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 ADL Enviro400 MMC in Winchester in December 2022 | |
| Parent | Xelagroup Ltd |
|---|---|
| Founded | November 2010; 14 years ago |
| Headquarters | Eastleigh |
| Service area | Hampshire |
| Service type | Bus services Contract hire |
| Fleet | 75 (November 2022) [1] |
| Website | www.xelabus.info |
Xelabus Limited [2] is an independent bus and coach operator, based in Eastleigh, Hampshire. It primarily operates public bus services within the Southampton area. All their operations come under their parent, Xelagroup Ltd. [3] [4]
Xelabus was founded in November 2010 by Gareth Blair, after finishing a CPC course with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Bristol. The name is a portmanteau of his son's name spelt backwards with the word bus. [5] Vehicles are painted in a green livery similar to that of the former Hants & Dorset company that used to run in the region until 1983 when it was dissolved. [6] A free service in Eastleigh to Chandlers Ford was the first route to be introduced which grew to seven bus routes that mainly served the local Asda and Tesco supermarkets in the region. [7] [8] Since then, nine more routes have commenced including an Open Top Bus "Sea the city" in Portsmouth in 2011. [9] Some services have been more successful than others, with one service to Southampton competing with Bluestar being withdrawn in less than 12 months. [6] In September 2012, Xelabus began a two-year contract to operate services to Totton College. [10]
On 12 May 2014, Xelabus took over route 67 Winchester to Petersfield via West Meon from Velvet under contract to Hampshire County Council. [11] In June the same year, it took over the Barton Peveril College routes from Velvet. [12] Between January and August 2015, Xelabus acquired the routes and school services of Velvet and Brijan Tours when both of them went into administration. [5] [13] [14]
On 4 November 2019, Xelabus introduced contactless payments across their vehicles. [15] For a short time during the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak, all Xelabus service were suspended in March for three months until June where over time it started to return to a normal frequency. [16] [17] A month later, the company was awarded the contract to run the X21 to the Chilworth Science Park by the University of Southampton. The route is the only one contracted by the university to not use the uni-link branding and it runs between Southampton and Chilworth via Southampton Airport parkway, using an ADL Enviro200 MMC equipped with WiFi facilities and leather seating. [18]
Xelabus saw two purchases of local coach companies within 2022, Seaview Services of Sandown in May, and Yellow Coaches of Bournemouth in August. These were purchased under the Xelagroup parent company. [19] [20] The latter of the two was awarded an emergency tender by the BCP council after its purchase to cover for routes 18, 33 and 36; [21] this emergency tender ended on 14 February 2023 with Yellow Coaches subsequently withdrawing public operations in Bournemouth. [22] [23] These routes previously were contracted to Yellow Buses, and were covered by Wilts & Dorset for two weeks as the former fell into administration. [24] [25]
In August 2022, five public services within Hampshire were cut from the network due to rising costs and low patronage. One of these routes was covered by another operator, Southampton Mini Link, for two months before it ceased operations. [26] [27]
In July 2023, 3 public services were cut from the network with the termination of the contracts to the routes. Routes X4 and X4A were taken over by Bluestar, with the X21 university route being taken over by Unilink. [28] [29] In October 2024, services X11 and X12 were cut from the network at the end of the services' contract period with the company's shift towards contracted work. These were taken by Bluestar and renumbered as 21 and 22. [30]
Coach and on hire operations recently began in May 2022 under the brand name Xelacoach. [31] Also within the same month, Seaview Services was purchased and incorporated into the company. This has grown the bus fleet by around eight and given them access to operations on the Isle of Wight. [19] With the collapse of Yellow Buses in Bournemouth, the Yellow Coaches subsidiary was purchased by the company on 5 August 2022, joining their private hire and school shuttle operations. [20]
Xelabus operates private services for local schools and colleges as well as one public service in Southampton, subsidised by the Southampton City Council. [32] [33]
Xelabus initially operated a fleet of seven vehicles which had grown to around 40 vehicles in October 2019. [7] [15]
In 2017, Xelabus ordered several 8.9m ADL Enviro 200s from Mistral Bus and Coach sales, an investment of over £0.5 million. [34] A year later, they took delivery of three Wright Gemini Volvo B5LHs for the Itchen College contracted routes in April 2018. [35]
In 2022, another order was placed for two second hand Mercedes-Benz Tourismos for the coach operations of the company. [19] Also that year, Xelabus took delivery of a pair of Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC double-deck buses. [36]
A fire broke out in the depot during the evening of 13 March 2011. Several vehicles were damaged with three being destroyed in the fire. Firefighters arrived at the scene and were able to prevent the fire from spreading to a nearby two-storey building. Hampshire police investigators believed it may have been a deliberate attack. [37] [38]
Southampton Airport is an international airport located in both Eastleigh and Southampton, Hampshire, in England. The airport is located 3.5 nautical miles north-northeast of central Southampton. The southern tip of the runway lies within the Southampton unitary authority boundary with most of the airport, including all of the buildings, within the Borough of Eastleigh.
Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census.
Go North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead Northern. The company was the foundation of today's Go-Ahead Group, which now operates bus and rail services across the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, Ireland, Norway and Singapore.
Eastleigh railway station serves the town of Eastleigh in the English county of Hampshire. It is located on the South West Main Line and is the junction station for two other routes, the Eastleigh-Fareham Line and the Eastleigh-Romsey Line. It is 73 miles 35 chains (118.2 km) from London Waterloo. South of the station are Eastleigh Railway Works and Eastleigh Depot.
Unilink is the branded bus service operated under contract and serving the University of Southampton in Hampshire, England. The service was created in 1998 following the university's expansion onto several new campuses, requiring new transport links between them. The current contractor of the service is Bluestar, part of the Go-Ahead Group, who took over in 2008. The service also encourages use by members of the public outside the university community.
First Hampshire & Dorset is a bus operator providing services in the counties of Hampshire and Dorset. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
Yellow Buses was a bus operator based in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. Yellow Buses was the trading name for Bournemouth Transport Ltd. The company fell into administration in July 2022 and ceased operations on 4 August 2022.
Solent Blue Line Limited, trading under the name Bluestar, is a bus operator providing services in Southampton and the surrounding areas of Hampshire. It is a subsidiary of the Go South Coast sector of the Go-Ahead Group.
Hants & Dorset Motor Services Ltd was a stage carriage bus service operator in southern England between 1920 and 1983.
Go South Coast is a bus operator on the south coast of England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. All services under the company come under its operating certificate, however the buses run under a multitude of brands.
Black Velvet Travel Limited, trading as Velvet, was an English bus company based in Eastleigh, that operated between November 2007 and January 2015.
Wilts & Dorset was a bus and coach operator providing services in East Dorset, South Wiltshire and West Hampshire. It was purchased by Go-Ahead Group in 2003 and was rebranded as Morebus in Dorset and Salisbury Reds in Wiltshire in 2012.
Seaview Services is a coach hire and tour operator operating on the Isle of Wight. It is a subsidiary of Xelabus.
The Wright StreetDeck is an integral double-decker bus manufactured by Wrightbus since 2014, originally delivered as standard with a Daimler OM934 diesel engine. Hybrid-electric, full-electric and hydrogen-powered variants have subsequently been produced. Production of the StreetDeck range was briefly suspended when Wrightbus entered administration in September 2019.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC, also marketed as the Alexander Dennis Enviro200, is a single-decker city bus produced by Alexander Dennis since 2014 as the successor to the Enviro200 midibus and Enviro300 full-size bus. The first Enviro200 MMCs entered service with National Express West Midlands in 2015. Notably, Enviro200 MMCs have been modified by Fusion Processing to be used as the basis for the first driverless bus trials in the United Kingdom.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC is a low-floor double-decker bus produced by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis since 2014, replacing the Alexander Dennis Enviro400. The Enviro400 MMC is produced at Alexander Dennis' Falkirk and Scarborough factories in the United Kingdom.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City is a low-floor double-decker bus produced by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis since 2015, as an alternative to the standard Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC bodywork. The Enviro400 City is produced at Alexander Dennis' Falkirk and Scarborough factories in the United Kingdom. It is available as a complete integral diesel or hybrid bus, as well as the Enviro400EV complete integral battery electric bus or Scania N280UD compressed natural gas-powered chassis.
Morebus is a trading name of bus operator Go South Coast primarily used in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and the wider Dorset area. Operations in the area were formerly part of the Wilts & Dorset brand, phased out from 2012 onwards.
Transpora Group is a British public transport company, based in London, England. It primarily operates a mix of bus and coach services.
South Hampshire is the term used to refer to the conurbation formed by the city of Portsmouth, city of Southampton and the non-metropolitan boroughs between them. As a result of the area's high population density, it has a developed public transport network. However, due to the area being controlled by different Authorities, most notably Southampton City Council, Portsmouth City Council and Hampshire County Council, there is little coordination of the system.
Media related to Xelabus at Wikimedia Commons
Bus operators in South East England | ||
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| Buckinghamshire | ||
| East Sussex | ||
| Hampshire | ||
| Isle of Wight | ||
| Kent | ||
| Oxfordshire | ||
| Surrey | ||
| West Sussex | ||
| National | ||