page_title: The Buses of Somerset
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: The Buses of Somerset / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Heading for Taunton town centre along Castle Street to avoid a traffic jam on Park Street is The Buses of Somerset 43821 (a Dennis Dart registered X201 HAE).
context_page_description: The Buses of Somerset is the trading name used by bus operator First South West for services operated in Somerset from depots in the towns of Taunton and Bridgwater since 2014. The services were formerly managed as part of First Somerset & Avon.
context_section_description: Southern National was formed in 1983 as the Somerset and Dorset operations of Western National (then part of the National Bus Company). It was privatised in 1988, acquired by FirstGroup in 1999 and rebranded as First Southern National. In 2003 the Somerset operations of First Southern National were merged into First Somerset & Avon. In 2014 the services were relaunched as 'The Buses of Somerset'.
caption: The Buses of Taunton liveried Plaxton Pointer 2 bodied Dennis Dart SLF in Taunton in April 2014
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot G7", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2014:05:16 10:55:05", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Tag 0x1001": "3648", "Image Tag 0x1002": "2736", "Image ExifOffset": "2228", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:05:16 10:55:05", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:05:16 10:55:05", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "255/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "85/16", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "107/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "12733/1000", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "7454", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "3648000/287", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "547200/43", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4180"}