Friday 17 December 2010

First evening cuts, Sholing bucks trend / Dorset Sprinter dead

We start with confirmation that 31st December 2010 will the last day of operation on Dorset Sprinter X5 (City Centre-Ringwood). The way the government is going round cutting all they can, I fear this won't be the first example of a major town being cut off from Southampton's bus network.

First have two waves of timetable changes in January, starting on the 23rd with changes to the 80 (City Centre-Fareham), of which details are still to be released. The second wave, on 30th January 2011, affects the following routes:
1 (City Centre-Weston): Mon-Sat evening service cut to hourly after 2100. Last bus from town will be 30 mins earlier than now at 2317.
3 (City Centre-Townhill Park): Sunday evening services cut, with the last bus from town now at 2040 (previously 2240).
4 (City Centre-Totton): Mon-Sat peak and evening services cut, with last bus from town now at 1740 weekdays and 1735 Saturdays.
7 (City Centre-Bassett Green): Saturday last bus from town now an hour earlier at 2210. Sunday evening services withdrawn, last bus now at 1805 (was 2310). Not a big disaster as Bluestar 2 and Unilink U1 & U6 serve most of this route.
11A/12C (City Centre-Sholing): More evening buses via Bitterne, last one leaving town at 2245 every day (was 1945).
17A (City Centre-Lordshill): Mon-Sat evening service cut to hourly after 2100, with the last bus leaving town at 2301 (was 2331).

Don't forget the green panel on the right is your at-a-glance comprehensive guide to all Christmas and New Year bus services across all operators in the region. Merry Christmas!

Thursday 2 December 2010

Snow chaos

It's madness out there. The weather means that bus schedules are almost being rewritten every hour at the moment, so before travelling check with the operator's website or Facebook page, just to be sure that your bus will be running. Links are in the red panel on the right, below the green service changes panel.