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 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, ...

, 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 and around the south coast of England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. History In August 2003 the Go-Ahead Group purchased the business of Wilts & Dorset, including its Damory Coaches and Touris ...

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 Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

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 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 an English council that governs eleven of the thirteen districts geographically located within the ceremonial county of Hampshire. As one of twenty-four county councils in England, it acts as the upper tier of ...

to operate route 67 Winchester-

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 railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...

, which moved on to

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

and

Stagecoach South Stagecoach South is a bus operator providing services in South East England. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach. It operates services in Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex with some routes extending into Brighton and Wiltshire. It operates 487 buses fr ...

operation. All

Barton Peveril College Barton Peveril Sixth Form College was, in 2011, the seventh largest sixth form college in the UK, located in Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK with approximately 4,000 students. It is part of the Wessex Group of Sixth Form Colleges. History Originally Ba ...

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

Hedge End Hedge End is a town and civil parish in Hampshire, England. Situated to the east of the City of Southampton, it adjoins the districts of West End and Botley. Hedge End lies within the Borough of Eastleigh and is part of the Southampton Urba ...

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 is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

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 Lim ...

Services

As of July 2014, Velvet operated six routes under contract to

Eastleigh Borough Council 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 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, ...

. 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