Marchwood Motorways

Marchwood Motorways Ltd. is a bus and coach operator owned by the Go-Ahead Group, who acquired them in 2006. It is a now a sub-division of Solent Blue Line.

Background
Marchwood Motorways runs buses and coaches from its base in Totton, Hampshire. They run a mixture of coaches on excursions and for hire, and their vehicles are commonly found on rail-replacement work in the South of England. Buses operated include some East Lancs Myllenniums for hire work and DAF and Scania coaches. Before the takeover by Solent Blue Line, Southampton bus routes 18 and 19 were run by Marchwood Motorways using DAF SB120/Wright Cadets under franchise to Solent Blue Line.

Nowadays, the coach operations are managed by Tourist Group and bus operations by Bluestar, which Solent Blue Line has rebranded to.

History
In July 2006, a major fire at the company's depot destroyed three buses and offices, causing an estimated £250,000 of damage. It was at first thought to be caused by an electrical fault, however it was later discovered arson was the cause.

The company was acquired by the Go-Ahead Group on 24 October 2006, for £3.0m, with the assumption of £1.4m of net debt at completion. The company was made part of Solent Blue Line, which is itself part of Go South Coast.

In December 2008, the company took part in an Asda scheme to fill a coach with Christmas presents for charity. It was hoped customers would fill the coach with up to 2,000 gifts.

Incidents
October 2006 saw an attack on one of the company's vehicles, a stone that was thrown at a school coach nearly injuring pupils.

Along with Solent Blue Line in May 2008, the company was found to have been running services to lower than expected reliability levels, and faced a fine from the Traffic Commissioner.