough! But, however much we are told about global warming, traditional British weather still loves a good shower from time to time and rainy days are not yet unheard of. So I do question the full “open-topping” of vehicles , and it would be far more sensible to have the front third closed as on the normal Swanage based all-year operations. As on my bus only last week, so busy most of the downstairs seats were also filled, so rain would have caused chaos.

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    1. Is the lack of roof in the front third due to the way most open top buses come into existence, i.e. bridge bashes? The front pillars are presumably damaged beyond repair, so it’s the full experience or nothing at all!

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      1. Can’t speak for the Transpora vehicles but pretty sure the Morebus fleets were all new as purpose built open toppers in their current configuration.

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  4. Route branding…. It’s just got to be spot on in my view, or it’s worse than useless, given an impression of a chaotic and incompetent operation.

    The ‘wrong’ buses are so often used on branded routes. I remain a sceptic.

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    1. This is my problem with TrentBarton’s replacing of route numbers with route names shown on branded vehicles.
      It’s great until the branded vehicles aren’t available for whatever reason.

      As a passenger you find yourself standing at a bus stop served by multiple different routes and two or three standard livery buses come along with no route number displayed, just a rotation of route name / destination / covid wibble / advertising wibble which means that you often have to stop the bus to find out what route it’s actually on.

      A displayed route number helps with that issue and is more customer friendly – and it means that the driver isn’t getting stopped at every stop by people asking which route they’re on.

      Of course, it also helps if bus companies don’t use destination displays to brag about things like free wifi or fare offers. Destination displays are for destination information!

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  5. So nice to see the photo of Boscombe Pier, happy memories of childhood holidays in the 1970s. Not being a car owning family we always used Bournemouth Transport for our travel, especially open top coastal services 11 and 12. I can remember the roar of Leyland Atlanteans climbing the hill on Christchurch Road past Boscombe Gardens, where we usually had a picnic lunch. Bournemouth and the iconic yellow buses just seemed perfect.

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  6. Transpora have cancelled their Coaster T1 from the 23rd August along with their 4 routes to St Peter’s School in Southbourne. more already cover these services.

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  7. Many thanks to julianintk1 and Man of Kent for the info on Bournemouth 202. I only managed a ride from the Square to the Triangle on what I believe might have been it’s last operation in service on the 39, not 29 in my original post. I wish I had noted the date.

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  8. Despite what the scene from Live and Let Die suggests about how OT buses come into existence, they are built that way from the factory or speciffically converted. Bridge strikes have nothing to do with it.

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      1. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that accident damaged buses aren’t ever converted to OT. But the majority are designed as OT or converted as needed.

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        1. There are only a small number of markets that then to be able to justify bespoke open top buses. Tourist routes in hotspots are the main one (London, Edinburgh and Bath spring to mind). However a lot of modern buses are designed in such a way that they need to retain some of the upper deck structure for strength. I have vague recollections of Alexander suggesting that the first two bays upstairs had to be retained for structural integrity on the ALX 400. This would mean that bridge strike conversions would not be advantageous.

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    2. That was staged, in that the seats on the top deck were removed, and most of the top deck was cut loose

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  10. I think it’s the same open top Transpora bus you have pictured twice! Think also I would have kept the open top on the T1 (rather than take it off to cover a 2) but never mind I don’t make those decisions. There is a ‘Bournemouth Coaster’ branded covered top double deck too.

    There is one error near the bottom where it should say ’99’ not 9. There is a branded Enviro 200 however as said above it is off the road.

    Fantastic blog as always Roger.

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  11. When I was in Bournemouth a couple of weeks ago, I looked out for Transpora’s T1 a couple of times but saw no sign of it operating then. Thank you for confirming it does operate, at least some of the time.

    The 7 x open-tops scheduled on the “Beach Breezer” 70/80 compare with last years “Buster’s Beach Bus” provided by Yellow Buses, which seemed to require around 6 buses (operating a 30-35 minute frequency) over what is now the 80.

    While Morebus did very well to step in at such short notice when Yellow Buses collapsed, it is notable that the former Yellow Buses routes are generally less frequent now than they were. Comparing last summer’s Yellow Buses timetable book with this year’s one from Morebus, the Mon-Sat daytime frequencies compare as follows over the “core” sections of route:

    1/1b every 10 minutes, replaced by 1b/1c every 15 minutes
    1a every 5-10 minutes (MF)/10 minutes (Sat) replaced by 1a every 15 minutes
    2 every 15 minutes replaced by 22 every half-hour
    3 every 20 minutes not replaced (duplicated entirely by m1)
    4 every half-hour replaced by 12 every half-hour
    5/5a every 10 minutes replaced by 5/5a every 15 minutes
    6 every 15 minutes (MF)/half-hour (Sat) replaced by 6 every half-hour

    Only the 4 has the same frequency now that it did under Yellow Buses operation.

    Holdenhurst Road, heading north-east from Bournemouth station/travel interchange, feels like it has potential to be quite good bus territory, yet its service (now the 22) is only half-hourly compared to the 15-minute frequency that Yellow Buses provided. Perhaps this explains why Transpora are providing some part-time competition on that corridor, at a more generous frequency than Morebus.

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    1. Less frequent maybe but at least you can be relatively confident a bus will actually turn up….. swings and roundabouts eh?

