Velvet have a new toy...

Black Velvet Travel have a new bus in service. Dennis Dart SLF/Pointer 2 162 (S162BMR) was acquired to replace one of two DAFs that suffered severe fire damage. 162's life began with Thamesdown in Swindon.

 I've managed to grab a couple of shots of 162 in service. Seen today in Velmore, 162 is pictured on route C1 heading for Eastleigh. Velvet route C is a mixture of three routes - C1 Eastleigh - Velmore - Chandlers Ford - Hiltingbury, where it becomes a C3 Hiltingbury - Valley Park & Asda - Velmore and Eastleigh. C3s also begin at Eastleigh and become C1s in the other direction. Furthermore, the C2 operates during day time hours, hourly from Eastleigh heading for Chandlers Ford, Hiltingbury and Miller's Dale. The C was taken over from BlueStar nearly two years ago, where the route began in Eastleigh, terminated 3 miles away, yet went all round Hiltingbury and Chandlers Ford!

The pride of Velvet's early fleet were the 4 DAF SB220/East Lancs, originally used on the then-half hourly route A. Only two remain due to fire damage - one example is 507 (V7GMT) pictured right. 507 is seen heading for Eastleigh.

Velvet have also recently acquired one of Wilts & Dorset's DAF/Optare Spectra double decks - L711ALJ - as a DAF replacement and for use on Barton Peveril contracts. It is in allover white at the moment - probably to be repainted in the new year.

Snow Report - part 3

The final part of my snow report comes from Cosham and returns back to buses. Having caught the train up from Portchester to Cosham, I found that there were more buses around than last year on day two of the snow. Whether this reflects a lighter snowfall, better management, and benefit from experience is open to debate- I suggest it is a part of all three. Anyway, to the buses...

I'll start off with Stagecoach, who were out and about on route 23 (Leigh Park - Southsea) seemingly unaffected by the snow. Last year route 23 was cut during the snow and operated between Farlington and Portsmouth city centre. The Enviro300s were also out - although it was more "Skate" than "Surf" for the branding... first up is Enviro 27562 (GX58GNJ) seen with Portsdown Hill in the misty background. The second photo illustrates 27555 (GX58GMG) pulling away from the stand at the Health Centre.

There were some odd workings from First Hants & Dorset about. When I arrived, route 1/1C were in the process of being transferred from Hilsea depot over to the usual operator, Hoeford depot. Here is former London Dennis Dart SLF 41165 (R165TLM), pictured heading for Southsea on route 1.

Another route in the process of changing over from Hilsea to Hoeford was route 5. Former First Midland Red 52558 (S558RWP) is seen with the destination set for Fareham, although in reality the bus emptied at this stop and returned to Portsmouth. Like last year, minibuses from Hilsea operated the first routes in Portsmouth after the snow.

By mid morning, Hoeford were out on their regular routes. Here is 42112 (R612YCR) pictured at Cosham bus interchange heading for Southsea on route 1C. Going the other way, the 1C did take some time to return to Paulsgrove, and terminated at QA Hospital at the time this photo was taken.

Routes 40 and 41 took some time to return to service. Only one bus was out on the 40 until Thursday lunchtime, and route 41 operated a shuttle service at reduced frequency between The Hard and Waterlooville. Here are both services in Cosham - operated by 69392 (HY09AOR) on the left operating route 41, with 69384 (HY09AKF) on the right operating route 40.

Finally for this evening, here is my former arch-nemisis 69393 (HY09AZD) - the only Volvo B7RLE at Hilsea I hadn't managed to photograph yet. Thursday finally gave me that oppurtunity - and here she is heading from Waterlooville for The Hard, pictured on route 41. Thanks for viewing over the last few days; I'll move away from the snow theme now until it returns again.

Snow Report - part 2

Today, I'm going off on a train tangent for this post - it may happen from time to time. I'm not a train spotter or photographer, but as previously discussed on the blog, I do like the railways. Thursday's snow gave the oppurtunity for a few odd workings. Southern were still snowbound, so not operational. First Great Western were using a variety of 150s and 158s to Portsmouth, and South West Trains were using Salisbury's Class 158s and 159s on the Southampton-Portsmouth route...

First up is South West Trains 444016 pictured heading arriving at Portchester on Thursday morning. South West Trains' 444s were on a shorterned Portsmouth Harbour - Eastleigh all stopper route, with no through workings to Basingstoke and London Waterloo. I do like these trains - they give a lovely smooth ride and are very quiet. I do enjoy my trip down to Weymouth or up to London on one of these, and its nice to see them so close to home - even if it is for the snow!

As I previously said, SWT were using Salisbury's Class 158 and 159 DMUs on the Southampton Central to Portsmouth Harbour route. I'm not sure if these extended at Soton Central to Salisbury - a modified timetable was in use. Pictured to the right are 158884 (head) and 158885 together at Cosham station heading for Portsmouth Harbour. Two 159s were also out on the line, one being 159102 and I think the other was 159022.

Finally, First Great Western were also down operating the entire Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour route. Here is 158955 pictured at Cosham heading for Portsmouth Harbour also on Thursday.

That's it for trains - tomorrow I'll post my Cosham photos and then we'll return to normal posts, until it snows again.....

