Bluestar (bus company)
Solent Blue Line Limited is a bus operator in Southampton, trading under Bluestar since 2003. The operator provide services in Southampton and the surrounding areas of Hampshire. Bluestar are a company that operate within the Go South Coast sector of the Go-Ahead Group.
History
Origins
In 1987, Musterphantom Limited was created by John Chadwick and Peter Shelley. £100,000 was then raised to start operations in May 1987. £75,000 of which came from Southern Vectis, with the new company ending up as a subsidiary. The new company received old Southern Vectis Bristol VRTs to start operating. Chadwick & Shelley and Southern Vectis both wanted to challenge the position of Southampton Citybus, which operated most routes within Southampton.Expansion
In October 1987, The Hants & Sussex Bus Company was purchased by Solent Blue Line, from Basil Williams. This deal was finalised on 3 October 1987.Throughout the 1980s, the National Bus Company was privatised and forcibly demerged. The bus market as a whole was deregulated. This resulted in Hants & Dorset being broken into three new companies in 1983. One of these was Hampshire Bus, which became part of Stagecoach South in April 1987. The Southampton and Eastleigh arm of this company was then sold to Solent Blue Line on 4 October 1987. The sale included 82 buses, the Eastleigh Chickenhall Lane depot and the local routes.
After less than a year operating, the company had gone from 16 buses to over 115. It had also developed a significant network. Due to this, rationalisation was undertaken, with the company restructuring its operations. By 1988, it was in a good position to challenge CityBus. In the next five years, the company bought new vehicles, so that in 1993, 1 in 3 of its buses were new. At this point, some services started to be run under franchise by Marchwood Motorways, with them operating route '30' and '32' from Totton to Southampton. This would later expand to include route '18' and '19'. This was based out of their Totton Salisbury Road depot. Brijan Tours was also used to run some services.
Start of the Century
In 2003, Solent Blue Line carried out a rebrand, involving a new name and the launch of the Bluestar brand soon after, as a name for their core services. Bluestar services 1 and 2 launched in 2004, the 3 and 4 services commenced operations a year later, and the Waterside services 8 and 9 had fully launched by 2006.In July 2005 Solent Blue Line was included in the sale of Southern Vectis to the Go-Ahead Group. The head office functions of the company were consolidated with those of the other Go South Coast companies, Southern Vectis and Wilts & Dorset, in Poole.
In March 2006, the company changed its legal name to Solent Blue Line. Then in October, Solent Blue Line purchased Marchwood Motorways. After the withdrawal of the Red Rocket brand on 25 February 2008, most of the company's services began to run under the Bluestar brand.
In September 2008, Bluestar commenced running City-Link, which initially was a free shuttle between Town Quay and Southampton Central Station. The two buses used on the service were Dennis Darts inherited from Enterprise, the previous operator, and were repainted in a new two-tone blue livery with the interiors re-branded.
The service was re-branded as QuayConnect in May 2016 with a new red and white livery featuring Red Jet 6, along with free WiFi and real time departure information.
2010s
Since 2010, the fleet had undergone several updates including:- USB charging points
- Tap on, Tap off
- Live Tracking
- Low emission engines
- Seating with Tables
- Next-stop announcements
- Free WiFi
Bus Trials
The company trialled a Wright StreetDeck with a set of dual doors in February 2018 whether passengers could effectively board and de-board through the front and rear doors. The bus was loaned from Brighton & Hove for trialling on Bluestar route 18. Later in November of the same year, the company unveiled 19 ADL Enviro400 Cities, replacing the single deck buses used on the route the trials took place on.Bluestar has also been one of the test sites for new air filter technology which removes and captures particulates from the atmosphere. A test has been done in September 2018 for 100 days and has claimed to have cleaned 3.2 million cubic metres. It is planned that these will be fitted onto buses nationwide on Go Ahead's buses. To accompany this, they have also installed solar panels onto the roof of the test bus to see if the filter can be made to run on its own power. 16 more buses have been installed with solar panels to reduce maintenance costs and fuel consumption. There are 6 buses with the air filter, including the original with the prototype air filter installed on ADL Enviro200 MMC types, wearing the Bluestar "breathe" branding.
Aside from the air filter trials, the company had also carried out feasibility trials for battery electric vehicles with Southampton City council. These trials took place in June 2021.
