Badger Vectis Badger Vectis Badger Vectis was an English bus company based in Poole. A post-deregulation joint venture between Weston-super-Mare based bus company Badgerline and Isle of Wight bus company Southern Vectis, it was set up in September 1987 to compete with incumbent operator Wilts & Dorset. The buses all used the Badgerline brand. After a noted bus war between the two large companies, Badger Vectis folded in March 1988. Badger Vectis was formed in September 1987 as an joint venture between Badgerline (80%) and Southern Vectis (20%), after both recently privatised bus companies had failed in a joint bid earlier in
Badger Vectis complex and infrequent, established operations, which had no minibuses and no crew operated buses, and which had routes which ranged over a large rural area as well as the conurbation. Badger Vectis also operated cross-linked services to differentiate itself with Wilts & Dorset's routes. After just a week, Wilts & Dorest retaliated by setting up a high-frequency sub-brand of its own, called "Skippers", initially using conventional buses, but from November, using brand new MCW Metrorider minibuses. The competition saw the Poole to Bournemouth corridor eventually served by a total of 18 buses an hour. Badger Vectis did not operate into