First Hampshire & Dorset


First Hampshire & Dorset is a bus operator providing services in the counties of Hampshire and Dorset. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.

History

First Hampshire & Dorset was created out of various different smaller companies which were merged once FirstGroup had acquired them.
In October 1995 FirstBus purchased the bus services in Fareham, Gosport and Portsmouth operated by People's Provincial.
In April 1996 FirstBus purchased services in Portsmouth from Transit Holdings trading as Red Admiral & Blue Admiral, which in turn had taken over the Portsmouth CityBus operations under the title of Southdown Portsmouth. This operation was then put under the control of People's Provincial and the whole renamed to First Provincial.
In 1997 FirstBus purchased Southampton Citybus and after a brief period of using the Citybus name, the operation was renamed First Southampton. In 1999 First Southampton merged with First Provincial to form First Hampshire, later being renamed First Hampshire & Dorset. The company is facing growing competition in Southampton from Go-Ahead owned Bluestar.
In 1999 FirstGroup purchased Southern National with the Dorset operations merged to form First Hampshire & Dorset in 2003.

Depots

As of March 2013 the fleet consisted of 360 buses.
In Weymouth, First operate a number of Wright StreetLite buses on routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 10 purchased between 2013 and 2015. Several Optare Solos purchased in 2014, working primarily on routes 3, 4 and 8. Wright Eclipse-bodied Volvo B7RLEs which started operation in 2006. A number of Alexander ALX400s on various routes. A single Dennis Trident 2 purchased in 2005 branded for route 502. Several Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9TLs operating mostly on route X53 between Poole and Exeter bought in 2008. A single surviving Plaxton Pointer 2 bodied Dennis Dart 9.2SDA in operation since 1997. And Six Scania N94UDs bought in 2004 & 2005 operating on route X51.
First inherited a large number of Leyland Atlanteans from Southampton Citybus along with Leyland Lynxs, Leyland Olympians and gas powered Dennis Darts. All of these have now been withdrawn from the Southampton fleet. An unusual vehicle inherited from the Provincial fleet was the first ACE Cougar, one of just two built, which has also been withdrawn. First introduced a number of bus types that are also no longer in service in Southampton; these include Volvo B7LA / Wright Eclipse Fusion bendy buses introduced in 2000 but transferred to First Glasgow in 2003 after they proved unsuitable for a number of Southampton roads, former First Capital Dennis Arrows proved unpopular in Southampton and moved onto First Greater Manchester in 2006. First had operated Optare Solos on the free City-link service between Southampton Central Station, West Quay Shopping Centre and Town Quay, these left the Southampton fleet when First lost the City-link contract to Unilink, which subsequently became franchised to Bluestar in 2008.