Transdev Yellow Buses

Infobox Bus transit
name = Transdev Yellow Buses

logo_size = 140

---

image size = 250
image_caption = Bus number 271, a Dennis Trident 2/East Lancs Lolyne, the first double-decker to receive the new Transdev livery.
company_slogan = "The brighter bus company"
founded = 1902
headquarters = Yeomans Way, Bournemouth
locale =
service_area = UK
service_type = Urban bus services
destinations = Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole
fleet =
operator = Transdev
ceo =
website = [http://www.bybus.co.uk/ Official Website]

Transdev Yellow Buses (TYB) is a bus operator in Bournemouth. It operates many routes, most with low floor buses. Some routes are in direct competition with another local operator, Wilts & Dorset.

The company was formerly owned and operated by Bournemouth Borough Council and was known as Yellow Buses Bournemouth, and prior to that "Bournemouth Transport Ltd". The name was changed when Transdev bought the company in December 2005. On 2 July 2006, Transdev Yellow Buses redesigned its entire network. It concentrated on core, higher frequency services, with a corresponding colour coded map, aimed at making the network easier for the public. In parallel, Transdev simplified its fare structure and introduced a new livery. This remains largely yellow (a condition of the sale), albeit in a lighter shade of primrose rather than the more mustard of old; "The Brighter Bus Company" became the new strap line. Transdev's new network also provides a number of lower-frequency, non-core routes.Changes followed in the months after that, with the fare prices being altered, along with extension of routes and new routes being introduced.

Minor changes to routes and times were made on 22 July 2007, and again on 25 May 2008. See the List of Transdev Yellow Buses routes for more information.

History

With the passing of the Transport Act 1985 and subsequent deregulation and privatisation of bus services "Yellow Buses Bournemouth" became an arms-length commercial company, wholly owned by Bournemouth Borough Council. In spite of the sale of other municipal operators, the Conservative-controlled council decided to hold on to its operator for the time being. Following a change of council control to the Liberal Democrats, council financial pressures in the years to 2005, a perceived 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, the council offered the company for sale.

The sale process was a difficult one but, after over 100 years of municipal operation, Bournemouth Borough Council sold Yellow Buses in December 2005 to Transdev. The Council retained 10 per cent of the shareholding and a member on the Transdev Yellow Buses board.

Transdev then decided to make its mark on Yellow Buses by giving the entire 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 Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch to publicise its new network, livery, branding and new fare structure. Since then, Transdev have made slight changes to the network with funding from Bournemouth Borough Council, including the introduction of routes 37 & 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 and to bring back the route in the evenings and on Sundays between the Rail Station 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.

Sunday 22 July 2007 saw the introduction of their new timetable. When the timetable was introduced, TYB during the summer months made all buses out in service on a Sunday Double-Deck and Low Floor to cope with demand, but now with the Winter here, and demand being less in some parts, TYB now have a mix of buses out on a Sunday, but still usually Low-Floor. It is also worth noting that the "Step" Darts cannot display any of the Route 2/3 destinations that have Bournemouth Hospital written in them, so the route number, whether it be 2a, 2b, 2c, 3a or 3b, ends up being written in the same little font size used for the destination words.

Monday 29 October 2007 saw TYB take over the operation of Routes 18 and 19 from Wilts & Dorset, and combining them to make new route 18 between Broadstone and Bournemouth. Unlike the old Wilts route, there is no service between Broadstone and Corfe Mullen, and no Sundays and evening buses.

Transdev Yellow Buses are now taking a leaf out of Wilts & Dorset's books and have invested in a Real Time & Next Stop display system. Screens have already been put in most of the low-floor fleet and it is now in operation (from end of April 2008) on all routes where the equipment has been installed.

Routes

Transdev Yellow Buses has seen many changes over the years, particularly to do with route numbers. Please see the above page for all previous routes, current and future information.

Fleet

Transdev Yellow Buses has a mixture of different vehicle types; although an influx of second-hand super low floor single decks coincided with the network changes in July 2006. These have not been seen however.

Pre 1986

Mainly Daimler/Leyland Fleetline (most of which had unusual Alexander AL type bodies as opposed to the AD type), Leyland Atlanteans, and Leyland Olympians were in the fleet up to and at the mid-1980s. Some of the Daimler/Leyland Fleetlines were convertible open-top buses for what was once an extensive summer service.

