Bluestar

Bluestar is the main trading name of Solent Blue Line Ltd. Based in Eastleigh, the company operates bus routes in Hampshire that previously traded under the Solent Blue Line name. Blue Line was started by bus company Southern Vectis as it sought to expand from the Isle of Wight in 1987. It is now owned along with Southern Vectis by The Go-Ahead Group, as part of its Go South Coast division.

The name Bluestar was originally the brand for the premier Solent Blue Line services, but with the withdrawal of the Red Rocket services on 25 February 2008, all services now operate under the name. Some local routes run under the Baby Bluestar name. The New Forest Tour runs under its own sub-brand.

History


Solent Blue Line was started by Southern Vectis in 1987, originally under the legal name Musterphantom Ltd. to expand the company onto the mainland and to compete with Southampton Citybus on some of its major routes. Along with Southern Vectis, it was purchased by the Go-Ahead Group in 2005.

Since late 2005, the management and head office functions of Solent Blue Line, Southern Vectis and Go-Ahead's existing Wilts & Dorset operation have been consolidated at Wilts & Dorset's Poole headquarters, as part of the Go South Coast division.

On 24 October 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.

After the withdrawal of the Red Rocket brand on 25 February 2008, all of the company's services began to run under the Bluestar brand, with the exception of the New Forest Tour.

Brands
Bluestar services run under a number of sub-brands. To complete the rebrand from Solent Blue Line to Bluestar routes running under the Bluestar name, a number of brands were discontinued, including Red Rocket.

Bluestar
Bluestar was originally the brand for Solent Blue Line's premier services. With the rebranding, it was extended to most of the main services.

All of the routes serve Southampton City Centre, with only the 18 and CityLink running through it; all other services terminate there. Current routes are services:

Baby Bluestar
Baby Bluestar is the name given to the more local routes run, and those that weren't withdrawn after the demise of Red Rocket.

City-link


Bluestar began operation of the free City-link service in Southampton from 28 September 2008. It runs between Southampton Central Station, WestQuay and Town Quay for Red Funnel ferries to the Isle of Wight.

The two buses used on the service were inherited from the previous operator, Enterprise, and have been repainted in a new two-tone blue livery, with the interiors also rebranded.

Uni-link


In early 2008, it was announced that Bluestar had won the 10-year contract to provide the uni-link service on behalf of the University of Southampton. Bluestar operations started on 28 September 2008. A fleet of 18 new buses were ordered, of which the first, 9 double-deck dual-door Scania OmniCitys arrived in time for the start. 9 single-deck OmniCitys also arrived in early 2009.

To cover the start of operations, the existing vehicles of previous operator Enterprise were hired, of which numbers are gradually declining. Additionally, a tri-axle, single deck 13.7m Scania OmniLink single-deck bus is being trialled on the network.

New Forest Tour
The New Forest Tour is a circular open-top bus service running around the New Forest, between Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Lymington, Beaulieu and Exbury.

It was started in 2004, using distinctively branded yellow and orange Bristol VRs (in the same livery as the old Southern Vectis open-top services.) The service was reversed in 2005, to run in the opposite direction. For the 2006 season, two low-floor Volvo B7TL/East Lancs Myllenniums from Wilts & Dorset were used, retaining the Wilts & Dorset livery but with "New Forest Tour" vinyls added. In 2007 the buses passed to Solent Blue Line and were repainted in a new green and orange livery, with ponies on the side. Again, this is similar to the Southern Vectis livery which that company uses on their open-top buses.

Nightstar
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 £2 on routes N6, N12, N18, N19 and £3 on N1, N2, N9 and N16.

