Southern Vectis in Dorset?

[Cymroglan]

Forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this question.... The young lady in my life told me she saw a Southern Vectis single decker bus with Isle of Wight branding running what she described as a normal stopping service in the Blandford Forum area of Dorset at lunchtime today 29/09/20. How could this be? I should add that she has a good eye for detail. I don’t know much about buses myself but am interested in this sighting!

 

[baza585]

Go South Coast. Company of many liveries. They've never been great at matching livery to route, but Covid19 has meant many inter company transfers for capacity reasons. It may or may not be repainted before it is transferred again.......

 

[Gloster]

Normally Southern Vectis uses small single-deckers on the Number 1 between Newport and Cowes as nothing else can get through the arch into the Red Funnel terminal (and they can only just manage it). Because of COVID they are terminating the 1 at Carvel Lane (Marks & Sparks to you and me) and using double-deckers, often Solent Blue vehicles normally used for school’s contracts. As the single-deckers don’t have enough room to allow social distancing, I haven’t seen them about much. Presumably they have lent them to another member of the Go-Ahead group.

They did have one long single-decker, but I haven’t seen that for a week or two.

 

[Cymroglan]

Thanks both! My lady love is relieved that it wasn’t her having a ‘moment’!

 

[henairs]

Hi there,
Would appear to be two of these in the Blandford/Dorch area and another two at Poole at least.
Some years ago some Southern Vectis livered Solos were also in use on the mainland having been transferred across the Solent,
Cheers,
Mike R

 

[Cymroglan]

Once more, I am in awe at the depth of knowledge & understanding of those who answer questions like this I’m also really grateful for your generosity in sharing it with us. I really must make an effort to brush up on my bus knowledge, it’s a fascinating other world!

 

[Westcountryman]

Many of the Go South Coast double deck buses, mainly Scanias, have HW registrations, giving away their Southern Vectis origin.

 

[borage]

Here's the GPS trace of a Southern Vectis liveried bus passing through Blandford Forum this lunchtime: https://bustimes.org/vehicles/18117?date=2020-09-29#journeys/76602711

 

[Flange Squeal]

Looks like most, of not all, of the short Enviro 200s have made their way over to the mainland. Certainly the following have been spotted in service within Damory territory or Poole: HW64 AWZ (2709), HW64 AXC/F/G/H/J (2712/4/5/6/7) and HF66 CHH (2751).

Unsure if they are permanent transfers, or just part of a fleet shuffle across the Go South Coast group of companies to get capacity where it’s needed most. Certainly at least one mainland vehicle is currently having a little holiday, in the form of Bluestar Enviro 200 HF65 CXH (2735) which is currently working on the island. There may well be others.

 

[aliceh]

It was mentioned in local news a couple of weeks back https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18701802.morebus-ramp-services-help-operators/

I must admit, i did a double take seeing a Southern Vectis bus coming down Bennett Road on route 20 before I read that.

 

[fgwrich]

Looks like most, of not all, of the short Enviro 200s have made their way over to the mainland. Certainly the following have been spotted in service within Damory territory or Poole: HW64 AWZ (2709), HW64 AXC/F/G/H/J (2712/4/5/6/7) and HF66 CHH (2751).

Unsure if they are permanent transfers, or just part of a fleet shuffle across the Go South Coast group of companies to get capacity where it’s needed most. Certainly at least one mainland vehicle is currently having a little holiday, in the form of Bluestar Enviro 200 HF65 CXH (2735) which is currently working on the island. There may well be others.

There is certainly some changes happening in GSC at the moment, as at least 2 Vectis Short 200s have been repainted at Hants and Dorset Trim into the Salisbury Reds scheme. A friend of mine was speaking about this the other day, Go South Coast currently has Vectis vehicles working on the Mainland, Bluestar on the Island, Bluestar in Plymouth, Brighton in Plymouth, Brighton in Newcastle and More in Southampton.

It's times like these when you can understand why companies like First have a more standardised livery

Not long after I posted the above comment, Go South Coast Enviro 200 2710 has been released from Hants and Dorset Trim in Salisbury Reds livery.

Hants and Dorset Trim

2710 looking smart in its new livery

www.facebook.com

 

[Gloster]

There is certainly some changes happening in GSC at the moment, as at least 2 Vectis Short 200s have been repainted at Hants and Dorset Trim into the Salisbury Reds scheme. A friend of mine was speaking about this the other day, Go South Coast currently has Vectis vehicles working on the Mainland, Bluestar on the Island, Bluestar in Plymouth, Brighton in Plymouth, Brighton in Newcastle and More in Southampton.

It's times like these when you can understand why companies like First have a more standardised livery

Not long after I posted the above comment, Go South Coast Enviro 200 2710 has been released from Hants and Dorset Trim in Salisbury Reds livery.

Hants and Dorset Trim

2710 looking smart in its new livery

www.facebook.com

Which suggests that Southern Vectis doesn’t expect its buses to be terminating at the Red Funnel terminal in Cowes for a while. Only the smallest can get into it: the Dennis Darts used to, but many ended up with scrapes.

 

[Gloster]

2007, the long single decker (see #3), was in Newport Bus Station today, still in Southern Vectis livery. In the last couple of days I have seen a Salisbury Red liveried d/d on a Newport town service and a Bluestar one on a schools run. Bluestar are short of 1007 as it caught fire on the M27 last week: pictures on Hampshire Fire & Rescue Twitter (sorry, mods, I have no idea how to do a link).

 

[upasalmon]

Even the veteran Bristol K5G open topper CDL 899 visited Southampton for a running day!
As I have said about the Isle of Man buses can be driven on to ro-ro ferries so transfers within Go South Coast are easy, barring cost.