Saturday 14th October 2023
Poole based Morebus recently put 28 brand new ADL Enviro400 MMC buses into service on its busy high frequency route m1 which crosses the conurbation linking Poole, Bournemouth and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital as well as its 15 minutely route 5/5A between Bournemouth and Kinson.
The company kindly invited me along to the official public launch of the new buses held yesterday morning in Bournemouth Square and although I don’t normally do glitzy PR type launches, I’d seen glowing reports on social media about the buses since they entered service, so was pleased to pop along and see for myself what this significant £7.7 million investment offers passengers.
And I wasn’t disappointed. There wasn’t any unnecessary glitz and cringeworthy PR – just the much admired and highly respected Go South Coast managing director Andrew Wickham giving a run down of the great features to be found on the new buses, and which really are impressive.
As I came out of Bournemouth railway station one of the new fleet was at the town centre bound bus stop heading towards Bourhmouth Square and Poole, so I was soon on board sampling the ride.
The first thing you notice on boarding is the nice welcoming aura very much helped by the removal of the protective screen on the driver’s cab door – back to pre-pandemic days – and a nice ‘hello’ poster.
Next up is the light coloured flooring which Andrew explained at the launch is dementia friendly as dark coloured floors can unnerve sufferers of this awful medical condition who can think it’s a big hole they’re going to fall into.
A larger luggage pen has been included rather than squeezing a front seat in on the nearside behind the entrance door after which there’s both a nearside and offside bay with the former for a wheelchair and both for buggies/shopping trolleys.
The seats are to a new design which Andrew praised in his speech likening them to what you might find in a luxury sports car and he’s dead right.
They’re the most comfortable seat I’ve ever sat in on a bus with what feels like a deep cushion which is covered in comfortable cloth and a leather style headrest.
There’s a well placed handle to hold on to on each gangway seat rather than poles/stanchions.
And as a number of bus companies are doing, the rear seats are just four rather than five giving a much more comfortable and roomy ride for those sitting at the back.
Leg room around the bus on both decks is good; even the front offside seats on the upper deck – notorious for being stingy on foot room could easily accommodate a pair of size ten boots.
And there’s even more room on the nearside front seats.
The choice of moquette makes for a light ambiance and the whole effect is very smart.
A great idea first trialled by Martijn Gilbert when at sister Go-Ahead company Go North East is the option of turning the rear facing pair of seats over the rear wheel arches into an official footrest explained by nicely worded notices.
This protects the cushions from the awful practice of feet on seats.
What are now pretty standard features in new buses are also to be found including seat back usb sockets and a stop button with next stop audio and visual screens including a forward facing one positioned for a passenger occupying the nearside wheelchair space. Cameras replace wing mirrors giving better vision for drivers.
Each bus has a full route number and destination display on all four sides and the buses come in a well designed livery including route branding for those on the m1, which also references route m2 as much of the western end of the routes are common and a couple of bus workings interwork.
In any event Andrew also announced another 20 similar buses are on order for the m2 which it’s hoped will be delivered next Spring.
Route m1 is an incredible success story achieving consistent growth in passenger journeys and this latest development which sees single deck buses replaced like for like with double decks and the retention of the 7/8 minute frequency is just the latest much welcome improvement.
Along with the similar frequency route m2 passengers enjoy a combined 3/4 minute frequency between Poole and Bournemouth. No wonder Andrew reported some impressive growth in passenger numbers not only on these routes but across the network.
These new buses can only help that positive trend still further.
It’s great to see.
Roger French
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Comments are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
Any article praising how wonderful Go South Coast and whilst any improvements in local bus services should be welcomeed this should should be placed within the context that Go South Coast is a wholly owned subsidiary of Go Ahead who it should be remembered were fined £23m by the Department of Transport for “an appalling breach of trust” in regard to its operations and whose accountants were subject to a very serious code of conduct enquiry from the UK’s Accountancy Watchdogs a matter we take very seriously within our industry.
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A very negative comment, given that was to do with the rail side of Go-Ahead and nothing to do with what Andrew and his team are doing.
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Interesting thoughts but unless anyone knows differently at Companies House Go South Coast Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Go Ahead Group Limited and therefore part of the same organisation that deliberately set out to defraud the British Taxpayer by millions and millionss of pounds by fraudulent accounting merhods. When praised is lavished on organisation why would you object to the praise being placed into the perspective of the companies history?
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You’ve only got to look at Hedingham & Chambers to see just how awful Go Ahead buses can be in other areas. If Essex County Council had one good bone in their body they would strip them of every contracted service they operate.
