more Buses in Dorset: Part One
16 July 2023
ABOVE: On Easter Day, Sunday 9th April 2023, more 1674 (HF69 CRX), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, awaits departure
from Bournemouth Square on route 1b to Christchurch.
from Bournemouth Square on route 1b to Christchurch.
I've freed myself up to spend the Easter weekend in Bournemouth, exploring the morebus network operated by Go South Coast. more, the name the buses carry (complete with a small m), has been through a year of upheaval and consolidation following the sudden collapse of its rival operator in the Bournemouth and Poole areas, Yellow Buses, in July 2022.
Much has been written about the way more stepped in at very short notice to rescue many of the services previously run by Yellow Buses, and I would recommend Roger French's article on the steps that more took to introduce a replacement network of services on the Saturday morning (covering an additional 94 duty lines, apparently) when Yellow Buses had only ceased trading on the Thursday afternoon. What my employers would call "working at pace", but I just term as remarkable.
ABOVE: More 245 (HF18 CHX) is an ADL Enviro200 MMC that has been with the company since new in 2018. Route 33 from Christchurch, on the other hand, is one of the services that was taken over from Yellow Buses. This is Westover Road in Bournemouth Town Centre on Saturday 8th April 2023.
Nine months after that initial upheaval, and in my normal way, I am embarking on a range of journeys across the network. It's Saturday morning, and I've bought a day ticket that provides unlimited travel on "any morebus, UNIBUS, Damory, Bluestar, Unilink or Salisbury Reds bus right across the South Coast". In other words, any Go South Coast bus, for £10.00 - bargain!
I'm starting out on the X1 service to Lymington, across the border into Hampshire. The X1 and X2 services, following slightly different routes between Bournemouth and Lymington, provide a broadly half-hourly service on weekdays. This is the sort of route I really like - a nice long run (105 minutes) on a double-decker bus through British towns, villages, countryside and coast.
Only two of us are on the 0835 departure from Bournemouth on this Saturday morning (only the second departure of the day). It's an ADL Enviro400, but not the cleanest example ever. There has already been an early incoming run from Lymington on this service, but I still wonder whether the drink carton on the front sill, and the ticket and what looks like an abandoned bread roll on the floor, were already there when the bus set out at 0650...
We're very quickly onto fast roads out of town, and call in at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital before heading towards Christchurch.
The speed at which more had to work in order to take over so much of the Yellow Buses empire also meant drafting in a number of buses from other Go South Coast fleets, and UNIBUS, Damory and Bluestar vehicles are much in evidence around here.
ABOVE: more 1532 (HJ63 JJF), an ADL Enviro400, is still in Bluestar livery when working route X2 from Christchurch to Bournemouth. It is on Fairmile Road, on the outskirts of Christchurch, on Saturday 8th April 2023.
Christchurch was founded in the seventh Century, and was originally named Twynham or Twyneham; "the place between rivers", as it sits at the confluence of the rivers Avon and Stour. The town became known as Christchurch after the construction of the priory in 1094.
The town was once dominated by a Norman castle, and some ruins remain. Nearby is the 12th century riverside chamber block known as the Norman House:
After Christchurch, the X1 is heading broadly east, but turns towards the coast, to dip its toe in the water on occasions, including at Barton on Sea and, a few miles after that, at Milford on Sea.
ABOVE: They do say that you should never take a photograph that is looking into the sun... But if that's where the sun is when you pass a stunning spot like Cliff Road, Milford on Sea, what's a blogger to do? The land masses in the distance are probably Hurst Point, at the end of a shingle spit on the mainland, or, to the right, the north-western edge of the Isle of Wight, somewhere between The Needles and Yarmouth. Saturday morning, 8th April 2023.
The bus is getting steadily busier, to the point that around 30 people are preparing to get off as we arrive at the Stanford Hill stop, just before the High Street in Lymington. But why are they getting off at this stop and not staying on to the High Street? I decide to get off too, as there's obviously a reason.
There is - it's Market Day in Lymington, and the High Street is one-way only, so the bus is taking a slight detour around the town to get to its terminus in Gosport Street.
Lymington is a picturesque port town which has become a very popular tourist destination because of its proximity to the New Forest. It is also one end of a ferry service to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight (where it connects with route 7 in my 100 British Bus Routes series).
ABOVE: Lymington High Street, in Saturday market mode on 8th April.
It's a busy place, even at 10.30am. And so, so pretty.
Lymington River, the heart of town
I don't have much of a plan from here, except to return to Bournemouth on the X1 or X2. But I reach the bus stop in Gosport Street at just the right time for route 119, to New Milton. On the dot of 1056, the bus arrives. It's another more service; an 8.9m ADL Enviro200.
