Unilink

Unilink

One of the double-deck Alexander Dennis Enviro400 buses used on Unilink services.
Slogan	University bus links anyone can use.
Founded	1998
Headquarters	Barton Park, Eastleigh
Service area	University of Southampton
Service type	Bus
Routes	4
Fleet	28
Operator	Bluestar (part of the Go South Coast division of the Go-Ahead Group)
Website	www.unilinkbus.co.uk

Unilink is the branded bus service operated under contract and serving the University of Southampton in Hampshire, England. The service was created in 1998 following the University's expansion onto several new campuses, requiring new transport links between them. The current contractor of the service is Bluestar, part of the Go-Ahead Group, who took over in 2008. The service also encourages use by members of the public outside the university community.

The foundations for the service began with the opening of the Southampton Oceanography Centre in 1996. Located in Southampton Docks, this was the first of the University's campuses that were not either within walking distance of the main campus or were self-contained (whose students had no need to travel to a different campus – Winchester School of Art and Southampton General Hospital being the main examples). As a result, the University launched the student only shuttle service to serve the new campus. The service ran every half-hour with one service every hour running by Avenue Campus while the other ran by Portswood. The service was run by the University's Business Services division.

In 1998, the University made a three-year agreement with local operator First Southampton to run a new bus service under the Uni-link name. First's service launched on 21 September 1998 and saw the introduction of three new routes, 101, 102 and 103, operated under the Uni-link branding. First also rerouted their 4, 6, 11, 13 and 20 routes so that they would run closer to the University allowing better connections with other areas of Southampton. The company also ran two night services, labelled the 104 and the 105.

In 2001, as the University's agreement with First finished, the University made some changes to the service following some dissatisfaction and some bad experiences with the service. The University made Uni-link a company itself and awarded the operation of this service under contract. The first contract winner was Minerva Accord, who started their 5-year contract at the beginning of the 2001/2002 academic year.