Services start at Leisure World before serving the city centre:

Solent Shuttle
This was an express bus link between Portsmouth and Southampton. This service was originally run by Hampshire Bus & Southdown as a joint working & then later Southampton City Bus and later still First Hampshire & 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 retaining part of the original Southampton City Bus route numbers, with the services becoming X27 and X47. The Bluestar service was due to terminate on 2 June 2007 due to 1) financial funding from Portsmouth, then Southampton council being withdrawn and 2) re-imbursement of pensioner's pass usage being insuffient to cover actual fares charged, but it was then continued, due to popular demand, with a two-hourly frequency timetable, from 2 July 2007. In February 2009, however, Bluestar announced that the Solent Shuttle would end. The Solent Shuttle stopped running on 21 February 2009.

Beep! Bus
Beep! Bus was a brand name for the ex-Bluestar service B between Eastleigh and Southampton via Boyatt Wood and Velmore which began on 8 September 2008. The service operates in direct competition with Velvet B, with Beep! Bus journeys timed to operate 3 minutes ahead of all Velvet B services.

Initially the service was registered with VOSA as a Wilts & Dorset route to begin on 15 September 2008 but this was later cancelled and replaced with an identical Bluestar registration.

Because the service was not officially scheduled to begin until 15 September (a week after Velvet started operating), Bluestar initially was unable to take fares for the service, therefore it operated as a free service until its registered start date a week later. Normal fares were slightly lower than Velvet's, on some journeys but local journeys were more expensive.

Bluestar operations director Andrew Wickham said that the decision was "a business decision pure and simple", adding that they "are not scared of competition" but Velvet were "deliberately creaming off" some of their passengers.

The rival Velvet service ended on 10 January 2009 because of low passenger numbers. Soon after, Bluestar announced their intention to withdraw Beep! Bus from February 2009, ironically one year after they withdrew the Red Rocket B service.

Bluestar
This service was withdrawn following the loss of council funding from 23 October 2011. Route number changed to P1. This service was withdrawn after a withdrawal of council funding on 6 February 2010.
 * 14: Southampton - Portswood - Glyn Eyre - Bitterne
 * 15: Bitterne - Thornhill - Weston

Baby Bluestar
This service was withdrawn by Bluestar on 21 February 2009, but was continued by Velvet. This service was withdrawn on 10 April 2011 due to withdrawal of council funding.
 * C1/C2: Eastleigh - Velmore - Chandler's Ford - Fryern Hill - Hiltingbury
 * S1: Shirley - Lord's Hill
 * E3: Eastleigh - Boyatt Wood - Allbrook - Otterbourne - Compton - Sainsbury's Badger Farm - County Hospital - Winchester (Previously Route 49 Solent Blue Line). This variation to the E service was withdrawn on 23 October 2011 due to a withdrawal in Hampshire County Council funding.
 * F: Eastleigh - Fair Oak - Bishop's Waltham - Waltham Chase. This irregular service was withdrawn on 23 October 2011 due to a withdrawal in Hampshire County Council funding.

Red Rocket
Red Rocket was launched on 3 September 2006 and was a high frequency network centred on Eastleigh, extending to Winchester in the north and Hamble in the south. Red Rocket services were either withdrawn or re-branded to Baby Bluestar on 24 February 2008, to enable Solent Blue Line to trade under the Bluestar name.

The routes were are:

This service was withdrawn by SBL on 23 February 2008, but was continued by another operator, Velvet.
 * A: Eastleigh - Hedge End - Hamble

This service ceased on 23 February 2008.
 * B: Eastleigh - Boyatt Wood (Via Shakespear Road, Bosville, Broadlands Avenue, Arundel Road, Ruskin Road and Tywford Road) (Previously the 42/42A/42B Solent Blue Line route linking to Hiltingbury)

This route became Baby Bluestar C1 on 24 February 2008, running between Eastleigh, Velmore, Chandler's Ford and Fryern Hill. It was withdrawn on 21 February 2009, to be continued by another operator, Velvet.
 * C: Eastleigh - Velmore Estate - Chandler's Ford - Fryern Hill - Hiltingbury

This service ceased on 23 February 2008.
 * D: Eastleigh - Valley Park - Hiltingbury

