Yellow BusesCompanies House extract company no 2004964
Bournemouth Transport Limited was a bus operator based in

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

, on the south coast of England. Yellow Buses was the trading name for Bournemouth Transport Ltd. The company fell into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

in July 2022 and ceased operations on 4 August 2022.

History

Origins

Yellow Buses traces its origins to July 1902, when

Bournemouth Corporation Bournemouth Borough Council was the local authority of Bournemouth in Dorset, England and ceased to exist on 1 April 2019. It was a unitary authorities in England, unitary authority, although between 1974 and 1997 it was an administrative non-m ...

began operating trams. Bus services commenced in 1906 to act as feeders to the tram system. In 1930 more bus services were started away from the tram system, to serve

Kinson Kinson is a former village which has been absorbed by the town of Bournemouth, in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. The area became part of Bournemouth on 1 April 1931. There were two ...

and

Holdenhurst Holdenhurst is a village in the civil parish of Throop and Holdenhurst, in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole district, in Dorset, England, situated in the green belt land of the north-east suburbs of Bournemouth. The village comprises fewe ...

when those areas were added to the borough of Bournemouth. In 1933 the corporation began to operate

trolleybuses A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

, and by 1936 replaced all the trams with trolleybuses. The trolleybuses were replaced by buses between 1963 and 1969. Yellow Bus at the Lansdowne - geograph

Bournemouth Transport Limited

With the passing of the

Transport Act 1985 The Transport Act 1985 (c. 67) was an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It introduced privatised and deregulated bus services throughout Great Britain and came into effect in October 1986. The act was created as a response to growing ...

and subsequent

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

of bus services, Yellow Buses was incorporated as a private limited company, Bournemouth Transport Limited. All shares in the limited company were owned, however, by

Bournemouth Borough Council Bournemouth Borough Council was the local authority of Bournemouth in Dorset, England and ceased to exist on 1 April 2019. It was a unitary authorities in England, unitary authority, although between 1974 and 1997 it was an administrative non-m ...

. In 2005, with a need to modernise the fleet and a realisation that full privatisation would better equip the operator to overcome the increasing competition it was facing from

Wilts & Dorset Wilts & DorsetCompanies House extract company no 1671355
Wi ...

, the Council offered the company for sale.

Transdev

In December 2005 Bournemouth Borough Council sold 90% of the shares in Bournemouth Transport Limited to

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a France-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. Transdev was formed on 3 April 2011 via the merg ...

. The Council retained a 10% shareholding. The operation was rebranded as Transdev Yellow Buses. Transdev then decided to make its mark on Yellow Buses by giving the network a complete overhaul. This became the Big Network Change of 2 July 2006, where each bus, each journey, and each route (even route numbers) was changed. To make sure that the public were made aware of these changes, Transdev Yellow Buses held road shows across

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

and

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

to publicise its new network, livery, branding and new fare structure. Transdev subsequently made slight changes to the network with funding from Bournemouth Borough Council, including the introduction of routes 37 and 38, the extension of route 41 at both ends to Boscombe Pier and to Throop Church, and the re-introduction of route 24 to Bournemouth, also restoring this route's evening service and its Sunday service between

Bournemouth Railway Station Bournemouth railway station serves the seaside town of Bournemouth, in Dorset, England. It was known previously as Bournemouth East (1885 to 1899) and then Bournemouth Central (1899 to 1967). It has long been treated as an obligatory princip ...

and Alum Chine. Also, for the first time in recent years, Transdev Yellow Buses decided not to run services on New Year's Day 2007 except route 747, which ran a normal Monday service. In April 2010 services were expanded into

East Dorset East Dorset was a local government district in Dorset, England. Its council met in Wimborne Minster between 2016 and 2019. The district (as Wimborne) was formed on 1 April 1974 by merging Wimborne Minster Urban District with Wimborne an ...

with the launch of the hourly route 29 between Bournemouth, Winton,

Ferndown Ferndown is a town and civil parish in Dorset in southern England, immediately to the north of Bournemouth and Poole. The parish, which until 1972 was called ''Hampreston'', includes the communities of Ameysford, Hampreston, Longham, Stapehill ...

and

West Moors West Moors is a village in Dorset, England, on the northern fringe of the Poole-Bournemouth conurbation, just outside the larger settlements of Ferndown and Verwood. The parish of West Moors had an estimated population of 7,400 in 2004, incre ...

