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Full description from the producer:

The year 2022 was quite a momentous year for the bus world in the Dorset coastal town of Bournemouth along with neighbouring Poole and Christchurch in that the long established bus company, Yellow Buses ceased to operate at the beginning of August.  Fellow local operator and competitor, Go South Coast’s Morebus brand stepped in at very short notice to operate most of the former Yellow Buses services.  This meant drafting in buses from other parts of their south coast empire to provide cover in the short term. On this programme you will see buses from Southampton’s Bluestar and Salisbury Reds from that Wiltshire city.  It was helped by the delivery of a fleet of 15 new ADL Enviro400MMC double-deckers for the Unibus contract arriving at about the same time.  We see them newly delivered at Poole bus depot and on training duties as these buses have rear view video cameras rather than traditional wing mirrors and are seen before they had their colourful branding applied.   These buses were drafted into service on the busy m1 and m2 routes while their predecessors were used on a number of former Yellow Buses routes, as you will see on this programme.

This DVD programme was filmed over a number of months in 2022.  Starting in July when the Yellow Buses were still running (you can see them in detail on our ‘Bournemouth’s Yellow Buses – The End’ programme), through to the Yellow Buses last day and then from the second day after they had ceased operating and through the autumn into winter concluding with shots of some former Yellow Buses in service in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cardiff.  Our filming locations include Christchurch, Poole and a number of locations in Bournemouth including Gervis Place, Bath Road, Railway Station, Bourne Avenue and Westover Road to name but a few.  The council subsidised services were originally taken on by Morebus, but later changed to be run by Eastleigh-based independent Xelabus using Dennis Darts and some former Yellow Buses Wright-bodied double-deckers.  Our cameras take a ride on brand new, first day in service, 1692 (HJ22 UYC), an ADL Enviro400MMC with a 79-seat body on the m1 route to Poole bus station.  We also see 1608 (HF65 AYB), an ADL Enviro400 in the Platinum Jubilee livery for HM Queen Elizabeth II in service around Poole.  The final shots of this bus were filmed in Verwood on 7^th September, the day before the Queen’s death when the bus was withdrawn from service on the day after and repainted into the latest Morebus livery.  Morebus obtained two former Yellow Buses vehicles being Volvo B7TL East Lancs Vyking convertible open-toppers.  They have been numbered 1812 (YBZ 223) and 1813 (YBZ 223) in the Morebus fleet and our cameras follow 1813 at the end of the summer season as it travels from Alum Chine to Hengistbury Head.

Our filming concludes at the busy bus station situated at Bournemouth University.  Here we see a variety of buses passing through.  Mostly the ‘new’ Unibus Enviro400MMCs, but also Xelabus operating the 36 route with a Dennis Dart and a former Yellow Buses vehicle.

We conclude this programme with video shot at the Squarepeg independent depot in Leeds as well as the Firstbus depots in Halifax and Leeds.  At Leeds we travel through the workshops onboard former Yellow Buses 5092 (BL14 LTE), a Volvo B9TL with Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodywork.  Soon to become First West Yorkshire 36112 – we also see it in service in its new guise.  More filming takes place at Burnley and Halifax.  Our final shots see former Yellow Buses 4042 (SN65 OJA), an ADL Enviro400MMC now operating with Cardiffbus.  Big changes have taken place in Bournemouth adding a lot of interest to the ever-changing bus scene!

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