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A wholly negative interjection from Richard Jones., and one with no relevance to the article from Roger.
Strange that he is happy to play the “guilt by association” card in this instance. However, when pointed that Diamond in Worcestershire had been up in front of the traffic commissioners in the past for poor service, he was at great pains to say this was a totally different subsidiary than his cherished Diamond West Midlands.
Go South Coast is an excellent bus company. They’re not perfect, as I’m sure they would concede, but they are much better than many others in the industry and should be judged on what THEY do, not on what other people in a totally unrelated group subsidiary have done.
BW2
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BW2 wrote “A wholly negative interjection from Richard Jones”
Do we expect otherwise? 😦
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He’s Andy Street’s best mate don’t you know!
I don’t know what Rich hopes to accomplish from throwing teddy across the room every time he reads a comment he doesn’t like.
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I am not aware the Rotala PLC have systematically defrauded the British Taxpayer leading to a fine of £23.5mln by the UK government for an “appalling breach of trust” by Go Ahead.
The Department for Transport (DfT) also ordered the public transport company to repay £64mln to taxpayers after it identified what is described as fraudulent activity dating back to 2006.
If Rotala have committed similar fraud to Go Ahead I am happy to be corrected.
I was delighted to attend the recent traffic commissioners hearing at Edgbaston in regard to the performance of Diamond Bus services where all charges against Rotala were dismissed.
I understand as an accountant that both Companies House & HMRC will as I do as a professional person that Go South Coast Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of THE GO-AHEAD GROUP LIMITED
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Richard – that’s not the point and you know it. This is a positive story from Roger about one of the best bus companies in the country.
You seem to want to hang the sins of another distant group subsidiary around the neck of Andrew Wickham and his superb team. People who had no knowledge of what happened in another group subsidiary in another group division.
However, you didn’t appreciate that same principle when applied to Rotala.
BW2
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I am not aware of any similar principle of the fraud of public money having been applied to Rotala but am happy to be fully corrected if you can provide evidence of the accusations you appear to be making
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As you well know, I am not making any allegations about Rotala but simply illustrating the principle that the sins of other parts of a large and disparate business cannot be linked to another. The facts of the Southern case are well known.
Are you suggesting that the management team of Andrew Wickham and his other excellent colleagues are in any way connected to the Southern case?
If you are, then please detail.
If not, please desist.
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Go South Coast Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of THE GO-AHEAD GROUP LIMITED of which Southern is connected by additionally being a subsidiary also.
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As a semi-regular m1 user, going to double deck operation is a very welcome change. Even outside of rush hour, the single decks got full up pretty often and had to leave passengers behind.
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I use the M1 and M2 a few times a year and I’m surprised that they’ve introduced double deckers without even a minor tweak to the frequencies. Both routes operate every 7-8 minutes and I think a reduction to every 8 minutes, trimming a couple of buses off the PVR, would be unnoticeable to the customer. It’s a heck of step up in the available capacity since if I recall correctly the current buses have 2+1 seating.
Also I know Roger has his preferences in bus design, but the downstairs layout doesn’t look good to me. There seems to be only one wheelchair/pram area on the left with any anchoring and it isn’t clearly marked with vinyl on the floor. The area on the right where the lady is sitting is an invitation for disagreements between passengers about who has priority. I’m hoping the seats are tip-ups, but again the lack of signage is very poor. It’s very disappointing that the latest practice by TfL (and others) of using either different coloured fabrics or headrests to indicate priority seating hasn’t been adopted.
ADL also really need to involve some cleaning staff in their product design. The Enviro400 MMC is just a mass of dirt and grease traps. I get the body strength might not allow cantilevered seats which is the ideal, but there are so many square corners and gaps between different pieces of panelling its almost impossible to keep clean.
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The rail industry should certainly take note of the comfortable seating on offer.
Kevin
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A big step forward in passenger comfort to have this seating and to prevent feet on seats!
Not such a good idea, however, to not have an assault screen on the cab. Driver safety should be a number one consideration.
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Screens were initially put up during Covid to protect drivers (as was the case in many other bus companies) and I believe were removed recently after consultation with driving staff.
Given how few cash transactions there now are, has the risk of assault now decreased?
I’ve also heard of drivers who prefer not having screens as it helps with customer interaction.
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Unfortunately “please remove your feet” sounds like an anatomical challenge best avoided.
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Interesting post and good to see them in detail. It is perhaps surprising though that they have stuck with single door vehicles when other parts of GSC have been successfully using dual door on busy cross town routes for a while, does anyone know why? Even some of the temporary stock currently on m1/m2 is dual door.
