Nippy Bus

Nippy Bus is a privately owned company that operate a number of bus services around Somerset, England. It operates local town services in Yeovil under contract to the County Council as well as rural services. An ex-London Transport Routemaster bus is available for private hire work. Nippy Club was launched in 2010 utilising a coach on chartered services twice a month for clubbers.

History
Nippy Bus was founded in September 2004 beginning with 5 partially demand responsive night bus (services N1-5), 4 of which (services N1, N2, N4 & N5) started from market towns via villages in South Somerset to Yeovil serving parts of the town before reaching the centre. The route N3 operates as a local circular town service within Yeovil. In response to First cutbacks the company launched daytime services Route N7 to replace First's 61A and Route N8 to replace First's 56 Under Contract to Somerset County Council.

Originally based in Yeovil, the company moved to a purpose built garage in Martock, at the same time a commercial route began between Martock and Yeovil as Route N9 operating as an express service in competition with First's Route 52 offering a much shorter journey time. A demand responsive service operates from Martock as Route N6 to provide connections to local villages including South Petherton.

Route N5 between Sherborne and Yeovil was withdrawn due to low passenger numbers. Routes 612 and 667 began to replace First Somerset & Avon routes of the same number.

Further expansion occurred with New Route N10 to replace Safeway Services Route 681, however at the same time South West Coaches offered to replace the route with Route 81 when they acquired the company resulting in a situation whereby two routes served the same villages at the same time.

Route N10 was subsequently withdrawn and more new routes began including the N11, N12 and N14 Under Contract to Somerset County Council to replace South West Coaches routes.

Night Routes were expanded owing to the success in Yeovil to Taunton. Three Routes were launched the T1, T2 & T3 in Taunton and serving local villages surrounding the town. In addition a positioning trip running between Yeovil and Taunton was made into the first inter-urban night bus in Somerset which was branded as the Taunton Flyer. These routes were subsequently withdrawn.

Routes N7 & N14 were withdrawn and parts of these routes have been incorporated into the N12. The company has won new contracts from Somerset County Council for Routes 63 & 633 which operate 3-4 Jorneys Monday-Saturday Daytime, these Routes were previously operated by Stagecoach South West, simultaneously they have won School Contracts for Route 16 ex Stagecoach South West and Routes 658 & 659 ex First Somerset and Avon.

On the 1st May 2011, the Night Routes N1-N4 were withdrawn due to the widespread local authority funding cuts. This has resulted in the majority of Yeovil being left with no evening bus services.

Nippy Bus has been running a combination of demand responsive services as well as standard routes throughout South Somerset. Nippy Bus uses Yeovil as a hub where one can interchange between services.

Operation
There is some competition in their operating area with South West Coaches and First. In most villages Nippy Bus are the sole bus operator and therefore many communities are heavily reliant on their services. Opening up many villages to Monday-Saturday services for the first time ever either as demand responsive services or on fixed routes compared to the once a week services offered by the incumbent South West Coaches. The geographical area covered is fairly small stretching from Martock in the west to Sherborne in the east and from Yeovil in the south to Street in the north.

Fares and ticketing
The company participates in the County Ticket scheme in Somerset.

Singles, Returns, 10 Journey Tickets, Weekly, Monthly and Annual Seasons are available.

Free Travel for those holding an English Concessionary Pass is available across the bus network with time restrictions (excludes Night Services).

The company has a ticketing and booking system with on-board micro computers running  booking and route management software written and developed in house by their technology partners Mark One Consultants of Yeovil.

Depots
Current
 * Martock - Routes: 16, 63, 612, 633, 658, 659, 667, N6, N8, N9, N11, N12

Peak Vehicle Requirement = 10

Withdrawn
 * Yeovil

Vehicles Operated
A modern fleet, the majority of which are equipped with wheelchair lifts, constant running CCTV recording, digital radio communications and satellite navigation and on-board micro-computers for ticketing and demand responsive bookings.
 * Four Optare Solo
 * One Routemaster (RM 191)
 * Several Iveco Minibuses

Somerset
Nippy Bus run the following services;