& Fareham Omnibus Company to form the Provincial Bus Co. When NBC was privatised in the mid-1980s, Provincial was the only company to be sold under an Employee Share Ownership Plan, becoming independent in May 1987. Southdown was sold to its management in October 1987, and both companies quickly made changes. Deregulation and ownership changes (1987–present) Following privatisation, Southdown reintroduced its pre-1968 colours of light green and cream. It was taken over by the Stagecoach Group in August 1989. Two months later the same group acquired Portsmouth Citybus and merged the latter with the majority of Southdown's operations in the city to form Southdown Portsmouth. Southdown's depot at Hilsea was closed and operations moved to the former Portsmouth Citybus depot at Eastney. Stagecoach was forced to sell its Portsmouth operations, which passed to Transit Holdings in January 1991, together with the Hilsea site, which was reopened. Southdown retained a small number of services in the city, but its presence was reduced from that prior to 1989. Southdown's legal name was changed to South Coast Buses in April 1992, and its western operations were rebranded to Coastline Buses. Provincial, meanwhile, rebranded itself as People's Provincial, using a dark green and cream livery. It substantially expanded its operations in Portsmouth after Transit Holdings acquired Portsmouth Citybus, believing that its use of minibuses had left a gap in demand for services using larger vehicles. Former NBC vehicles such as the double-deck Bristol VR and single-deck Leyland National were used on most routes. The company was taken over by FirstGroup in October 1995. First acquired Portsmouth Citybus from Transit in April 1996 and merged the two under the Provincial name, giving the company complete dominance over routes within Portsmouth. Like PCT, it is now part of First Hampshire & Dorset. Coastline Buses continued to be used as a trading name by Stagecoach until 2003, when its depot in Eastbourne was closed and the surviving operations rebranded to Stagecoach in the South Downs. The name Stagecoach in Portsmouth was adopted for its services around the city. Stagecoach introduced 21 new buses to route 700, the Brighton-Portsmouth service introduced in 1975, after its passenger numbers doubled in five years up to 2010. The route is branded as "Coastliner", and has its own website. Countryliner, an independent operator, also served Portsmouth during the early 21st century. One journey per week in each direction ran on route X92,