Snow Report - part 1

When it snows, the advice is always do not travel unless you have to. Naturally, whenever the snow stops, I jump on the train and travel to wherever buses are in operation... on Friday that was Portchester and Cosham, and this is the first in a three part report from the snow. First up is Portchester, second are some trains (hope you don't mind on a bus blog), and finally I have some Cosham shots.

First up, here is First Hants & Dorset Scania 65022 (YN54NZW) pictured in Portchester Precinct. Scanias are common in Portchester, operating routes 1A and 5, but they very rarely make it onto route 57. 65022 is pictured heading for Portsmouth - one of the first through journeys (Warsash - Portsmouth) since the snowfall.

Route 5 was operational between Fareham bus station and terminating at The Hard, rather than South Parade Pier. Here is Dennis Dart SLF 42117 (R617YCR) along Station Road in Portchester. The roads were very wet but not icy at this point in time, and as you can see there is plenty of snow around.

42407 (P407MLA) was new to London before moving to First Southern National, and it now is unique at Hoeford at being the only Pointer 1 bodied Dart SLF in service from that depot. She is seen here at Portchester precinct operating a route 63 to Havant on Thursday morning. Only the main roads were served, which actually increased the frequency to one about every 45 minutes!

A nice cold shot of Scania 65008 (YN54NZD), heading round Portchester roundabout for Fareham on route 5. The buses came out of Hoeford fully dressed with icicles and snow!

Another rare working on route 57, here former First Devon & Cornwall Optare Solo 53013 (W813PAF) is pictured at Portchester precinct. These buses are usually allocated to route 26, but at this point the 26 had not been reinstated.

Pictured to the right is Dennis Dart 46329 (N329ECR), heading out of Portsview Road down toward Portchester precinct. 46329 is pictured on route 63, with a very snowy and misty Portsdown Hill in the background.

Finally, here is Dart SLF 42117 (R617YCR) returning to Portsmouth on route 5. This was my last photo, taken from the passenger bridge over Portchester railway station. We are looking southbound toward Portchester town centre. Thank you for viewing, I hope you have enjoyed the photos.

Snow Update - 2/12/10

All of your bus diversions in one place.....

AS of 0745

FIRST Hants & Dorset
* No service in Southampton
* Fareham - route 57 from Fareham to Portchester only, route 81 from Fareham to Gosport (NOT Bus Stn) via main roads only
* Portsmouth - route 1 Hilsea to City Centre only

BLUESTAR
* 1 from usual route but via motorway instead of Otterbourne
* 2 usual route except main road via Portswood and Swaythling (Stoneham Way, Stoneham Lane)
* 3 Southampton - Hedge End
* 4 Southampton - Romsey via main roads
* 8 Southampton - Appledore, not via Marchwood, possibly to Hythe
* 9 Southampton - Hythe bypass via main roads (unsure Hythe Centre) - Fawley
* 10 Southampton - Cadnam via Netley Marsh & main roads
* 11 Cadnam - Netley Marsh - Totton
* 12 Southampton - Calmore via main roads
* 18 top of Thornhill - main roads - via McDonalds - Millbrook estate
* Unilink via main roads, nothing serving south side of Central Stn

STAGECOACH South - I can't access website but according to reports, driving conditions are poor in Portsmouth. However, they were the last buses standing in Portsmouth at the start of the year.

VELVET
* route A between Eastleigh and Hedge End is being trialled at the mo
* no C or S2

BRIJAN - nothing available on website yet, but as BlueStar aren't operating into Botley I would have thought all services cancelled

Hope that's of interest, I'll try and get some photos later.

Report Card

My blog has been going for three months now, so I thought I'd quickly let you know how it is getting on. Having never owned a blog, and with the site viewing stats for my First Hants & Dorset website mildly confusing/inactive, I'm not sure how comparable/successful these are to other blogs!

All time page views:
September: 2053 views, 15posts
October: 2053 views, 9posts
November: 2037 views, 8posts

Most popular posts:
1. Weymouth's Open Toppers (my first ever post)
2. Unilink's new PVLs (I assume extra views due to increased interest from London)
3. Ugo - The Hampshire Network
4. Ugo to Southampton
5. Truro cuts

Most frequent referring sources:
1. Plymothian Transit (thank you, Graham)
2. My fotopic site- Southern England Bus Photos
3. Google
4. The First Hants & Dorset Unofficial Website
5. The Provincial Society

Location of Viewers:
5, 943 from the UK, 82 from the USA, 37 from South Africa, 16 from Spain, Turkey and Japan, with smaller amounts from other countries.

Thank you all very much for your support and time in viewing my blog. I think it has gone quite well: with falling post numbers but steady visitor numbers, I feel the blog is growing in terms of audience. The most popular posts (naturally to blogs) refer to items of news which are developing at that moment in time, so I will try to keep topic on what is occuring. I've succeeded in my aim of covering the majority of the south, rather than simply Hampshire, and have a sizeable audience from the south west. I'll try and keep the locations varied - as the days get lighter in the new year this should be easier.

Thanks for viewing. I leave you with my most recent photo - BlueStar 2001 (YN06CGO) which I quickly grabbed in Portswood high street yesterday. Not especially a great photo, but I'm struggling to find the time to get new photographic content at the mo so it'll have to do for now.