Badger Bitter Pt 3

It all happened rather suddenly. One day they were out there, large as life, the next… gone. And it was 20 years ago this very day that Badger Vectis t/a Badgerline’s Iveco minibuses and large numbers of mainly crew operated REs went to the wall.

If you recall September 1987 when Badger Vectis started in Poole & Bournemouth, you’ll probably have had strong views one way or the other. Looking back, though, it all seemed as if it was just a little exciting. After all, this was a large newcomer against an established operator, something quite rare in the brave new world we had to face back then.

Badger Vectis was a collaboration between then Badgerline and Southern Vectis, both of whom had jointly failed to buy Wilts & Dorset. The remedy was to exploit what both felt were W&D weaknesses—an extended W&D management buy out and an exposed network based on historic routes without the protective benefit of minibuses. And BV did introduce a number of new initiatives, including regular headways across the conurbation, cross-linked services and its unique selling point, crew operation.

W&D countered with a large order for MCW Metroriders, upping its frequencies in advance using stand-in conventionals. When delivered, the MCWs were decent minibuses, more than a match for the reliability problems of BV’s older Bristol REs. By and after Christmas, BV was actually close to fatally wounding a weakened W&D, remembering it had competed against the profitable Salisbury operations from June 1987. But BV also had its problems. The aforesaid reliability plus recruitment issues, a minibus rejuvenated W&D, and the burden of crew operation took its toll. W&D was clawing its way back.

It was perhaps a sign of BV’s desperation that from the beginning of March BV’s 10-minute killer 2 (Turlin Moor-Poole-Bournemouth-Christchurch-Mudeford), a service judiciously avoiding confrontation with hosts Yellow Buses by using Wessex Way and Fairmile, began instead trawling for revenue along the key Yellow Buses Christchurch Road corridor via Lansdowne, Boscombe & Pokesdown, hitting the 20-23s. Even so, BV’s substantial garage rent to Yellow Buses was still welcome at a time of uncertainty with Charlie’s Cars’ competition.

BV may not have realised how close it was to annihilating W&D but simply couldn’t sustain itself. BV had given notice to the traffic commissioner that it would cease in early May 1988, telling staff on 25 March. There began an exit stampede and necessary closure after last operation on 29 March. Of course, the traffic commissioner wasn’t impressed but could do nothing other at public inquiry than banning BV from registering again.

Click for Badger Bitter Pt 1 (and an explaination as to why the post is so titled) and Pt 2. For those wshing to recall BV vehicles, try here