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Possibly because Poole bus station doesn’t lend itself to dual-door operation?
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Anything which removes over-crowded single deckers from busy routes such as this are to be welcomed with open arms. The m1/m2 are actually victims of their own success, and poor old Bournemouth Transport didn’t stand a chance trying to compete, albeit with Deckers, but at a 30′ frequency.
The problem with dual doors is that lower deck seating reduces yet further, and although wheel chair space may be limited, there is quite literally always another bus in sight on most of the route.
Loading and unloading may take a fraction longer with higher capacity vehicles, but well worth it for the majority who can enjoy the ambiance of the top deck and not having to stand under someone else’s armpit.
Terence Uden
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Great to see such confidence in passenger numbers to allow this very welcome investment. And some very well thought out touches. While Euro 6 is good it’s a shame these buses are not zero emission. That would have been a real statement of intent.
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As a regular user of the M1/M2, I agree with Roger about the ambience and comfort of these new vehicles. They are a great boost for the route, and without a doubt the most comfortable bus I have travelled on.
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Very smart looking buses, but I much prefer the Enviro400 City body. I still can’t get over Bournemouth without yellow buses though. I would replace the “More” name (to avoid the obvious trap of when you cut service), paint everything yellow, and call it “Bournemouth & Poole”.
Peter Brown
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The move to double deckers is a reflection of the continued growth in patronage. Simply adding more vehicles simply isn’t an option given the driver shortages and pressure on depot space across the local depots.
Some have asked why dual door vehicles haven’t been adopted when they have elsewhere by GSC. Perhaps it’s a reflection that in Bournemouth and Poole, there’s a higher proportion of elderly passengers and longer average journey times. Having a dual door vehicle will reduce lower deck capacity and that’s before we get onto the issue of street furniture and stops.
BW2
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I believe that in the 1960s the Bournemouth – Poole corridor was said to have the most frequent interurban service in the south of England. When I first encountered it in 1972 it had just been partly converted to OMO with Daimler Fleetlines (ordered by Provincial) but some variations of the route were still being operated by time expired Bristol KSWs.
Presumably somebody has done the risk assessment regarding the lack of driver screens. I do know that it gives a much more friendly atmosphere without them. Given that modern buses have high quality cameras everywhere I would have thought that the risk of assault is fairly low.
One of the comments mentions Hedingham & Chambers. It’s certainly true that they are in a dire state principally due to the lack of drivers which has overshadowed the improvements that have been made to some services.
Nigel Turner
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Go East is as far from Go South Coast as it’s possible to be (though not geographically).
GSC has managed to pursue a strategy of investment and service delivery, and that’s resulted in a business that managed to outlast Yellow Buses and First in Southampton. An excellent business for those who’ve had the benefit of sampling them (though not without faults, we should say).
GE was instead formed from four disparate businesses, never being the dominant player in any of them though you might have seen them challenging First for supremacy in Norfolk. As it was, First rediscovered their mojo at the same time GE lost theirs. A fleet with confused branding, a reliance on marginal work, cascading of older vehicles with limited new vehicle spend – it’s long been the black sheep of the Go Ahead world.
BW2
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I must be honest and say that I’m no great fan of the E400MMC. In my experience they have hard suspension and soon develop a lot of creaks and rattles. And I agree absolutely about the cantilevered seats (or lack of them!)
Andrew Kleissner
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While it is easy to trumpet the growth in ridership on the m1 and m2, it should be acknowledged some of that growth is undoubtedly existing bus users abstracted from another operator which finally collapsed last year.
That’s not to knock the success of the m1/m2 – far from it. Their growth does suggest that offering an attractive “turn up and go” frequency is a good way to retain existing bus users and attract new ones. Perhaps it gave them the edge over Yellow Buses – a 7-10 minute frequency with single-deckers was more attractive than a double-decker every 15-20 minutes.
As others have said already, the m1/m2 have perhaps become victims of their own success – having vanquished Yellow Buses, greater capacity is now needed. The Enviro200s had certainly been busy, and often quite crowded, on the occasions I have travelled on the m1/m2.
Malc M
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While I certainly agree that Go South Coast is an excellent operator I can’t help bemoaning the decline / withdrawal of services in parts of South Hampshire over the years which really should respond to better frequency and coverage (I’m thinking Eastleigh – Chandlers Ford and the Hedge End area, especially with the massive increases in house building in the latter). What’s left now is a shadow of what it could be when compared to Southampton – Chandlers Ford – Winchester (similar demographics) which has thrived.
