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| WEAVERBUS
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tale
of Rory's buses ..... and the Dorset Linkrider services
to Lulworth
Cove
1998
- 2005
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Please
note - this is a site of historical record and does not contain current
service information
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In days gone by
the
popular Dorset seaside resort village of Lulworth Cove had
frequent regular bus
services to Wool, Bovington, Wareham, Swanage and Weymouth operated by
Southern National, and since 1952 a twice weekly Wednesday and Saturday
market bus to Dorchester as well operated by Dorset
Queen. Until the 1960s you might also have arrived in
Lulworth in one of Cosen's
paddle steamers from Weymouth, Swanage or Bournemouth. The Southern
National bus services gradually disappeared during the
1970s. Interbus
provided a partial replacement for a few years in the 1980s and whilst
the Dorset Queen
service to Dorchester continued two days a week the only other
connections were a long
standing
Thursdays-only run (also by Dorset Queen) to Weymouth and a more recent
post-deregulation 8-seater taxibus
between Lulworth and Wool station provided by Garrison Cars of Wool,
trading as
the 'Little Red Bus'.
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To
improve the bus services to and from Lulworth a new initiative was
started
in June 1998, assisted by grant funding from the Rural Development
Commission,
Dorset County Council, National Trust and Lulworth Weld
Estates. Called the Dorset
Linkrider, two operators provided
services to Lulworth where they met and interlinked and provided
through connections. The two new operators were Swanage Taxis
Limited running service 29 between Swanage, Wareham and Lulworth Cove;
the other operator was Weaverbus running service 30 between Weymouth
and Lulworth Cove. The route numbers were deliberately chosen
as reincarnation of the long gone previous Southern National
services.
Similarly a common livery of dark green was used for the Swanage Taxi
Renault and MCW and the Weaverbus Mercedes.
Running
Swanage Taxis from the eastern end of the route was Nick Hubbard, based
at the railway station there, whilst Weaverbus was run by husband and
wife team Rory and Joyce Weaver from the western end. The
first summer of operation went well and in 1999 Dorset Linkrider was
honoured by landing a place in the highly prestigious National Bus
Industry Awards - dubbed ‘the Oscars of the Bus and Coach Industry’.
Dorset Linkrider was one of three services short-listed nationally in
the ‘Bus in the Countryside - Visitors’ category of the 1999 awards,
and were Highly Commended in the results.
Also in 1999, with money from the Rural Bus Grant
scheme, the
county council revamped bus services in the area and new hourly
services were supported through operator Dorset
Transit from Dorchester to Wool and Bovington, with five a
day running through Lulworth Cove. Dorset Linkrider continued
to serve Lulworth from both Weymouth and Swanage and a "Packhorse"
facility was proposed to enable walkers to send their backpacks ahead
for later collection.
After the summer of 2000 the
two halves of the Linkrider route tended to develop independently and
the connections at Lulworth Cove (and the opportunity for passengers to
travel through) decreased in number and frequency and finally ceased,
as below. During the summer of 2002 (only) the 30 was extended to
operate Weymouth to Wareham railway station.
Swanage
Taxis
no longer operated to Lulworth at all but
Weaverbus continued from the Weymouth end, with the timetable and
service frequency adjusted seasonally. The “link” in
Linkrider went after four and a half years on 8th September
2002.
Operations on the 30 then included a morning and afternoon return
facility between Weymouth and employment opportunities at
Winfrith Technology Park as
well as
the established route to Lulworth Cove.
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Rory’s
faithful
Mercedes 608 twenty seater C311 SPL (new in 1986, ex-London Country)
served the route for several years. An ex-Western National Bristol SU /
ECW EDV 338 worked on the route from 1997 to 2000 (Rory Weaver had
spent five years from 1992 renovating it and preparing it, including
reseating it to 34 passengers). By 2001 the regular performer was
Dennis Dart twenty-eight seater G515 VYE (new in 1990 to London
Buses), which worked the route until closure. The Mercedes
passed to Linco Travel of Henstridge, based just across the county
boundary in Somerset. EDV 338 is now in preservation as Southern
National 624 and has appeared at several rallies.