I may be the first and only passenger at this point, but 10 more join in the High Street (this being one-way in the right direction for us). Several of them know each other. There's quite a lot of churn, but the bus remains busy throughout the 44-minute run.
This route certainly reaches the parts that the X1 and X2 do not. We squeeze through villages such as Pennington, Everton and Hordle, and through some incredibly tight country roads in between.
My notes record that the driver on this journey is "rough". At one very tight spot we meet a car coming the opposite way. The driver brakes sharply, scraping the kerb as he does so. He then pulls on the handbrake and folds his arms until the car has managed to squeeze through the very tight gap.
There's another very sharp braking incident just before we begin a double-run to the Tesco store in New Milton, and I wonder whether he had almost forgotten to do the double-run.
It's a fascinating drive, and I leave the service, with most others, in Station Road, New Milton.
ABOVE: more 2716 (HW64 AXH), an Enviro200, dropping passengers in Station Road, New Milton at the end of a run from Lymington on route 119, on Saturday 8th April.
A tea break here means that the 1204 departure on route X1 back to Bournemouth should be long gone; the next one is the X2 service at 1239. I'm not sure exactly where the stop is, so I decide to check it before I wander any further.
It's around the corner from Station Road, in Whitefield Road. It's only 1210 or so, but there are eight people waiting at the stop. Is it possible that the 1204 departure of the X1 is late? I decide to wait.
Time passes and nothing happens. Then, at 1224, the X1 comes round the corner. It's 20 minutes behind schedule, but I am now a few minutes ahead of the game. (I also find out later that the X2 departure at 1239 is being covered by a single-decker bus today, so I have scored on two fronts, I think.)
There's an event underway on the New Milton Recreation Ground. An Easter Fayre, perhaps? Nice day for it, anyway.
The journey back to Bournemouth is uneventful, and I never find out what made the bus 20 minutes late.
We pass an 05-reg vehicle on a service heading the other way. It's a good reminder of the scramble that more had to undertake to get enough vehicles together for its sudden expansion - as well as pushing some brand new vehicles into service earlier than planned, and borrowing from other Go South Coast companies, I suspect it brought a few vehicles like this one back into front-line service, when the bus itself was probably looking forward to school services and partial retirement!
ABOVE: more 1830 (HF05 GGU), a Volvo B7TL East Lancs Myllennium Vyking, is seen on Lymington Road in Highcliffe, en route for Lymington, also on Saturday 8th.
The following afternoon, Easter Day, I am again heading for Christchurch. This is a late afternoon run on route 1b, one of the routes picked up from Yellow Buses. On this second day in town, I have been using the Tap-On, Tap-Off facility (TOTO as I call it - see my previous thoughts on TOTO here.)
For a late Sunday afternoon trip, this is a busy service (especially as most of the shops are closed on Easter Day).
There's a choice between route 1, route 1a and route 1b along this corridor (the 1 has since been renumbered 1c). My 1b takes me through Boscombe and deep into Southbourne, before we cross the River Stour at Tuckton Bridge.
And back into Christchurch, where I can finally get a decent snap of the Old Town Hall, built in 1859 and Grade-II listed.
Christchurch has quite a cultural repertoire as well. A weekly market has been in place since 1149 (the year, not late morning), although it was closed in 1872 and didn't return for 100 years. There's an annual food and wine festival and an annual music festival, as well as a regatta.
It's quite late in the day that I have arrived here (and later than it says on the Old Town Hall clock in the picture above). Most shops were never open today due to Easter shopping restrictions, and even those that were have now closed for the day.
The only place where there is still activity is the bus stop! Eight or nine people are gathered here awaiting a service back into Bournemouth.
There's a 1a service heading out to Somerford, an eastern suburb that I have passed through the previous day on my way to Lymington. It's in Unibus livery.
ABOVE: Unibus 1623 (HF66 CDY) is an ADL Enviro400 MMC. It's seem in Christchurch High Street on route 1a to Somerford, late on Easter Sunday afternoon, 9th April.
My bus back into town is another ADL Enviro400, this time in Damory Coaches livery. This is on route 1a, and is again busy. This is a dual-door bus, new to Go-Ahead London. The rear door is not in use, which is not a problem. Potentially slightly more so is that there is no tap-off reader. As I'm going to the last stop I'm not too bothered, but I assume one is supposed to use the driver's machine in such circumstances.
ABOVE: Damory 1258 (SN12 AOW), another ADL Enviro400, approaches the stop in the High Street, Christchurch, on its way to Bournemouth on route 1a, on Sunday 9th April. The destination display is working - just not for my camera!
And with an otherwise uneventful journey, I return to Bournemouth to retire for the night.
I have more stories about my travels with more; yes, there's more more to come, in a future article...