1986

Five Volvo Citybuses, five with East Lancs coach-style bodywork were purchased (fleet numbers 200 to 204 inclusive). They spent much of their time in what was then the coaching division of the Yellows..."Yellow Coaches of Bournemouth". They eventually made their way to the Yellow Buses fleet and into regular service.

1988/1989

10 Volvo Citybuses with Alexander RV-type bodies were bought, five in 1988 (fleet numbers 205 to 209 inclusive) and a further five in 1989 (210 to 214 inclusive).

1990/1991/1992

18 Dennis Dominators with East Lancs E-type bodies (built to Alexander R-type design) were purchased, and have turbo-charged Gardner 6LXCT engines: seven in 1990 (fleet numbers 251 to 257 inclusive), seven in 1991 (fleet numbers 258, 259 & 261 to 265 inclusive) and four in 1992 (fleet numbers 266 to 269 inclusive).

1993

Six East Lancs EL2000-bodied Dennis Lances were bought (fleet numbers 401 to 406 inclusive).

1995/1996

In 1995/6, a large batch of Dennis Darts with East Lancs EL2000 bodywork were purchased, and are worth noting as the bodies are wider than usual Darts (regardless of bodywork): 12 in 1995 (fleet numbers 451 to 462 inclusive) and 10 in 1996 (fleet numbers 463 to 472 inclusive). In the 1995 batch, fleet numbers 451, 452, 453 and 454 were originally in Super Route 17 livery, complete with Real Time equipment.

1997/1998

In 1997-8, delivery of Dennis Dart SLFs with East Lancs Spryte bodywork: two in 1997 (fleet numbers 473 & 474) and eight in 1998 (fleet numbers 475 to 482 inclusive). The 1998 batch were originally in "Super Route 6" livery.

1999

Yellow Buses took delivery of its first new double decks since 1992, being nine East Lancs Lolyne-bodied Tridents (fleet numbers 270 to 278 inclusive).

2001

Eight East Lancs Vyking bodied Volvo B7TLs arrived (fleet numbers 411 to 418 inclusive).

2002

Delivered were another eight East Lancs Vyking bodied Volvo B7TLs, three of them are convertible to open top format (closed tops no. 420 to 424 inclusive, convertibles no. 430 to 432 inclusive).

Fleet no. 253, one of the 18 Dennis Dominator/East Lancs E-Types was taken out of service after a fire while on a morning 31 service to Purewell, at a time England faced Brazil in the World Cup and lost. It was cannibalised for spares for the remaining Dennis Dominators.

2003

Yellow Buses took delivery six Volvo B7TLs, the bodywork of which were split equally between East Lancs Vyking (fleet numbers 426 to 428 inclusive) and Wright Eclipse Gemini (fleet numbers 180 to 185 inclusive).

Again, this year also saw another one of the original 18 Dennis Dominator/East Lancs E-Types taken out of service after another, more serious fire, completely destroyed no. 255.

The company withdrew all six East Lancs EL2000-bodied Dennis Lances. Four were loaned out then sold and the remaining two (nos. 402 and 406) became driver training vehicles. Also a few Leyland Fleetlines were sold to Thamesdown.

2004

The only deliveries were a further six further Volvo B7TLs, yet again equally split between East Lancs, this time with East Lancs Myllennium Vyking bodywork (fleet numbers 110 to 112 inclusive), and Wright Eclipse Gemini (fleet numbers 183 to 185 inclusive).

Also a few Leyland Fleetlines were sold to Thamesdown.

2005

A further three East Lancs Myllennium B7TLs arrived (fleet numbers 113 to 115 inclusive), plus four VDL SB120/Wright Merits (fleet numbers 500 to 503), the latter in a revised livery (before the sale to Transdev) of yellow and white relieved with two blue upward sweeping bands to the rear.

Also a few Leyland Fleetlines were sold to Thamesdown.

2006

Under Transdev ownership, a selection of 21 second-hand single decks arrived, all of which were low-floor Darts on either Plaxton Pointer (three buses, fleet numbers 491 to 493 inclusive), East Lancs Spryte (ten buses, fleet numbers 483 to 490 inclusive, along with 494 & 495) or Wright Crusader bodies (eight buses, fleet numbers 150 to 157 inclusive), all in the new Transdev Yellow Buses livery. These were sourced from Transdev London, Transdev's London operation, after becoming surplus because of London Buses' vehicle specifications.