As with many other
rural services the Weaverbus
timings
were
interworked with a school contract. This led to a route
extension with positioning journeys to Puddletown from autumn 2002,
with operation to Lulworth suspended until the summer of
2003. (The best carryings were in July and August during the
holiday season and regrettably local traffic from the villages served
had never developed to the extent anticipated). In March 2004
the feared loss of the school contract nearly led to the withdrawal of
the stage route, as the financial interdependence was of importance to
the continuation of the Lulworth route. Thankfully a school
contract was regained and the stage service continued to operate
through the summer of 2004 – but now joined at peak time in the school
holidays by Sureline's
X25 between Weymouth and Lulworth. Relations between the two
operators were however very cordial. The Weaverbus service
from
Weymouth to Winfrith continued to operate during winter 2004/05, and in
spring 2005 too - but still limited to Winfrith without
serving
Lulworth Cove.
The end of the
school term in July
2005 saw the end of the
Weaverbus operation and routes, with the Dart sold to a collector in
Surrey. Last day was Friday 22nd July. The need for
the bus
service had declined since the all year round X53 service was
introduced by First Weymouth and the workers runs to and from Winfrith
Technology Centre had been sandwiched by First's services X53 and
101 to104. Paradoxically
it was the success of other bus services introduced progressively in
frequency that subsequently caused the end of Weaverbus. Passenger
carryings
on the Weaverbus 30 in the peak month of
August had fallen to a third between 2002 and 2004 (2002 saw 2592
passengers, 2003 down to 1467 and 2004 only 994).
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Tthe autumn of
2005 saw the 101 to 104 group of
services withdrawn at the end of October and replaced by a
semi-flexible 'Door
to Dorset'
operation provided by community transport
organisation
NordCAT of Sturminster Newton. Nick Hubbard and Swanage Taxis
still operated as Linkrider Coaches, including a Thursday market run
to Wareham via Kimmeridge.
From 25 July 2005
replacement Sureline route X30 provided the
morning and afternoon workers services to and from Winfrith Technology
Centre, and extended back from Weymouth to start from their Portland
base. Along with the other Sureline routes operation passed to South West
Coaches in October 2009 who continued the Weymouth - Winfrith Technology Park service as their route 230 until December 2011.
Summer 2010 saw a
new X43 bus service (jointly
operated
by
Wilts & Dorset and First) which linked Swanage and Weymouth via
Lulworth Cove. During the peak summer holiday
period it ran four times daily in each direction; reviving the intent
of the Linkrider of
1998.
Similar
arrangements followed in subsequent years. In the summer school
holidays of 2016
First operated their X55 from Weymouth to Lulworth and
Bovington two or three times a day. Competitively
MoreBus (Wilts & Dorset) operate from Weymouth to Lulworth
and on to Wareham and Swanage four times a day - reinstating the
Linkrider route from end-to-end, and (perhaps sentimentally) numbered
30. There was also the 104 run by Dorset Community Transport
twice a day (all year round) with two
off-peak journeys from Lulworth, Wool and Bovington to Wareham and
return. This changed to operation by Damory Coaches in October 2016.
The summer of 2021 saw First X54 from Weymouth to Poole via Lulworth,
X52 from Weymouth to Lulworth and Bovington, whilst MoreBus ran their
30 Swanage - Lulworth - Weymouth and a new route 31 from holiday
camps near Wareham to Bovington Tank Museum and Lulworth Cove.
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Above and right - a later Weaverbus
timetable with route via Winfrith Technology Centre for workers and
Crossways for shoppers, but before the diversion to Puddletown
following the change of school contracts.
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The final day of Weaverbus operation after
running since 1998 - Rory and Joyce Weaver stand with GYV585E at
Lulworth Cove on 22nd July 2005, having reversed the bus ready to
depart for Weymouth for the last time. Les Ronan, chairman of the
Dorset Transport Circle, on right.
(photo by kind courtesy of Keith Newton)
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2024 footnote
You might say the LinkRider
concept has blossomed and matured. There are now hourly competitive
services linking Weymouth to Swanage via Lulworth during the summer
season (MoreBus 30 and FirstBus X50 / X54). The timings coincide so
that on many departures one company’s double deck bus is in convoy with
the other for many miles ! The part of the route through Lulworth and
Winfrith is challenging for bus drivers with narrow roads and further
aggravated by indiscriminate visitor car parking (and often meeting a
bus coming in the other other direction too). Could not the two routes
be co-ordinated to offer a half hourly frequency in combination rather
than the catch me if you can situation today ?
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