Buses, Beer and Walks Weekend: 2023
Created | Updated Apr 17, 2023
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On the 19th February 2023 in Southampton there was a Farewell to Southampton's Red Buses event held in the city of Southampton courtesy of the Southampton and District Transport Heritage Trust to commemorate the end of 144 years' service by Southampton's red buses. This involved several free-to-ride heritage buses taking passengers on three routes from the city centre's Pound Tree Road to Portswood, Woolston and Shirley1
Bust Business
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Southampton's red bus service dates back to 5 May 1879, when the Southampton Tramways Company began a horse tram service from Canute Road to Portswood via the Docks Station and the High Street, expanding routes and services with horse buses and being bought by Southampton Corporation, as the council was then known, in 1898, which electrified the tram routes in January 1900. Tragically the tram would change the shape of Southampton forever as the mediæval city walls either side of the Bargate city gateway were demolished to allow the trams to get by.
While motor buses were trialled in 1901 this was initially unsuccessful and tramway routes expanded across the city, including to the Floating Bridge. After the Great War motor buses were reintroduced, with a motorbus network expanding until the Second World War. During the Second World War, Hitler destroyed a double decker bus and a tramcar – though not personally, you understand.
After the war the Government decided to be short-sighted and worship cars, and do everything they could to destroy Britain's tram and train network. They even closed local airports on the grounds that planes aren't cars, even though cars are terrible at driving to and from, say, the Isle of Wight. The last tram in Southampton ran on 31 December 1949, with the service ending just before midnight. The council continued running the Citybus service until the 1986 Transport Act, which forced local councils to stop running buses directly, making them create 'arms-length' companies and permitted competition from other bus companies. The Isle of Wight's bus company, Southern Vectis, sensed an opportunity and launched a mainland division in Southampton named Solent Blue Line – you could always tell a Solent Blue Line bus from its bright yellow front, as the name suggests, as opposed to the Citybus red livery.
In 1997 First Group bought Citybus, owning its 120 buses and 320 employees under the name First Southampton. First Group personified the phrase 'First the worst, second the best' and were notoriously unreliable, and had the group's 'Corporate Barbie' livery of white, pink and blue. In 2000 they announced that they would phase out double-deckers in favour of bendy buses, only to phase the bendy buses out by 2003 as they were notoriously deadly for cyclists and unable to cope with traffic calming measures. In 2014 the CityRed brand was reintroduced and First's buses in Southampton once again returned to their red livery. On 29 November 2022 First announced that they would end all services in Southampton on 18 February, 2023. Most of the routes and bus driver jobs would be taken over by Bluestar, as Solent Blue Line have since rebranded. To mark the occasion, the Southampton and District Transport Heritage Trust decided to return to the city centre for their first post-Covid city centre heritage day.
Busy Bustle
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It goes without saying the amount of love and affection held for public transport heritage. That is why there are over 200 heritage steam railways operating within the UK. Like trains, buses are symbols of earlier times and can quite literally transport us back to childhood experiences. When it was announced that between 11am and 4pm free-to-ride heritage buses would be operating from Southampton's city centre, taking passengers on three routes around the city centre, the amount of interest was impalpable. Who in the Southampton area was capable of resisting participation? I certainly wasn't, especially as since the demise of the Isle of Wight's Beer and Bus event I've missed out on bus rides. I contacted my friends who had accompanied me on my Beer and Bus adventures and, with them being excited at the prospect2 I found my bus-riding hat and we agreed to meet at the ferry terminal.
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From the ferry I gained tantalising glimpses of the buses as we walked up Above Bar Street – seeing a bus through the 12th Century Bargate, frustratingly a pedestrian frustrated my attempts to take an artistic photograph through the arch. As we arrived at the event I bought a programme and saw that they were operating three routes, a 35-minute circular loop to Shirley3, a 45-minute loop to Portswood and a 35-minute loop to Woolston & Weston. Our plan was to try and ride each loop, but soon discovered that among the daffodils lining the road were a plethora of people, and not much organisation over who was going where. We had expected something to be as well organised as the Isle of Wight's Beer and Buses event had been, which had a well-labelled queuing system, but Southampton was a bit more of a free-for-all. Wanting to start off we joined a queue and got on a double-decker – a 1982 Leyland Atlantean, which was the standard Southampton bus I remember when first visiting Southampton in the 80s and 90s.
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After enjoying a pleasant ride to Portswood and back, we reasoned that if we boarded a heritage bus on the opposite side of the road to where we had boarded the Portswood bus, we'd go somewhere different. So that is what we did, finding a beautifully restored 1951 Guy Arab III with Park Royal body. The woodwork was immaculate and the details on everything, from light fixtures to comfortable leather seats that you just don't get on modern buses, was outstanding. The bus went to Portswood again, but as it was a privilege to ride on such a bus we didn't mind. On our return to the city centre we popped into a pub for a spot of nammet – as my wife wasn't with me I enjoyed the opportunity to eat exactly what she disapproves of.
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After we returned to the site of the Farwell to Southampton's Red Buses event where we had time for one last journey. We went back to the northern side of the road and queued for the next bus to leave there, to ensure that we would not end up going to Portswood again. We ended up on a new-fangled bus that is probably the most modern in the Heritage Trust's collection – a 1999 Dennis Dart. Any bus offering USB charging is a tad modern to be a real heritage bus.
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