Solent Blue Line

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The Solent Blue Line logo.
The Solent Blue Line logo.

Solent Blue Line is a bus company operating in central Hampshire, England. It is based in Eastleigh and was originally owned by Southern Vectis in 1987. It is now owned by Go-Ahead Group, as is Southern Vectis.

Solent Blue Line is quite unusual because some routes are operated under franchise agreements to various other Bus and Coach operators across central Hampshire.

This company, originally a subsidiary of Southern Vectis, was purchased by Go-Ahead in 2005. Since late 2005, the management and head office functions of Solent Blue Line, Southern Vectis and Go-Ahead's existing Wilts and Dorset operation have been consolidated at Wilts and Dorset's Poole headquarters.

On 13 October 2006, Solent Blue Line acquired 1 brand new Volvo B7TL/Enviro 400 and was given fleet number 758. This vehicle was originally intended for Wilts and Dorset; evidence can be seen with regard to the interior livery all done in the Wilts and Dorset branding (the seats and the colouring of the passenger safety bars). This vehicle (758) entered service on November 9 2006; its first journey being a Bluestar 1 to Winchester Bus Station at 15:10 from Southampton City Centre.

On October 24 2006, Solent Blue Line acquired Marchwood Motorways (Southampton) Limited and Marchwood Motorways (Services) Limited (together, "Marchwood Buses") for £3.0m, with the assumption of £1.4m of net debt at completion.

A DAF SB120/Wright Cadet in the "Bluestar" livery. This livery is similar to the normal Solent Blue Line livery.
A DAF SB120/Wright Cadet in the "Bluestar" livery. This livery is similar to the normal Solent Blue Line livery.

Contents

[edit] Brands

Solent Blue Line services operate under a number of brand names:-

[edit] BlueStar

Premier routes are branded "BlueStar" and are a network of high quality bus services linking Southampton with surrounding towns and villages. The company uses its newest buses along with a small fleet of extensively refurbished older buses on Bluestar routes, there are however a number of unrefurbished buses operating with BlueStar branding. In 2006 Solent Blue Line took delivery of a number of Mercedes-Benz Citaros for Bluestar.

Bluestar routes are:

[edit] Red Rocket

Red Rocket was launched on 3 September 2006 and is a high frequency network linking Eastleigh, Chandler’s Ford, Fryern Hill, Boyatt Wood, Hedge End and Hamble.

Its routes are:

  • A; Eastleigh - Hedge End - Hamble
Eastleigh to Hedge End and replaced Solent Blue Line service 9 and 9A.
  • B: Eastleigh - Boyatt Wood
Eastleigh to Boyatt Wood operating a loop via Shakespeare Road, Bosville, Broadlands Avenue, Ruskin Road and Twyford Road.
  • C: Eastleigh - Velmore Estate - Chandler's Ford - Fryern Hill - Hiltingbury
Change to route going to Hiltingbury and South Millers Dale
  • D: Eastleigh - Valley Park - Hiltingbury (Started Sunday 18 February 2007)
New hourly service between Eastleigh, North Stoneham, Valley Park and Hiltingbury

[edit] Solent Shuttle

Express coach link between Portsmouth and Southampton. This service was originally run by Southampton City Bus and later First in Hampshire and Dorset as services 727 and 747. It has had a number of other operators since, prior to the Solent Blue Line attempt it was branded as the Solent Clipper and run by Tellings-Golden Miller, they retained part of the original Southampton City Bus route numbers with the services becoming X27 and X47.

[edit] Do the docks sitting down

Open top bus tours of Southampton docks. Uses open top buses from the New Forest Tour and debranded Wilts and Dorset Leyland Olympians.

[edit] The New Forest Tour

Open top bus tours used distinctively branded yellow and orange buses (from Southern Vectis's open top tours livery). However, in 2006, they used low floor Volvo B7TLs from Wilts and Dorset, with 'New Forset Tour' and still Wilts and Dorset branding.

[edit] Nightstar and Nightlink

These are late night services running on Friday and Saturday nights aimed at people who have a night out in Southampton. All services begin at Leisure World and additionally call in the area of number of city centre bars and clubs. Nightstar services operate outbound from Southampton only and charge a flat fare of £3. Nightlink services operate in a loop and return to Leisure World with the exception of the last service of the night.

Nightstar

Nightlink

  • N5: Southampton Leisure World - Portswood - University - Southampton Leisure World
  • N10: Southampton Leisure World - Central Station - Ocean Village - Woolston - Thornhill - Bitterne - Leisure World
  • N17 Southampton Leisure World - Central Station - Shirley - Millbrook - Lord's Hill - Leisure World

[edit] Standard Solent Blue Line services

  • 6/6A: Southampton - Hedge End - Boorley Green - Botley
  • 7/7A: Southampton - West End - Horton Heath - Bishops Waltham
  • 8: Eastleigh - Colden Common - Fair Oak - Hedge End - Botley - Swanmore - Bishops Waltham
  • 17 Bishops Waltham - Swanmore - Meon Valley - Petersfield
  • 18/18A/19/19A: Millbrook - Shirley - Southampton - Bitterne - Thornhill
Offers direct competition to First Hampshire and Dorset services 17/17A and 10/10A.
  • 29: Southampton - Hedge End - Botley - Boorley Green
Change to route will no longer go to Botley/Boorley Green
  • 30: Southampton - Totton - West Totton - Woodlands - Cadnam
  • 31: Southampton - Totton - West Totton - Tatchbury - Cadnam
  • 32/32B: Southampton - Totton - Calmore
  • 43: Eastleigh - Stoke Common - Fair Oak - Bishops Waltham - Swanmore
  • 49/49A: Eastleigh - Boyatt Wood - County Hospital/Colden Common - Winchester
  • H1/H2: Hythe - Netley View - Dibden Purlieu - Hythe (Hythe Circular)
  • H3: Hythe - Netley View - Blackfield - Fawley - Calshot

[edit] See also

Bus operators owned by Go-Ahead
Brighton & Hove | Diamond | Docklands Buses | Go North East | Go West Midlands | London Central
London General | Metrobus | Oxford Bus Company | Solent Blue Line | Southern Vectis | Wilts and Dorset

[edit] External links

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