 | |
| Parent | Go-Ahead Group |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Poole |
| Service area | Dorset Hampshire Isle of Wight Wiltshire Somerset [1] |
| Service type | Bus & coach services |
| Depots | 9 |
| Fleet | 760 (May 2015) [2] |
| Annual ridership | 46 million (June 2014) [2] |
| Chief executive | Andrew Wickham |
| Website | gosouthcoast |
Go South Coast [3] is a bus operator on and around the south coast of England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group.
In August 2003 the Go-Ahead Group purchased the business of Wilts & Dorset, including its Damory Coaches and Tourist Group subsidiaries, [4] followed in July 2005 by Southern Vectis including its Solent Blue Line subsidiary. [5]
In February 2006 Wilts & Dorset purchased bus refurbishment company Hants & Dorset Trim. [6] At this stage, Go-Ahead consolidated the management of its south coast operations under Go South Coast in Poole. In October 2006 Marchwood Motorways was purchased. [7] [8]
Thamesdown Transport was purchased from Swindon Borough Council in February 2017. [9]
Go South Coast originally did not operate any buses in its own right, all being operated by subsidiary companies. Operators in italics are considered part of and managed by the bigger company above.
The company has three coach brands: [10]
In June 2014, all the subsidiary companies' vehicles were brought together under the Go South Coast licence. [11]
As at May 2023, Go South Coast operated over 850 buses and coaches from nine depots. [2]
The Go-Ahead Group Limited is a passenger transport company based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The majority of its operations are within the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Norway, and Germany. Go-Ahead was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange prior to being purchased by Kinetic Group and Globalvia by 2022.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 is a twin-axle low-floor double-decker bus that was built by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis between 2005 and 2018. It replaced the Alexander ALX400, Dennis Trident and Plaxton President. In 2014, the Enviro400 was succeeded by the updated Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC and production of the classic Enviro400 ceased in 2018.
The National Bus Company (NBC) was a nationalised bus company that operated in England and Wales between 1969 and 1988. NBC did not run buses itself, but was the owner of a number of regional subsidiary bus operating companies.
Southern Vectis is a bus operator on the Isle of Wight. The company was founded in 1921 as "Dodson and Campbell" and became the "Vectis Bus Company" in 1923. The company was purchased by the Southern Railway before being nationalised in 1969. In 1987, the company was re-privatised. In July 2005, it became a subsidiary of Go-Ahead Group.
The Transport Holding Company (THC) was a British Government-owned company created by the Transport Act 1962 to administer a range of state-owned transport, travel and engineering companies that were previously managed by the British Transport Commission (BTC). It came into existence on 1 September 1962, with certain assets of the BTC vested in it on 1 January 1963.
Solent Blue Line Limited, primarily trading under the name Bluestar, is a bus operator providing services in Southampton and surrounding areas of Hampshire. It is a subsidiary of the Go South Coast sector of the Go-Ahead Group.
Swindon's Bus Company is a bus operator in England, serving Swindon and the surrounding area. Previously owned by Swindon Borough Council, ownership passed to the Go-Ahead Group in February 2017 and the operation was rebranded as Thamesdown...Swindon's bus company, later simply Swindon's bus company.
Transport in Swindon, England, and the surroundings has directly contributed to the town's growth and the ingress of businesses and industries.
Buses in Swindon have been the major method of public transport in the region since the beginning of the 20th century. Introduced in 1927 and replacing the tram system in 1929, the area is now served by numerous operators.
Hants & Dorset Motor Services Ltd was a stage carriage bus service operator in southern England between 1920 and 1983.
Dorset is a county in South West England. The county is largely rural and therefore does not have a dense transport network, and is one of the few English counties without a motorway. Owing to its position on the English Channel coast, and its natural sheltered harbours, it has a maritime history, though lack of inland transport routes have led to the decline of its ports.
Swindon Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Swindon in Wiltshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. As such, it is administratively separate from the rest of Wiltshire. It was formed in 1997, replacing Thamesdown Borough Council.
Marchwood Motorways was a bus and coach operator based in Totton, Hampshire. Formed as an independent in the 1940s, it was a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group from 2006 until it became dormant in 2010. Its operations were subsumed by those of Bluestar, but its licence remains legally separate.
The Tilling Group was one of two conglomerates that controlled almost all of the major bus operators in the United Kingdom between World Wars I and II and until nationalisation in 1948.
Wilts & Dorset is a bus and coach operator providing services in East Dorset, South Wiltshire, and West Hampshire. It operates services under the morebus brand around Bournemouth and Poole, and under the Salisbury Reds brand around Salisbury and Amesbury. It is part of Go South Coast, a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group.
Badger Vectis was an English bus company based in Poole. A post-deregulation joint venture between Weston-super-Mare based bus company Badgerline and Isle of Wight bus company Southern Vectis, it was set up in September 1987 to compete with incumbent operator Wilts & Dorset. The buses all used the Badgerline brand. After a noted bus war between the two large companies, Badger Vectis folded in March 1988.
Dorset and Wilts Rugby Football Union is the governing body for rugby union in the counties of Dorset and Wiltshire, England. Dorset & Wilts RFU is a Constituent Body of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and is responsible for the management and administration of the game within the counties of Dorset and Wiltshire of all forms and at all levels. Originally Dorset and Wiltshire had their own county teams but would start to merge into one body towards the end of the 1930s, having already played a combined match against Hampshire in 1935–36 which Dorset & Wilts won 9–6. By 1939 Dorset & Wilts agreed to become a unified rugby football union to take part in the 1940–41 County Championships but this was postponed by the outbreak of World War II. After the war Dorset & Wilts played its first official county match in 1947 and attained full county status from the RFU in 1949.
Salisbury bus station was a bus station in the city of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. The station had five stands underneath a red brick building which was built in 1939 as the headquarters of the Wilts & Dorset bus company. It was closed in 2014 on the grounds of high maintenance costs.
| Shareholders |
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| UK bus companies |
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| Overseas bus companies | ||
| UK railway companies (through 65% share in Govia) | ||
| European railway companies | ||
| Former operations |
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