by Steve Oxbrow

Weybus of Weymouth was a bus operation which competed with Southern National in Weymouth from 1995 to 1998. The company had its origins back in the early 1980’s when Nigel Charlton started Weybus from his Portland home, starting as a coach operation running at least two coaches, MYG 759K and VKG 929J.  By bus deregulation in 1986 they were operating summer seasonal services in Weymouth, in competition with Southern National. These were separate from his main coach business and were owned by a company called Anglewish Ltd. Services were run by the limited company from October 1988 to January 1990, but from that date services were operated under the unincorporated Weybus name. One bus which passed from Anglewish to Weybus in May 1990 was D202 KWT, a Freight Rover Sherpa/Dormobile which was ex Somerbus of Paulton but new to West Riding. This bus stayed with Weybus, later moving to Wessex Bus where it ran until July 2001.

In 1995 the company was operating A495/6 TSU Renault S46, A35 SNS Renault Master, BLJ 303T Ford Transit, D202 KWT Freight Rover Sherpa/Dormobile, D463/70/72 CKV Freight Rover Sherpa/Rootes and EPE 934V Ford A Series/Caetano. In October 1994 D63 OKG, D387 OOX, E101 OUH and F234 BAX, all Freight Rover Sherpa/Carlyle were purchased from Red and White.

1995 saw the introduction of competitive bus services in Weymouth, against Southern National. The 1995 timetable booklet contained these services::

However what was actually operated during the summer of 1995 was a little different, and it may not be uncharitable to describe the timetable booklet as largely a work of fiction!  Service 1 started eventually in June but only ever ran over the Weymouth Kings Statue - Preston section; whereas service 4 had ceased by the end of June, as did service 6.  Service 7 is thought to never have started, nor it is thought did service 9.  Service 10 only operated over the Kings Statue - Bowleaze Cove part of the intended route.  At one time it was proposed to operate an open-top Routemaster on this summer service, but Weybus were refused an operators licence for double-deck vehicles as their depot was not suited to maintain them.

As could be expected the response was swift from Southern National. ‘Chasers’ appeared along the Littlemoor route to take passengers from Weybus. Buses ran in convoys of three or four, all with the current fares taped to the windows. Fares plummeted. Reports came in of fights breaking out between drivers, buses jostled for space on the Kings Statue. Things got worse when Weybus started to operate on the main Weymouth - Portland route. Southern National were blocking in Weybus vehicles. Matters could not have been made any easier by Smiths Coaches of Portland, by now an independent company, increasing their frequency on the route. It was common for three buses, one from Southern National, another from Weybus and another from Smiths to all leave in convoy for Portland. No sooner than three left the stand, another three arrived, one from each operator.

For the summer season in 1997, Weybus provided the following services:

The Preston route was withdrawn halfway through the summer season, in July.

As mentioned, the tide had turned for Weybus. They were called to another public inquiry on 27th February 1998 to answer allegations that a driver had been driving buses without a PCV licence.  The company strenuously denied this, and the people involved with running the company continue to do so. The Traffic Commissioner also stated that for two weeks in August 1997 bus monitors had watched bus services in Weymouth and Portland and Weybus had not run in accordance with their Portland timetable, whereas Dorset Transit and Smiths had performed better.  Nevertheless, the Western Traffic Commissioner ordered that Weybus’ operator licence be revoked, and additionally the company was banned from operating service 1 to Portland almost immediately. The effect of the licence revocation decision was postponed to allow time for an appeal.

Worse was to come, Smiths had registered their Portland route to extend to Littlemoor, and Dorchester Coachways had registered, from 3^rd August, journeys on service 10 from Dorchester to Weymouth on top of Weybus departures. It appeared that Southern National were pursuing the ‘flood the route with buses strategy’ which was for them, paying off - though I doubt little money was being made. The registration of Dorchester Coachways service to and from Weymouth meant every Weybus route was flooded with Southern National, or their associate’s buses.

Weybus had appealed to the transport tribunal against revocation of their operator licence. A few days before the company ceased to trade, it was announced that the tribunal had upheld the Traffic Commissioners decision. The Company maintained that the allegations of an unlicensed PCV Driver driving one of their vehicles were totally unfounded, but the Transport Tribunal stated ‘If this was the case, it revealed a very serious lack of control’.

Although reported at the time as carrying 10,000 passengers a week in the area, on Thursday, July 30^th 1998, receivers were appointed at Weybus of Weymouth and 20 staff were immediately made redundant. For some of the fleet it would have been the last time they ever saw PCV use, whilst others were to be dispersed for new lives. Former driver Tony Douglass applied for an operators licence, trading as Wessex Bus, and they continue to operate the former Weybus school contracts, plus the Weymouth to Abbotsbury service. The residents of Abbotsbury petitioned the council for a service, and Wessex Bus’ Abbotsbury route started on 24^th August 1998, using E205 HRY (see below). Other buses purchased from the receivers were E207 HRY, F949 CUA, D463/72 CKV, D202 KWT, E654 DGW, G369 CLJ, BLJ 303T, E201 EPB and E204 EPB.

Wessex Bus are to withdraw from regular bus service operation to concentrate on contract work from the end of August 2004.

Meanwhile in August 2002 competition returned to the main Portland to Weymouth and Dorchester route - which had featured so prominently in the Weybus network - with the start up of operations by Sureline - but that's another story ...........

Notes:

Numbers in brackets refer to the previous fleet number on the bus. Weybus used these number initially but by the arrival of E155 UKR, E205/7 HRY buses were referred to by the registration numbers (as shown in the table) Where known, the old fleet numbers are included for reference.

All buses were red and white with grey stripe, with the exceptions of:

D199 NON, cream and maroon with grey stripe, with advertising for Waterside Holiday Park. For 1997, this bus was the dedicated bus on the Waterside route, for 1998 it operated to/from Dorchester.

F200/203/6 YKG, F234 BAX. These were blue and orange, advertising Waterside Holiday Park. F234 BAX was the regular bus on Waterside that summer, and may have been the last scheduled departure at 1945. F206 YKG was allover red previously, advertising the go-kart track at Bowleaze Cove.