Lest we forget

BlueStar (Marchwood) 443 - HX06EZC - Hythe (Ferry Yard) - 6th November 2009

Go Ahead South buses wear poppies to commemorate Remembrance Sunday, and have done for many years. Pictured in the no-longer-used Hythe Ferry Yard terminal, 443 is about to head back to Southampton on a cold November morning. Credit to the staff at Solent Blue Line/Marchwood, who started off this tradition many years ago.

Greyhound Sunset

First Hants & Dorset 23319 - YN55PXK - Fareham (Hartlands Road) - 22nd May 2012

As the mid evening sun shines on the arrival of Scania coach 23319 from London Victoria, the Portsmouth and Southampton - London Greyhound services were in their last weeks of operation. Cut later in the year, gone are the sights of these smart coaches - and just to think that at the start there was mostly an hourly frequency on both routes.

The Star!

First Hampshire & Dorset 63042 - SK63KHT - Cosham (Highbury Buildings) - 29th October 2013

26 brand new Stars shining in Portsmouth. Named after 26 different Royal Navy Warships based at Portsmouth, the Streetlites feature leather seats, live information, announcements and this variation of First's interurban livery. They are very noticeable when out and about in Portsmouth, and can be found on routes 7 and 8 - 10 buses per hour between Portsmouth and Waterlooville.

Volvos takeover Gosport

First Hampshire & Dorset 66199 - S799RWG - Gosport bus station, 1st November 2013

Interesting times at First Solent (the new name for Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport) as allocations shuffle following the delivery of a combined 39 Streetlites to Hilsea and Hoeford depots. Usually found in Portsmouth on services 1, 2 or 3, Volvo B10BLEs are appearing in increasing numbers on the Fareham - Gosport services. Here is 66199 interesting blinded for Cherque Farm - as far as I am aware this did actually continue through to Fareham.

Southern England Bus Scene- change of scenary

With my commitments to the First Hants & Dorset Enthusiasts site and my own website, running this blog has proved unsustainable. I have not been able to post regularly to it for a good few months now, despite having a huge variety of content sitting offline. Therefore, I have two options - (1) to cancel it, which I don't really want to do, or (2) change the format.

I've decided that I will, for the foreseeable future, treat this blog almost as a "photo of the day" or "photo of interest" blog, where I post a photo from my collection a day(ish) with an associated caption. Some users of flickr do this tremendously well, and I hope I can replicate such a feature on this blog.

I may return to my old days of long features at some point. However, with forums, enthusiast groups and the internet covering developments better seemingly week by week, I feel it is rather pointless to replicate some of this information. My photo focus will still be the West Sussex-Hampshire-Dorset-Devon area, with accompanying posts from Berkshire, South Wales, Somerset, Avon and Cornwall.

Let's see how this goes!

Thank you for the continued support.