RATP Group

In 2009 Transdev's majority owner,

Caisse des dépôts et consignations Caisse, a French word, may refer to: * Caisse Desjardins, an association of credit unions in Quebec * Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, a road-bicycle racing team *Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Q ...

, commenced negotiating with

Veolia Environnement Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. In 2 ...

to merge Transdev with

Veolia Transport Veolia Transport (formerly Connex and CGEA Transport) was the international transport services division of the French-based multinational company Veolia until the 2011 merger that gave rise to Veolia Transdev, later renamed Transdev. Veolia Tr ...

. As part of the resulting agreement, it was agreed that the

RATP Group The RATP Group () is a French state-owned enterprise (Établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial, EPIC) that operates public transport systems primarily in Paris, France. Headquartered in Paris, it originally operated under th ...

, which had a minority shareholding in Transdev, would take over ownership of some of Transdev's operations in lieu of cash payment. Transdev Yellow Buses was included and was transferred on 3 March 2011. The business resumed trading as Yellow Buses. On 16 November 2013 the A1 (Airport Shuttle) once again become a Yellow Buses route, after six years of being operated by Discover Dorset. In 2016, RATP Group purchased the 10% shareholding in Bournemouth Transport Limited that it did not already own.

2017 route changes and financial losses

In January 2017, Yellow Buses announced it was reorganising most of its routes "after extensive research into the life and work patterns of passengers". The 1a, 1b and 1c services between Poole and Christchurch were replaced with new 'P' services ('P' standing for 'Priory', denoting Christchurch Priory) and ceased to run along Christchurch Road, taking a more lengthy route via Holdenhurst Road. Other lettered services included 'B' for 'Bourne', 'U' for 'University', and 'V' for 'Kinson Village'. The new routes, and the rushed introduction of the new timetables, led to scores of complaints from passengers and in October that year, Bournemouth Transport Limited, which owned and ran Yellow Buses, posted pre-tax losses of £124,000 at Companies House (generating a loss after tax of £193,000)."Yellow Buses boss Andrew Smith quits - days after firm reports rising losses"

Bournemouth Daily Echo The ''Bournemouth Daily Echo'', commonly known as the ''Daily Echo'' (a.k.a. the ''Bournemouth Echo''), is a local newspaper that covers the area of southeast Dorset, England, including the towns Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch. Published b ...

, 11 October 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2019. Andrew Smith, the managing director, announced his resignation days after the accounts were published.

Further financial losses and 2019 buy-out

In early 2018, it was announced that Yellow Buses would be reverting to an earlier route-name format - '1', '1a', '1b' and so on - these changes coming into effect on 8 April 2018."Yellow Buses launch revised network across the region"

, 8 April 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2019. This necessitated painting and rebranding the company's entire fleet of 140 buses and updating the timetable information at more than 1,000 stops. David Squire, who had replaced Andrew Smith as MD, said: "Everything is in place for Sunday's launch of our revised network. It has been a tremendous team effort and I think our 15 million passengers will notice a positive difference in our services from April 8." The company continued to post losses at Companies House, however, generating pre-tax losses of £1,818,000 in the year ending 30 December 2017 and further losses of £1,975,000 in the year to 31 December 2018. On 2 July 2019, following a review of its operations, RATP Group sold Bournemouth Transport Limited to the three directors of the latter company in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

. In the months following the management buyout, Yellow Buses further incurred financial losses, losing £2.65 million over 15 months leading to March 2020, said to have been caused by the replacement of computer systems and the cost of the management buyout from the RATP Group. In the February of the same year, Yellow Buses stopped using Poole Bus Station due to

anti-social behaviour Anti-social behaviours, sometimes called dissocial behaviours, are actions which are considered to violate the rights of or otherwise harm others by committing crime or nuisance, such as stealing and physical attack or noncriminal behaviours s ...

in the area.

