Yellow Buses in Administration

 Yellow Buses of Bournemouth have today gone into administration.

https://www.yellowbuses.co.uk/statement

The statement on their website says that negotiations have been under way for some time for a major national operator to buy the business. It is assumed that this is still ongoing and could be completed soon.

Both Go Ahead and First would be obvious candidates, but Go Ahead seems more likely. Bus services are not as commercially viable as they once were, so competition concerns that would have prevented such a purchase a few years ago no longer have the same weight. They would certainly be able to bring the most economies of scale and local knowledge to the Yellow network.

For First, Yellow would fill a geographical gap between their Wessex operation in Weymouth and City Red in Southampton, but is less likely as First have been concentrating on selling loss-making divisions over the last few years and have not made a new acquisition in a long while.

Stagecoach can never be ruled out, but their new private equity owners might have very different priorities compared to their previous management.

National Express, Arriva and Rotala are highly unlikely as they have nothing else in the region with which to support a new acquisition.

Transdev used to own Yellow Buses, which transferred to RATP when Transdev restructured. Transdev is now based in the North, where it is run successfully by Alex Hornby, who is no stranger to our neck of the woods having previously been operations manager of Bluestar. Yellows will be on his radar, but will Transdev's French government owners want to buy it back?

All should become clear in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime Yellow bus services are operating as normal.

Endangered

Recent rumours of imminent widespread cuts to bus services that are subsidised by Hampshire County Council appear to be true. The Hants Bus Blog has received confirmation from insiders at Xelabus indicating that major cuts are on the way to their public services.

Now they've officially registered the complete withdrawal of the following services:

• X8 Eastleigh-Boyatt Wood. This means Boyatt Wood will have no public transport on Sundays and bank holidays from 28th August.
• X17 Eastleigh-Petersfield. This ends a historic bus link between Bishops Waltham and Petersfield via the Meon Valley. For decades, the old 52 route ran several times a day all the way from Southampton to Petersfield, before it was severed at Bishops Waltham, with the Southampton end now living on as Xelabus X10. The route east of Bishops Waltham was eventually cut back to the current situation, where it runs just one return journey a week and continues through to Eastleigh. There's nothing left to cut other than the route itself, which will cease on 31st August. Hampshire County Council says it is currently paying a subsidy of £7.88 for each passenger journey on this service.
• X6/X7 Eastleigh-Hiltingbury. This is the successor of what was once a high frequency (every 15 minutes) service between Eastleigh, Fryern Hill, Chandlers Ford and Hiltingbury, with occasional attempts to also serve Valley Park. These routes will be withdrawn on 3rd September, leaving Fryern Hill with no buses at all, Hiltingbury with buses only to Winchester (and they are also endangered, see below), and Chandlers Ford with no buses to Eastleigh although it does have an hourly train service. Velmore will apparently be served by an extended X4, but for how long, who can say?

Hampshire County Council have been consulting (quietly - have they already made up their minds?) on other cuts, and the information pack provided as part of that consultation identifies the other subsidised routes in our area that are also endangered. Here are selected lowlights:

• Xelabus X15: Eastleigh-Hamble is apparently also to disappear, but this has yet to be officially registered as withdrawn. Bluestar 3 covers most of the route between Eastleigh and Hedge End, but its withdrawal would leave Lowford, Netley and Hamble with no direct public transport link to the rest of Eastleigh Borough.
• Stagecoach E1/E2: Eastleigh-Winchester. This route has been passed around all of our region's operators since Bluestar decided it was no longer commercially viable. The E1's route is largely covered by Xelabus X9 and Stagecoach 69, however access to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital would suffer greatly if these routes were to go. You can of course catch a (heavily subsidised) train directly between Eastleigh and Winchester.

• First Solent 11: Fareham-Clayhall. Already the timetable, Mon-Sat daytimes between the peaks only, is so restrictive as to make this route only of use to a very narrow section of the population. Expect it to go, leaving several areas of Gosport without bus services:
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• First Solent 20: Fareham-Wickham. Cutting this would leave Funtley and Knowle without public transport, while Stagecoach 69 continues to serve Wickham.
• First Solent 21: Fareham-Hill Head. Cutting this would leave Hill Head and Peel Common inaccessible by bus. It already only runs every 2 hours, 6 daytimes a week.
• First Solent 28/28A: Fareham-Whiteley. Cutting this would cut Whiteley off from public transport completely. Each passenger journey currently costs Hampshire County Council £3.83 in subsidies.
• First Solent F3: Fareham-Portchester. Currently operates Wednesdays only, for the benefit of serving Dore Avenue in Portchester, which would otherwise have no public transport.
• First Solent 27: Rowlands Castle-Emsworth. Axing this would leave New Brighton and Denvilles cut off from public transport. Rowlands Castle would lose all its public buses and be left with just its railway station.

