Following on from the recent and sudden demise of Yellow Buses, Richard Sharman paid a return visit to Bournemouth to see how the landscape has changed just over one month later
The fourth of August 2022 was a sad day for the employees and passengers of Bournemouth Transport, which of course traded as Yellow Buses. As described in my previous feature in issue 1437 about the day of the closure, it was somewhat surreal and possibly the day I realised just how much the yellow livery and Yellow Buses fleet name meant to the people of Bournemouth and surrounding areas, because everyone – and I mean everyone – was talking about it.
When you think of the word iconic, you could say that London’s red buses are just that, but by the same measure, and after 120 years of operation, the very same applies to Bournemouth’s yellow buses. In both instances, it applies whether you are a tourist or a local.
Go-Ahead domination?
Travelling back down to Bournemouth, just a month after the final day of Yellow Buses, I had a good four-hour trip ahead of me, and this time I decided to avoid the motorway and take the A roads. Whilst on the journey, I began thinking about what the situation in Bournemouth now means for Go-Ahead. There is no doubt that it is now 100% the dominant operator in the area, but looking at the bigger picture Go South Coast was already a substantial size, and as I passed Swindon, I was reminded of that by the sight of a Swindon Bus Company-liveried Alexander Dennis Enviro200MMC that had started off life in Southampton with Go-Ahead-owned Bluestar.
Pressing on towards Salisbury, a Wilts & Dorset heritage liveried Scania OmniDekka approached me on route X5 towards Swindon, normally operated by a Salisbury Reds-liveried vehicle. The sight of the Wilts & Dorset fleet name immediately took me back to memories of seeing red, white and black Optare Metroriders and Spectras in my teens. Whilst we have already established that yellow-liveried buses are as iconic to Bournemouth as the red bus is to London, I do believe that Wilts & Dorset also has a rich heritage in those counties.
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