Black Velvet Travel Limited, trading as Velvet, was an English bus company based in

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census. The town ...

, that operated between November 2007 and January 2015.

History

Velvet was established on 3 November 2007 by former

Go South Coast Go South Coast is a bus operator on the south coast of England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. All services under the company come under its operating certificate, however the buses run under a multitude of brands. History In Aug ...

director Phil Stockley, and in January 2008 began running a temporary shuttle for

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

staff. On 25 February 2008, Velvet took over the running of Red Rocket A in

, which was given up by previous operator

Solent Blue Line Solent Blue Line Limited, trading under the name Bluestar, is a bus operator providing services in Southampton and the surrounding areas of Hampshire. It is a subsidiary of the Go South Coast sector of the Go-Ahead Group. History Origins In ...

as part of their network restructuring. Velvet gained a number of contracts to run other routes, as well as many new commercial ventures. Since the start of 2014, Velvet had been withdrawing or reducing services following what is described as 'a very difficult winter'. On 12 May 2014, Velvet surrendered the contract with

Hampshire County Council Hampshire County Council (HCC) is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hampshire in England. The council was created in 1889. The county council provides county-level services to eleven of the thirteen districts geo ...

to operate route 67

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

West Meon West Meon is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, with a population of 749 people at the 2011 census. Geography It is north-west of East Meon, on the headwaters of the River Meon. Its closest town is Petersfield which is to the ...

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own Petersfield railway station, railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rai ...

, which moved on to

Xelabus Xelabus LimitedCompanies House extract company no 7338043
Xelabus Li ...

and

Stagecoach South Stagecoach (South) Limited, trading as Stagecoach South, is a bus operator providing services in South East England as a subsidiary of Stagecoach Group, Stagecoach. It operates services in Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex with some routes extendin ...

operation. All

Barton Peveril College Barton Peveril Sixth Form College is an Ofsted 'Outstanding' sixth form college located in Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK with approximately 5,000 students, aged 16–18. It is part of the Wessex Group of Sixth Form Colleges. History Originally Bart ...

routes were transferred to Xelabus on 22 June 2014, along with the Eastleigh-

Hedge End Hedge End is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Hampshire, England. Situated to the east of the Southampton, City of Southampton, it adjoins the districts of West End, Hampshire, West End and Botley, Hampshire, Botley. Hedge ...

section of Velvet's A service. This followed the collapse of a deal in March 2014 which would have seen Xelabus take over the company. On 16 July 2014, the company announced it had ceased trading, with other operators stepping in to cover its services. However two days later operations resumed, with the company announcing on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that it had new owners. Founder and former managing director Phil Stockley commented that the company had not entered any formal insolvency process, and that he would no longer be involved in running Velvet. After operating the service for two weeks on an interim basis, Adam Smith purchased the business. Smith was convicted of possessing counterfeit money a month later, but avoided a prison sentence as jobs at Velvet depended upon him. Velvet's director Michael Bishop took over Cornish independent

Western Greyhound Western Greyhound was a bus operator based in Summercourt, near Newquay, which operated services in Cornwall and Devon from January 1998 until March 2015. History Western Greyhound was established in January 1998 to take over the three veh ...

in December 2014, with Smith becoming its managing director. On 10 January 2015, Velvet ceased operating, with the three remaining routes passing to

Xelabus Xelabus LimitedCompanies House extract company no 7338043
Xelabus Li ...

Services

As of July 2014, Velvet operated six routes under contract to Eastleigh Borough Council. By November 2014 this had reduced to four.Route Times
Velvet

References

External links

*
Company website
{{Defunct British Bus Companies Eastleigh 2007 establishments in England 2015 disestablishments in England Former bus operators in Hampshire