• Bluestar 6 Southampton-Lymington. Partly operated commercially, so unlikely to disappear completely for now. Expect a cut in frequency.
• More 112 Hythe-Lymington. The timetable has been slashed back so much over the years that this route is no longer much use to anyone, running only a couple of days per week. Expect it to disappear, especially considering that it costs Hampshire's taxpayers £3.58 per passenger journey. End-to-end journeys can still be done via a connection in Totton. Beaulieu can be reached on the New Forest Tour in the summer, but will be cut off for the rest of the year.
• More 125 Christchurch-Ringwood. Currently runs three days a week, but costs Hampshire taxpayers £4.79 per passenger journey, so expect it to be withdrawn pronto, cutting off many New Forest villages from public transport.
• More 119 Lymington-New Milton. Eye-wateringly high single fares and restrictive operating hours mean it's mainly pass holders using this service, which along with the 191 and 193 services costs the Hampshire taxpayer £4.07 in subsidies each time someone steps aboard. Much of these routes is already covered by More X1 and X2. Withdrawal expected.
• Bluestar H1/H2 Hythe local services. Once upon a time this was the high-frequency 36/37 minibus route, but has been gradually cut back over the years. Many areas already served by Bluestar 8 and 9. Currently three days a week, costing the Hampshire taxpayer £6.30 per passenger journey. Expect it to disappear.
• Bluestar T3/T4 Totton-Cadnam. Once part of the Totton Link group of services, now a shrivelled rump running just two days a week, costing the Hampshire taxpayer £6.30 per passenger journey. Expect it to disappear, leaving all areas it serves west of the A326, including Cadnam, cut off completely. Cadnam had a daily commuter service to Southampton as recently as 2015. 
• More X2 Lymington-Bournemouth. Partly operated commercially, so unlikely to disappear completely for now. Expect a cut in frequency.

• Bluestar 35 Romsey-Braishfield. Not much scope to cut this back any further without completely cutting it, leaving Braishfield with no public transport.
• Bluestar 36 Romsey-Lockerley. Twice weekly shoppers' service costing Hampshire taxpayers £50.25 per passenger journey. It'd be cheaper to send each passenger in their own personal taxi. A dead cert for the chop.
• Bluestar 39 Romsey-Nomansland. Thrice weekly shoppers' service, partly funded by Wiltshire but costing Hampshire taxpayers £9.80 per passenger journey. If Wiltshire won't cough up more, it won't last.
• Salisbury Reds X7R Southampton-Romsey-Salisbury. The subsidy here is only for the Romsey to Salisbury section and Wiltshire chip in too, bringing the subsidy cost for Hampshire taxpayers down to 43p per passenger journey. Should just about survive. At the very worst, X7R journeys would be replaced with standard X7 not via Romsey.

• Stagecoach 46 Winchester-North Baddesley. This used to run frequently all the way into Southampton, but was first cut back to the General Hospital, then to North Baddesley, and the frequency has been slashed to just a few times a day. Costing the taxpayer £10.79 per passenger journey, cuts are inevitable even though some journeys are commercially operated.
• Stagecoach 63 Winchester-Owslebury. Only runs two days a week, but still costs Hampshire taxpayers £10.16 per passenger journey. Expect it to be replaced by a taxishare.
• Stagecoach 67 Winchester-Petersfield. Partly commercial, but the subsidised journeys cost Hampshire taxpayers £4.09 per passenger journey, so expect them to be cut. Only 4 full return journeys run on weekdays currently.
• Stagecoach 95 Winchester-East Stratton. Shoppers' service to Micheldever 2 days a week. Costs the Hampshire taxpayer £10.02 per passenger journey. Expect it to be withdrawn and possibly replaced by extending the existing taxishare service.

Brace for cuts

The latest post from the Lancaster District Bus User's Group describes how services are being temporarily cut up there by Stagecoach, possibly to cover Stagecoach's contract to provide special bus services at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. If their theory is true, then Stagecoach would need to be drafting in buses and drivers from all over the country, not just Lancaster. Lo and behold...

Conveniently timed to coincide with the Brummie Games, Stagecoach services in Winchester are slashed for the summer holidays. See all of their new timetables from 24th July here, but the main points that stand out are :

• the 5 to Badger Farm having a daytime frequency of 20 mins every day of the week (currently every 15 mins on weekday daytimes), and 
• the 66 to Romsey reverting to just one route at the Romsey end, with all buses running via Abbotswood and Woodley. Cupernham and the Straight Mile lose their 66 journeys.

A bit of good news: Bluestar are running the South Downs Rambler again this year. It runs on summer Sundays between Winchester and Petersfield.

There's some kind of change on First City Red 8 from 8th September, the details of which are as yet unknown. This autumn however sees a major funding cut from central government. They had stepped in to keep bus companies afloat during the lockdowns, and that scheme has already been extended but is due to end in October. Meanwhile, passenger numbers on most routes are still nowhere near pre-covid levels, so something has to give. Expect cuts to many services this autumn.

Talking of which, the following comment to our last post hints at catastrophic cuts to come at Xelabus, who rely on Hampshire County Council funding to run most of their services:

The above are not yet confirmed, but if true would be particularly bad for Hiltingbury, which would lose its bus link to Eastleigh and be left with just a few buses a day to Winchester. This in an area which in the late 1990s had frequent direct buses to Southampton as well as Eastleigh and Winchester. More as we get it.

Good news for open top bus fans in Portsmouth. First Solent are running new open top route 50 between The Hard and South Parade Pier every day from Saturday 23rd July to Wednesday 31st August. As it's a tourist route however, normal First tickets and elderly/disabled concessionary passes are not valid.

Over in Bournemouth, More recently extended their M1 service to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Yellow Buses are responding by virtually withdrawing their competing route 3 from Sunday 24th July, focusing instead on their more direct 3x service which runs via Wessex Way and Richmond Park Road direct to Charminster. The 3 via Castlepoint will only have a couple of journeys remaining at peak times, giving More M1 a virtual monopoly on the northern part of Charminster Road. Yellows will still serve Castlepoint on routes 2, 4 and 6h, as their network map shows:

To end on a bit of good news, our sister blog, Great British Bus Routes, has completely updated their page on More Purbeck Breezer 50 between Bournemouth and Swanage, which had originally been written in 2014. Take a look for some bang up-to-date day out ideas on our region's undisputed most scenic bus route!