Buses in Portsmouth

The group's later acquisition of Southampton Citybus and Southern National saw the companies combined to form First Hampshire & Dorset, which provides the majority of services in the city today.

[1] Early attempts to introduce motorised buses to the city, including in 1906 by the Isle of Wight Motor Bus Company, proved unsuccessful.

The corporation's livery, previously scarlet and ochre, was changed to red and white in 1931 in response to Portsmouth gaining city status four years earlier.

Unusually, at this time there were two numbers (or letters for trolleybuses) for each route, depending on the direction, and this continued post-war.

[3] From 1963 until the late 1970s PCT standardised on the double-deck Leyland Atlantean for new purchases, retaining much older vehicles for open-top services.

In October 1986, to coincide with bus deregulation and the privatisation of National Bus Company (NBC), Portsmouth Corporation Transport was reformed as Portsmouth City Transport, a limited company wholly owned by the city council.

Trading as Red Admiral, it was jointly owned by newly privatised Southampton Citybus and the rapidly expanding Badgerline group.

However, Citybus still faced strong competition from Southdown and People's Provincial, two former NBC subsidiaries which were now independent, and its finances were never entirely secure during its year of operation in this form.

Vehicles began to be repainted into Stagecoach's corporate livery of white with red, blue and orange stripes.

Both Portsmouth City Council and Hampshire County Council, together with a number of bus user groups in the area and the employees' trade unions, had supported the takeover, as it was felt that Citybus could not have continued to trade in the long term.

However, the decision by the MMC was over-ruled by Nicholas Ridley, then the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and credited as the architect of bus deregulation.

[9] On 20 January 1991, Stagecoach's operations in Portsmouth were sold to Transit Holdings, a group formed from the privatisation of Devon General.

Service frequencies rose to retain capacity, and Transit Holdings claimed that ridership had risen dramatically.

[12] Transit Holdings began to contract in the mid-1990s, and in April 1996 the Portsmouth operation was sold to FirstGroup.

A month later it was merged with People's Provincial, which First also owned, and a new livery of red and cream was introduced to the enlarged company.

[13] In December 2006 First Hampshire & Dorset was fined by the Traffic Commissioner for poor punctuality on its services in Portsmouth.

Two smaller operators in the area, Yellow Motor Service and Enterprise, were taken over by Hants & Dorset in 1924, returning their vehicles to Portsmouth.

The eastern end of its former operating area, which included its few services into Portsmouth, were merged with the former Gosport & Fareham Omnibus Company to form the Provincial Bus Co.[25] When NBC was privatised in the mid-1980s, Provincial was the only company to be sold under an Employee Share Ownership Plan, becoming independent in May 1987.

Stagecoach was forced to sell its Portsmouth operations, which passed to Transit Holdings in January 1991, together with the Hilsea site, which was reopened.

One journey per week in each direction ran on route X92, a Saturday-only service originating in Midhurst operated under contract to West Sussex County Council.

[29] Further competition on the corridor appeared in September 2009, when Portsmouth and Southampton became the first destinations to be served by Greyhound UK, owned by FirstGroup;[30] this service ceased in November 2012.

Latterly branded as the Solent Shuttle, the route was reduced in frequency in 2007 and finally withdrawn as loss-making in February 2009.

[32] Portsmouth is served by a park and ride service from a site at Tipner, close to the M275 motorway.

The site opened in April 2014 at a cost of £28 million, providing 650 car parking spaces and including a new junction on the motorway and bus priority measures.

[36] Another park and ride bus service is operated in Portsmouth on Saturdays and some bank holidays.

[37] The Hard Interchange is the main bus station in Portsmouth, with connections to national rail as well as ferries to Gosport and Ryde.

[38] Work commenced in autumn 2015, with some revision to roads in the vicinity together with temporary bus stop provision on The Hard itself.