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Possibly so but there was the Velvet operation in that area. It didn’t last but was there long enough to deter the foundations for growth by any one else. As a matter of interest, has any one any knowledge of Mr Stockley. Not heard a peep since CT Plus.
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Now works for First Bus I believe
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He is Bid Executive & Mobilisation Lead at FirstGroup
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Bit much to suggest that Phil Stockley salted the earth in South Hampshire! He attempted to carve a niche with Velvet and did so for a while.
However, there’s been Brijan, Wheelers and Xelabus as well as Velvet, and none of those have also successfully been able to develop a commercial operation of longevity. With appalling traffic conditions, affluence and high car ownership, it’s not an easy area.
BW2
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GSC, or at least Solent Blue Line/Bluestar around the time of its takeover, tried the frequency, quality & coverage improvements on those corridors and it just didn’t work (or doesn’t appear to have done so). They simplified the Southampton to Hedge End routes with an increased frequency & did the same for Eastleigh to Chandlers Ford & Hedge End and none saw enough growth. The issue for Eastleigh was simply no one but the old or very young wanted to go there (it is too close to Southampton to be a draw) so demand is very limited and Hedge End is a complicated settlement from a road layout perspective. Possibly if what Bluestar did between Southampton & Hedge End had been tried with current GSC levels of investment (Bluestar did it with older but refurbed vehicles) with some tweaking there may have been a better outcome but I suspect that the Eastleigh local work is just never going to be anything but low frequency marginals.
Velvet had little affect on these operations, they took over routes that GSC were giving up or cutting back on as the SBL enhancements introduced around the takeover (the Red Rocket network) were cut back on as they hadn’t delivered, rather than competing directly for most of this (there was one flash of competition when GSC responded to a Velvet initiative that they felt was too close to their commercial network). Part of the problem for this network may have been timing, much of the enhancements went in around the time of the takeover which meant there was much upheaval in the management structure when these needed focus on bedding them in (I think most of the SBL Head Office staff were made redundant the same month as Red Rocket officially launched).
Dwarfer
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Dwarfer’s comments are interesting . . . I’ve long thought that simply enhancing service networks isn’t enough; there has to be a reason for passsengers to travel.
Eastleigh is pleasant enough, but hardly a magnet for shoppers, and I suspect after 5pm the town centre is very quiet indeed. Both Velvet and Xelabus have tried hard to generate custom, but both have failed . . . simply because there’s not enough there for regular passengers to travel . . . and regular passengers is what we survive on!!
greenline727
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You write “They’re the most comfortable seat I’ve ever sat in on a bus”.
How do these seats compare with a class 777 which seems to come for a lot of stick about hard seats?
Is ther any difference in fire regulations for a bus compared to an EMU?
TW
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As a regular m1 driver it has been staggeringly busy this year! Many may not realise but up until May 2022, the m1 terminated at Castlepoint.
Morebus customers (and others) were desperate for a better service towards the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, and it was barely two months from that extension that YB went into receivership.
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I had intended to do Delaines new 73 bus today but Roger’s concise blog tempted me to spend yesterday afternoon and this morning seeing if morebus and their new buses lived up to the hype. My arrival was greeted at Pokesdown station with directions for Yourbus route 1 above the station exit. That aside I didn’t have to wait long for a bus and it didn’t take long to find a pile of new autumn bus timetables in the luggage rack of the first new Enviro I went on. This proved invaluable as I’m unfamiliar with area.
The new buses have the same design of seat as Lothians nigh on 100 Enviros bought a couple of years ago but are more cumfy. All the staff were friendly and welcoming to all customers knowing many by name. The buses are certainly needed to meet capacity needs.
Sadly I encounter the same irating feature nationwide with these Enviros as after dark they only have half the lights on as the drivers can’t see out due to the glare, confirmed by driver in Poole early this morning.
As someone unfamiliar with Bournemouth I found only having the next stop despite having a screen downstairs large enough to show the next three surprising in a tourist area, especially as the map is the same crude diagram with blobs that’s appeared in Brighton. It doesn’t even have stations on it let alone railway lines! Two days travel for £10.20, only to find there is a three day ticket for £10 only available on the App, however the weekly and monthly ones can be bought as tickets the later for £77! As in many places the actual cost and options of tickets are poorly advertised
I look forward to new buses on m2 where I stayed but they won’t make up for the poor integration between m2 and 1’s both scheduled and actual.
I would recommend others give morebus a go. Score 7 out of 10
John Nicholas
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