2020s
Towards the end of November 2022, First Hampshire & Dorset announced the intention to withdraw their Southampton-based operations following low patronage levels and increased operating costs. This took place on 19th February 2023, with Bluestar adding six replacement routes to its network, servicing the areas where the former company operated.In July 2023, Xelabus reduced their public bus network and transferred their X4 and X7 routes to the company, subsequently being renumbered to 24 and 23 respectively. During October 2024, the company gained two more services from Xelabus, renumbered to 21 and 22.
In December 2023, Bluestar had won the award of "UK Bus Operator of the Year", along with three accolades. These were awarded by the annual UK Bus award scheme, as Bluestar had won this award twice in 2017 and 2018.
During 2024, Bluestar received sixteen Enviro400 MMCs allocated mainly to routes 2 and 7, as well as eighteen cascaded single decker buses from Bournemouth. Twelve refurbished double decker buses also gradually entered service with the operator to phase out temporary buses on cross city route 19, and at a later date, route 19a.
In March 2025, the operator introduced ten double decker buses with “theone” branding to replace the existing fleet of buses operating on the Bluestar 1 route between Southampton and Winchester. The replacements offer USB charging ports, stop bells upstairs behind each seat, and brand new Euro 6 engine technology, which significantly reduces emissions from the exhaust and helps the environment.
Services
TheOne
TheOne operates between Southampton and Winchester at frequencies of a maximum of 10 minutes. The service currently uses ten specially branded Enviro400 MMCs with USB charging ports and Euro 6 engine technology.Bluestar 19a
Bluestar 19a operates between Thornhill and Lordshill at bi-hourly frequencies. The service was introduced to help connect isolated parts of Southampton within Southampton to major locations along the normal 19 route, including Winchester Road, Richard Taunton College and Shirley Retail Park. The service is predominantly aimed at students at said college, and residents living around these areas.X7/X7R
X7/X7R operate hourly between Southampton and Salisbury. Customers on X7 will travel through Wellow and X7R customers will travel through Romsey. Both services serve Paultons Park on some journeys, allowing customers easy access into the attraction.Weekend Park and Ride
Two services, dubbed “PR1” and “PR2” respectively, allow customers to enter the city centre from Adanac Park towards Westquay or St Mary’s for Southampton Stadium. PR1 operates every 20 minutes on weekends and bank holidays, and PR2 operates every 20 minutes for 3 hours before Southampton FC match games, and then for 2 hours after the match ends. Both services run with funding from the Bus Service Improvement Plan.Unilink
The Unilink services are run under contract by Bluestar, in partnership with the University of Southampton. All services share a common section at the Highfield Lane Bus Hub, which houses the university main campus.Nightstar (2024-present)
Since April 2024, Bluestar have operated route 1 throughout Friday and Saturday nights. The service uses the branding 'Nightstar' and is numbered 'N1'. It diverts from the usual route in Winchester, allowing it to serve the Royal Hampshire County Hospital. This route is funded by Hampshire County Council, through their 'Bus Service Improvement Plan'. As a result of a partnership with Bluestar, Hampshire County Council and Southampton City Council, Routes 2, 17 and 18 gained 24/7 services that commenced on August 31.QuayConnect
QuayConnect is a service contracted by Red Funnel since 2014, between Central Station and the Red Funnel terminal. Originally known as CityLink, it offers free rides for Red Funnel ticket holders.The service had its origins in February 2000, commencing in September 2000 as a network of two services funded by Southampton City Council, WestQuay and Red Funnel to commemorate the opening of the WestQuay, with the purpose to facilitate transport for shoppers. First Hampshire & Dorset originally operated the "CityLink" and "CityLoop"; the former running every 10 minutes between Town Quay and Central Station, the latter every half hour between Town Quay and Leisureworld via Central Station, Southampton coach station and The Quay Leisure centre. CityLoop was later axed in October 2007. Bluestar later took over the CityLink service in September 2008.
Southampton City Council announced their decision to cut funding to CityLink in February 2014, which put the service at risk of being withdrawn. WestQuay then made the same decision in April 2014, which left Red Funnel to step up to take over the CityLink contract. With Red Funnel the sole contractor of CityLink, this meant that the service was reduced to every half hour, and passengers without Red Funnel tickets would have to pay a fee. These changes were put into effect in May 2014.
Since 2014, modifications to the service were put in place: the name of the service was changed to "QuayConnect", with a bus sporting a new livery and amenities such as WiFi and USB ports in April 2016. A brand-new double decker bus was purchased for exclusive use on the service in November 2018, replacing the single decker that had operated the service since its inception. The reduction of the frequency of the service was dropped to every hour in April 2021 after its suspension for 12 months.