Founded 1940s Service type Bus & coach services | Defunct circa 2010 Fleet 51 (October 2006) | |
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Parent Go South Coast (part of the Go-Ahead Group) Service area Hampshire
Pembrokeshire Website www.marchwoodcoaches.co.uk (archive) Headquarters Totton and Eling, United Kingdom | ||
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 to the end of operations. Its operations were subsumed by those of Bluestar, but its licence remains legally separate and is still used for some vehicles.
Contents
History
Marchwood Motorways was formed in the 1940s. In the 1960s, Marchwood Motorways established a subsidiary in Haverfordwest to operate services during the construction of the Pembroke Refinery, requiring 60 coaches, at its peak. In the 1970s, Marchwood purchased the business of Bill Colins of Roch, including a service from Haverfordwest to St Davids. This was sold, in 1982, to Richards Bros.
In July 2006, a major fire at the company's depot, caused by arson, destroyed three buses and offices, causing an estimated £250,000 of damage.
In October 2006, Marchwood Motorways was purchased by the Go-Ahead Group with 51 buses and coaches. The company became part of Solent Blue Line.
Marchwood had an unusual, but long standing arrangement, to run buses under franchise to Solent Blue Line on Southampton routes 18 and 19. Most of the buses were DAFs including 11 Wright Cadet bodied SB120s.
In December 2008, the company took part in an Asda scheme to fill a coach with Christmas presents for charity. It was hoped that customers would fill the coach with up to 2,000 gifts.
It continued to operate as a separate brand, until at least 2009, but has since fallen out of use, with its operations integrated into Bluestar and Tourist Group although, as at October 2013, some buses continued to operate under the Marchwood Motorways licence.
Incidents
October 2006 saw an attack on one of the company's vehicles, a stone being thrown at a school coach nearly injuring pupils.
Along with Solent Blue Line, in May 2008, the company was found to have been running services to lower than expected reliability levels, and faced a fine from the Traffic Commissioner.