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  12. In the trolleybus era Holdenhurst Road carried route 25 which ran between Westbourne and Boscombe via the Square, Lansdowne, Central and Boscombe stations, and Ashley Road (the one in Boscombe, not the better known one in Parkstone).

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  13. The reduction in frequency by morebus replacement services is precisely why Yellow Buses went out of business. Certain corridors had too many buses chasing too few passengers.

    And however an open top vehicle happens to be made fit for service, (yes, the original Swanage based vehicles with part cover were such from new), it would still be sensible to have a covered section for the reasons originally given.

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    1. @Terence Uden – while what you say about too few buses chasing too few passengers will ultimately be accurate, it strikes me that the corridors where too many buses were chasing too few passengers were those where Yellow Buses and Morebus were competing.

      Hospital – Castlepoint – Bournemouth – Westbourne, where Yellow Buses 3 (3 bph) was being challenged by Morebus m1 (6-8 bph). The 3 had already been reduced, in 2019 it was 6 bph.

      Bournemouth – Westbourne – Parkstone – Poole, where until 2018 there were 20 buses per hour off-peak, 24 buses per hour peak, as Yellow Buses 1 and 3 attempted to slug it out with Morebus m1/m2. In more recent years, Yellow Buses had dwindled to 2 bph (MF)/1 bph (Sat) over that flow, not quite conceding defeat.

      The Christchurch Road corridor from Bournemouth to Boscombe and Pokesdown with up to 22 buses per hour – Yellow Buses 1/1a/1b running 12-14 bph, challenged by Morebus m2 (6-8 bph).

      In the case of the 6, the 15-minute frequency on Mon-Fri was to the University; the reduction to half-hourly still delivers a joint 15-minute headway with Morebus 17 so that doesn’t seem unreasonable.

      While that may explain some reductions in the level of service offered by Morebus 1a/1b/1c and 6, it doesn’t really explain the reduced frequencies on other corridors (2, 5/5a) from 10 minutes to 15 minutes, or 15 minutes to half-hourly. Transpora seem to be exploiting this on Holdenhurst Road, by providing a 20-minute headway on their route 2 competing with Morebus’ half-hourly service on the 22 (formerly the 2!)

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  14. An un- bias view as ever.
    I can confirm the 99 livery bus (AKA The Ice-cream van) has been laid up for the last week or so.
    It’s has been observed that the Transpora T1 and two of the four school buses had not run recently, their website saying “awaiting spare parts”
    It should be noted Ashley Road, Boscome has the 2,22,33, U3 and X3 that’s up to10 busses an hour, with the X3 and 33 going to Bournemouth the ‘opposite way’.
    One small error, it’s the 36 not the 38.
    Keep on blogging!

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  15. An un- bias view as ever.
    I can confirm the 99 livery bus (AKA The Ice-cream van) has been laid up for the last week or so.
    It’s has been observed that the Transpora T1 and two of the four school buses had not run recently, their website saying “awaiting spare parts”
    It should be noted Ashley Road, Boscome has the 2,22,33, U3 and X3 that’s up to10 busses an hour, with the X3 and 33 going to Bournemouth the ‘opposite way’.

    Keep on blogging!

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  16. Transpora are running a Weymouth P&R registered for the school holiday period and without subsidy, though they say it’s a partnership with Dorset CC. First continue to run the 2 stopping outside the P&R every 15 minutes.

    Transport’s London tourist service has a notice on the TfL LSP site of a consultation for a route and timetable change starting mid- September. The previous application for the change to start in July was withdrawn. They were also supposed to have started a limited stop, out and back 925 Bristol- Newport service this week.

    Transpora Group’s accounts are overdue by five weeks.

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  17. Happy memories of Atlanteans on 11 and 12 open top coastal services. In an early brand promotion I recall many buses proudly claiming ‘Ken supports the Yellows.’ Unfortunately this was lost on tourists as we hadn’t a clue who Ken was!

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  18. I have the more summer 2023 bus timetable book from the 27th of May 2023. For route 99 it shows a picture of a branded bus. The bus map in the back of the book shows the route slightly different to what you’ve highlighted on the map.

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  19. Is it not a monopoly on services illegal or something. Very surprised Arriva or Rotala did not buy Yellow Buses.

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    1. Yellow Buses went into administration, and no buyer could be found.
      So all buses were ordered to return to the garage by 1800, and Morebus took over The company was already in financial difficulties, Covid plus the increase in fuel prices finished YB, if only they had concentrated on their core routes and done what Morebus have since done, they could well be still in business.
      Likewise, Southampton City Reds went out of business, routes now operated by Bluestar, a sister company to Morebus

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    2. No company wanted to buy Yellow Buses, and GoAhead’s MoreBus subsidiary did not even attempt to purchase Yellow Buses. The competition authorities would have prohibited any such move.

      What GoAhead’s MD, Andrew Wickham, and team did was to observe closely what was happening to Yellow Buses and plan for how to deal with the inevitable collapse whenever it might come. One of the best commentaries and analyses comes from a fine example of local journalism. (Yes, I know a lot of local newspaper websites are full of trashy ‘churnalism’ but that’s not the case here.)

      ‘How Yellow Buses services were replaced by Morebus so quickly by Darren Slade’, Group business editor, Bournemouth Echo. https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/20609446.yellow-buses-services-replaced-morebus-quickly/

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