TODAY is the first day for an overhauled service on Bournemouth’s Yellow Buses.

All bus routes will carry new numbers, with the exception of four subsidised by Bournemouth and Poole councils.

They will be replaced by new “lines” named Bourne, Priory, Uni, Royal, Village, Coast, Dolphin and Heath, with a colour-coded route map resembling that of the London Underground.

Yellow Buses says the new network has been introduced after extensive research into the life and work patterns of passengers. It has been designed to simplify routes and deal with congestion.

Early morning and late night services have been introduced to help shift workers at key locations, including Bournemouth and Poole town centres and Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

Timetables have been uploaded to the website bybus.co.uk and printed route guides have been available since the beginning of the week.

Printed timetables collecting all eight lines have arrived more recently.

Paul Wren, commercial director at Yellow Buses, said: “As of Friday, we have received half of the individual glossy printed timetables for our eight new lines with more due to be delivered and distributed over the weekend and the complete batch due by Monday. Where requested we are providing colour photocopies until the full glossy timetables are available.”

Managing director Andrew Smith said: “We have spent a long time speaking with passengers and analysing data in order to make the changes work for everyone.

“Yellow Buses in one form or another has proudly served Bournemouth and the surrounding area for 114 years, but the needs and requirements of our passengers are constantly changing.”