This route became Baby Bluestar E1/E2/E3 with minor timetable changes.
 * E1: Eastleigh - Boyatt Wood - Allbrook - Brambridge - Colden Common - St Cross - Winchester (Previously Route 49A Solent Blue Line)
 * E2: Eastleigh - Boyatt Wood - Allbrook - Otterbourne - Compton - Stanmore - County Hospital - Winchester (New Route shared with the E3)
 * E3: Eastleigh - Boyatt Wood - Allbrook - Otterbourne - Compton - Sainsburys Badger Farm - County Hospital - Winchester (Previously Route 49 Solent Blue Line)

This route became Baby Bluestar F with minor timetable changes.
 * F: Eastleigh - Stoke Common - Fair Oak - Bishop's Waltham - Swanmore - Waltham Chase

Do the docks


This was an open top bus tour of Southampton docks. It used open top buses from the New Forest Tour and a debranded Wilts & Dorset Leyland Olympian. Due to poor weather during the 2007 Summer season and resulting low passenger numbers, running the tour in "turn up and hop on" format was made unfeasible. So on Sunday 29 July 2007 this format stopped.

In April 2008 the service ran for just two days on 26 and 27 of that month, as part of the Caribbean festival in Southampton on those dates. As Solent Blue Line no longer had the open top buses for the routes, a hired Southern Vectis open top bus was used.

Fleet


Bluestar utilise a mix of single and double deck buses.

The double deck fleet is made up of seven East Lancs Lolyne bodied Dennis Tridents built in 1998, seven East Lancs Myllennium Vyking bodied Volvo B7TLs built in 2001 and an Enviro400-bodied Volvo B7TL which joined the fleet in October 2006 and entered service in November of that year. This vehicle, given the fleet number 758, was originally intended for Wilts & Dorset and is fitted out with their interior design. 758 is the only Enviro400-bodied Volvo B7TL as the B7TL has been replaced with the Volvo B9TL. The company also has a number of Leyland Olympians and Volvo Olympians with East Lancs or Northern Counties Palatine 1 bodywork. The New Forest Tour utilises two East Lancs Myllennium Vykings transferred from Wilts & Dorset.

Single deck buses include DAF SB120/Wright Cadets which are primarily used on Bluestar route 18, however this route is now being part operated by Ex Wilts & Dorset Mercedes-Benz Citaros. There are also Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer MPDs for use on Bluestar Totton services. Also a small number of Optare Solos transferred from Wilts & Dorset and ten new Mercedes-Benz Citaros arrived in 2006.

In early 2009 seven brand new Scania OmniCity double deckers enter service with the company. They are primarily used on the Bluestar 1 route. The first, 1125, arrived in November 2008.

Seven ex-Southern Vectis 2007 built Mercedes-Benz Citaros are due to replace older vehicles on route 9, with the original Citaros cascading to route 4 and 12, meaning low floor vehicles will always be used on main routes. The buses have arrived in Southampton and have been branded for Route 9 in Southampton, they retain the Southern Vectis green interior.

Incidents
In March 2007 whilst being used as a rail-replacement bus a double-decker member of the Red Rocket fleet drove under a low bridge at Barnham causing the top to be ripped off, in addition to minor damage to the bridge. It is now with Southern Vectis as an open-topper.

In the early hours of Tuesday 22 March 2011, there was an incident between a car and a Bluestar bus on route 2 between Southampton, Eastleigh and Fair Oak, resulting in a single fatality of the car driver, and the passenger last known to be in a critical condition. Only one passenger of the 10 on-board were treated for minor injuries. 

At around 4.30pm on February 7th 2012, a Marchwood Motorways Mercedes-Benz Citaro caught fire on Calmore Roundabout, Totton. The bus was being driven Not In Service by a mechanic at the time - there were no injuries but the bus was destroyed. 

Investigation
In July 2009, the MP for Eastleigh Chris Huhne ordered an investigation into allegations of anti-competitive behaviour of Bluestar against Velvet's over their implementation and subsequent removal of extra services, which operated between Eastleigh and Fair Oak, to rival Velvet's service, the Fair Oak Flyer.