The three remaining Leyland Fleetline (fleet numbers 138, 140 & 176), Dennis Dominator and East Lancs coach-style Citybuses (originally brought in 1986 for the now defunct coaching division known as Yellow Coaches) were withdrawn for sale. The Alexander Citybuses are now only used for school specials and contract services, but will occasionally undertake some 'normal' bus duties. No. 207 (formerly the United Taxis all-over advert bus) was the only Alexander Citybus to receive the new livery at this time.

2007

The company commenced repainting the remainder of the Citybuses, but this has now stopped since the company is looking into purchasing some double deckers. By the end of October, fleet numbers 205 and 206 had been sold.

Also, the driver training fleet has been changed. The company withdrew the last two East Lancs EL2000-bodied Dennis Lances (fleet numbers 402 & 406). In their place, the 1997 batch of Dennis Dart SLFs with East Lancs Spryte bodywork (fleet numbers 473 & 474) have been painted up in special yellow & purple driver training livery.

Fleet numbers 461, 466 & 467 (which are Dennis Darts with East Lancs EL2000 bodywork) have received the new livery, and 466 & 467 have also received route branding for the 18, known as the Community Bus Service.

10 reasonably new buses arrived, all being 55-plate Alexander Dennis Dart Pointers, fleet numbers 504 to 513 inclusive. These came from Manchester Airport, and because Yellow Buses were due to stop running the Airport service in November, the buses had their luggage racks removed. The company were then looking at their next batch of buses to be drafted in.

To this end, a large part of the 1995 batch of Dennis Darts with East Lancs EL2000 bodywork (fleet numbers 451 to 459) have been withdrawn and are up for sale. 451 and 455 are now in service with The Big Lemon in Brighton. In November, an ex-demonstrator Alexander Dennis Enviro400 with an '07 plate arrived. Its fleet number is 186.

2008

A single deck Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart (with a '57 plate) went into service in mid-January, numbered 515. In September 2008, the first of 11 brand new Optare Versas arrived at the depot. These have registrations to match their fleet numbers in the Txx TYB range and entered service on Route 1a (Bournemouth-Somerford) on 1 October 2008.

Bournemouth Town Centre re-routing

In September 2002, Yellow Buses decided to use Old Christchurch Road for most outbound journeys, but use Bath Road for inbound journeys. Buses in both directions in the evenings and on Sundays, however, used Bath Road. The poster to the right illustrates the changes. Services unaffected by this re-routing were 22 and 69, which used Hinton Road & Bath Road all day, every day. Some years later, Yellow Buses decided to change some town centre routing further. This managed to confuse some of its drivers. It included buses towards Lansdowne operating via Old Christchurch Road each day (except for routes 22 and 69, as above), including Sundays, and then all buses towards Lansdowne using Hinton Road & Bath Road after 1800 hrs.

During both these periods outbound Charminster Road Buses (31/32/35) avoided Old Christchurch Road on evenings and Sundays by using the Bourne Avenue side of the Square.

This was changed slightly again when Transdev carried out their Big Network Change of July 2006, so that all buses towards Lansdowne before 1800 hrs operated via Old Christchurch Road.

From 22 July 2007, all buses towards Lansdowne before 2000 hrs now operate via Old Christchurch Road.

Controversy

Since Transdev took over Yellow Buses in 2005, there has been some controversy which has been reported by the Daily Echo, the local newspaper. Some people say that they are having a harder time getting buses, having to walk longer distances to walk to bus stops and are not happy about some old and overcrowded buses being used, even though the fleet was updated from the fleet the 'old Yellow Buses' used.

There has however been a 20% increase in passenger numbers and many have welcomed the simplified route network and fare system, new high frequency extended services, improved bus stop flags and timetables, cheaper promotional tickets and the fleet of mostly modern low floor vehicles.

In some areas buses services were withdrawn due to lack of demand and were replaced by more popular and profitable routes such as those to Poole. The non-profitable routes were taken away though, suggesting the company's profit influence, instead of thinking about people in general in the lower demand area. But it has enabled the company to focus its resources on providing a more popular efficient service for the majority, including higher frequency services where needed.

External links

* [http://www.yellowbuses.co.uk Official website]