For the more enthusiastic, this will be a round-up, because with the speed of things changing in Bournemouth at Yellow Coaches; I did not want to write something that was almost immediately out of date. So this is the state of play as I see things at the moment, while XelaGroup (or is it Xelabus again now) make their final plays in Dorset.
Service Buses in BCP
It has now been announced, after I alluded to some of the new before, that Go South Coast will be taking the 18, 33 and 36 services under their wing and bring them back into the morebus brand. To be honest, I was surprised that Go South Coast did not get the six month contracts to start with, but someone in BCP Council thought better.
These buses will turn blue and red from Wednesday 15th February – Yes, I know, it is a midweek change, which is as normal as you can get at the moment.
For those that are in the Bournemouth area, it will be good to see the 18 back to an hourly frequency after multiple reports of whole duties simply being abandoned. I notice that the timetables have already been removed from the Yellow Coaches website in preparation, or maybe to hide the times they are meant to be at….
School Buses
Things now get a little more murky in regards to who is doing what with the schools services around the Bournemouth and Poole area. I think a table is in order:
| Advertised Last Date of XelaGroup operation | School | Actual Last Date of XelaGroup Operation | New Operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday 13th January | Lytchett Minster | Friday 13th January | Damory |
| Cranbourne | Burrows Coaches | ||
| Friday 20th January | Highcliffe | ||
| Parkfield | Friday 20th January | National Express Transport Services | |
| Friday 10th February | Twynham | ||
| Parkstone & Poole Grammar | Friday 10th February | Transpora Bournemouth from Monday 20th February* | |
| Friday 17 March | St Peters | Friday 10th February | Transpora Bournemouth from Monday 20th February* [or morebus from Monday 20th March] |
Bus Buses (Not just from Bournemouth)
So from the murky depths of various sources, and just watching and listening we have the following bus movements:
- Dennis Dart MPD 401 (G14 XEL) has been sold – albeit without it’s private vanity plate and now as SN06 BRV
- The Yellow and White Volvo B7TL Wrights Gemini (LF52 UPG ?) is up for sale
- The Yellow Buses Wright Gemini bodied double deckers are up for sale at £45k a piece – although I also hear they have been sold to Transpora
- Ex Rental Fleet ADL 200MMCs YX18KNY and YX18KNZ are already re-listed by The Minstral Group as “undergoing return preparation” at The Bus Shop
- J16 XEL has lost it’s vanity plate and is now back at DX61 EOM – pending?
- All (if not almost all) Seaview Services vehicles now seem to on the mainland
- 426 (YY66 PDX) apparently is off the road, following it disgracing itself somewhere out and about. I do not have any further details though.
St Peter’s School – The Transpora Timetables on their website are dated 18th March.
Although on their social media they say 20th February
Just to say – the “Parkstone Grammar School” and “Poole and Parkstone Grammar” routes are both the same route, the 930, originally scheduled to finish on the 13th January however extended to the 10th February after its bus committee intervened
Thanks for clarifying.
Nat/Express (Bmth) now have the 5 Highcliffe routes contracts
Cheers Tim
Well, it didn’t take long for the Yellow Coaches website to be taken down…
No, however at the same time Xelabus’ publishing and design is I believe a company connected to one of the Xela owners, so they would not want much negative publicity out there.