Administration

Two years after difficulties in attempting to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the company fell into

in July 2022, citing loss in revenue and an increase in running costs for the business. Yellow Buses ceased operations on 4 August 2022 with bus services operated by the company cancelled, with some of its key routes taken over by

morebus Morebus (stylized as more) is a trading name of bus operator Go South Coast primarily used in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and the wider Dorset area. Operations in the area were formerly part of the ''Wilts & Dorset'' brand, phased ou ...

. Yellow Coaches was purchased by

Xelabus Xelabus LimitedCompanies House extract company no 7338043
Xelabus Li ...

of Eastleigh on 5 August, though its operations ceased in February 2023 with their tender for its services expiring the same month. The

National Express Group Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. The ...

purchased the intercity coaching and engineering operations of Yellow Buses from administrators Milsted Langdon on 8 August.

Services

At the time the company ended operation, it ran the following routes in Bournemouth and surrounding area: * 1, 1b: Poole - Bournemouth - Christchurch * 1a: Bournemouth - Somerford - New Milton * 2: Bournemouth - Castlepoint - Bearwood * 3: Westbourne -

Royal Bournemouth Hospital The Royal Bournemouth Hospital is an Acute medicine, acute Hospital#General, general hospital in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. It is managed by the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital was managed by The Royal Bournemout ...

* 3x:

Poole Hospital Poole Hospital (also known as Poole General Hospital) is an acute general hospital in Poole, Dorset, England. Built in 1907, it has expanded from a basic 14-bed facility into a 789-bed hospital. It is the trauma centre for east Dorset and provi ...

- Royal Bournemouth Hospital (express service) * 4: Bournemouth - Royal Bournemouth Hospital - Somerford * 5, 5a: Bournemouth - Kinson * 6: Bournemouth - Bearwood - Wimborne * 6h: Royal Bournemouth Hospital - Wimborne * Buster's Beach Bus:

Alum Chine Alum Chine is the largest chine in Bournemouth, England. The gorge was crossed by a suspension bridge by the early part of the twentieth century. History In early maps the place was often transposed with Durley Chine. During World War II, Robe ...

Hengistbury Head Hengistbury Head (), formerly also called Christchurch Head, is a headland jutting into the English Channel between Bournemouth and Mudeford in the English county of Dorset. It is a site of international importance in terms of its archaeolog ...

* Buster's New Forest Explorer: Christchurch - Ringwood * 18: Bournemouth - Broadstone * 33: Bournemouth - Christchurch * 36: Talbot View - Kinson * 727: Boscombe - Aviation Business Park * 737: Bournemouth - Bournemouth Airport Terminal Morebus (previously Wilts & Dorset) took over the routes 1/1b, 1a, 2, 4, 5/5a, 6, 18, 33, 36 and 737 above, and the remainder ceased operation. However, following the retendering process, the council-subsidised routes 18, 33 and 36 were transferred to Yellow Coaches starting from 15 August, while on the same weekend, morebus started running the route 12 (Alum Chine - Hengistbury Head) again, which had been replaced by the Buster's Beach Bus since April 2022 under Yellow Buses' operation.

Fleet

A large part of the Yellow Buses fleet was made up of both Alexander-Dennis and

Wrightbus Wrightbus is a Northern Irish bus manufacturer and a pioneer of the low-floor bus. The company was established in 1946 by Robert Wright and was later run by his son William Wright, until it was acquired in 2019 by British businessman Jo Bamf ...

-bodied Volvo buses, as well as 16 to 53-seater coaches in the Yellow Coaches subdivision. As of 2021, the company operated 131 buses and coaches.

References

External links

* {{RATP Group Coach operators in England Companies based in Bournemouth Former bus operators in Dorset RATP Group Transport companies established in 1902 Transport companies disestablished in 2022 Transport in Bournemouth 1902 establishments in England 2022 disestablishments in England Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom