Now It's 70 And 80
Yesterday, we met the half hourly open top bus service from Alum Chine to Hengistbuty Head, now wrapped up in MoreBus routes 70 (RED) and 80 (YELLOW). Frankly, fbb finds the bit of the route from Chine to Bournemouth disappointing.
Alum Chine is a wooded valley leading from urban housing down to the sea.
The bus terminates there, near to the sea. The path down is pleasant and there are some excellent views, but you see almost nothing of this from the bus!
It is better to walk down and catch the bus back to Westbourne near the top!
After calling at the centre of Bournemouth, the services continue via East Cliff ...
... to Boscombe and on via Overcliff Drive to Hengistbury Head.
That lump ahead of you is the Head ...
... although the bus stops short of any ascent at the terminus.
But help is at hand for those who choose to ride rather than walk, as we shall see in tomorrow's blog.
Then It Was 12!
Traditionally Bournemouth's open top bus route (yes, there only was one!) was service 12 run by Bournemouth Corporation Transport, later Yellow Buses. 
Alas the 12 was never run by trolleybuses, although some may remember the open topped versions.
The following collection of 12s might not be complete or in the correct order, but here goes ...
Bournemouth Corporation
Privatised as Yellow Buses
Sold to Transdev
Privatised again as Yellow Buses
Competition fom Bear Cross Bus Company
Replaced in a bloodless coup by MoreBus
And, as we have seen, now disappeared as a route number but incorporated into the 70/80 this giving a much longer topless ride.
But Who Is This?
Advance publicity just shows a nameless yellow bus passing a "big wheel" - but that was the best the press could do.
But the headline was clearly a guide to the picture editor.
The on-line picture is computer generated and thus non-committal!
The company is Transpora and their web site calls the route T1; listed amongst a huge batch of school contracts.
It is not too easy to read the rubric, but High Season looks like weekends and school holidays only.
And a headline for the schools work in the local press.
And the new T1 timetable?
Certainly it is a poor effort compared with MoreBus 70/80.
No genuine pictures of Transpora's T1 (a k a Coaster) have appeared so far; or if they have, fbb cannot find them!
But there is other Public Transport at Hengistbury Head ...
P.S. Bournemouth Corporation also ran this beauty.
Another Contender
Also open topping in Bournemouth and Poole are the bright red City Dightseeing buses.
They run every hour from Bourne Math Pier via Alum Chine, Ssndbanks, Poole and back to Bournemouth ...
... and will be expensive! They always are.Certainly more than a MoreBus Zone A day ticket ...
...which covers open toppers 60, 70 and 80 for a whole day!
City Sightseeing does, however, have a commentary.
Next Getting To Hengistbury Head blog : Weds 31st May
Yellow Buses was a marketing name, not a response to privatisation. The operator remained owned by Bournemouth Council until sold in 2005.
ReplyDeleteYellow Buses traded as Bournemouth Transport Limited from 27 March 1986 (when it was incorporated with Bournemouth Council) through its French owners to its demise last August.
DeleteI'm not sure why fbb would think the Transpora picture is computer generated. It looks pretty much to be a bus type they are known to be using, at the junction of Exeter and Bath Roads, by the pier.
ReplyDeleteAlso operating in competition to Morebus on 4 school routes as Altonian, both operated by Higgs & Hill.
DeleteThe online picture (with deckchairs in the background) is clearly computer generated.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1950’s Hants & Dorset operated open toppers from Bournemouth to Mudeford - 128 comes to mind?
ReplyDeleteIt was 218 Bournemouth - Mudeford, Highcliffe and Walkford (hourly). H&D also used open-toppers seasonally on the 6 and 7 to Sandbanks Ferry, I photographed a Bristol K in 1964 leaving B'th Bus Station with destinated '7 Swanage'. H&D's open-top operations fizzled out in the late 1960s as the elderly Ks became time expired and were not replaced..
ReplyDeleteI think the 218 outer destination was known as Naish Farm.
DeleteThe open-top K-types used on the 7 in the summer did show Swanage as the destination, but they ran only between Bournemouth and Sandbanks Ferry, where passengers for Studland and Swanage alighted and used their bus tickets to travel across to Shell Bay for the bus connection, also numbered 7. In winter singledeckers with cut-away rear ends provided a direct service on the 7 using the ferry. This practice continued until a bigger ferry allowed doubledeckers to be carried.