Wilts & Dorset X5

On Sunday, Wilts & Dorset began to operate their new route X5 which connects Salisbury with Swindon. Yesterday, I visited Salisbury to grab some photos of the X5 in operation...

The X5 takes over from the former 5/6/95/96 set of routes, which connected Salisbury to Pewsey and then Pewsey onto Swindon. The X5 operates half hourly to Durrington, with hourly workings to Larkhill and Swindon. The Swindon service is technically split at Pewsey to meet driver route distance laws.

The X5 is predominantly operated by Wilts & Dorset's Scania Omncity double deckers allocated to Salisbury. 1139 (HF09BJY) is seen arriving in Salisbury to the right, while above it is 1136 (HF09BJU) standing at the traffic lights along Blue Boar Row.

The buses either show "Larkhill" or "Pewsey and Swindon" on leaving the bus station - and the display would change to simply "Swindon" at Pewsey. 1141 (HF09BKA) rolls onto its stand in Salisbury bus station.

It seems that any low floor double deck bus could be allocated to the X5, and low floor Optare Spectra bodied DAF SB250s do operate on the route when the Scanias are off road or needed on route 8. Here is 3183 (HF52VFZ) pictured arriving in Salisbury from Larkhill. 

Finally, here is another Scania - this time 1140 (HF09BJZ) arriving in Salisbury on route X5. I'm not sure if it was because I was looking for the X5s, but it does seem to have made the route more significant or special since the changes. The X also has signified its addition to Wilts & Dorset's regular Cross Country services - the X1/2 (Bournemouth - Lymington), X3 (Bournemouth - Salisbury), X7 (Southampton - Salisbury) and X8 (Poole - Blandford). The X for Wilts & Dorset, as illustrated by the company's website, appears to be for X Country rather than express.