Bournemouth: choice of buses on Old Christchurch Road

Image: © Chris Downer Taken: 31 Dec 2008

July 2007 saw a major change in the numbering of Bournemouth's Yellow Buses that had dated back decades, since well before the discontinuation of trams and trolley buses. Each route had previously had its own distinct number, and these were to no evident pattern, perhaps more related to the order in which the routes were introduced. Now, the main Poole-Christchurch routes are numbered 1, with a, b and c denoting the slightly different route taken by each; these are colour coded in reddish colours. Similarly, the 2s go to Iford and then round the north of the town, with the letter indicating the exact route and colour coded in shades of green. The 3 runs through Charminster to the Hospital; the 4s go through Winton and Moordown with the 4a going west to Bearwood and the 4b east to Muscliff – these are brownish colours. The 5a and 5b serve Winton and then Ensbury Park and Kinson, each taking a slightly different route and these are colour coded in bluish green. The 6a, 6b and 6c serve Winton and Wallisdown. Finally, the low frequency routes, of which only the 24 stops here, are shown in bright red. A recent improvement in the bus-stop displays is a complete run-down of every bus due to stop there – 478 of them in the Saturday section in the centre of this sheet (Sundays below and continuation of weekdays above, from the other side) – rather than simple listings of frequency for each route.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0