Thursday 6 October 2011

Romsey & New Forest cuts / W&D 65 -> Bluestar 5

Wilts & Dorset have announced the following changes to some of their and Bluestar's routes in Romsey and the New Forest (For some reason some of the Romsey changes only appear on the Wiltshire page - last time I checked it was still in Hampshire!). No mention on Bluestar's website yet and no new timetables from either of them. The following take effect from Sunday 23rd October:

W&D X1/X2 Lymington-Bournemouth
Many evening journeys are being axed. Expect more drink driving.

Bluestar 5 Eastleigh-Romsey
Replaces W&D 65. Service level unknown.

Bluestar 6 Southampton-Lymington
W&D say this will be cut to hourly between Lymington and Rushington. Either this means it will still be every half hour between the city centre and Rushington OR it could mean that the 6 will terminate at Rushington and passengers will need to change to another bus, possibly the 8 or 9, in order to get in to Southampton. We'll let you know as soon as we do.

Bluestar 10/11 Southampton-Cadnam
The combined frequency will be halved to hourly.

W&D 30 Romsey-Halterworth
Withdrawn and replaced by a diversion to route 35.

W&D 34 Romsey-Salisbury
New timetable with fewer journeys. The Saturday extension to Eastleigh will no longer run.

W&D 35 Romsey-Braishfield
New timetable and route, partially replacing route 30, which is being axed.

W&D 36 Romsey-Salisbury
The route will be chopped in two, with the 36 running between Romsey and Lockerley and the 37 running between Lockerley and Salisbury. This puts the 37 outside of our region, so we'll concentrate on the 36, which is being substantially cut. Other than schools journeys, it will only run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

W&D 65 Eastleigh-Romsey
This route transfers to Bluestar and becomes Bluestar 5. Times will also change. Full details when Bluestar let us see the timetable.

W&D 112 Hythe-Lymington
Several journeys will be cut. Other than schools services, the 112 will only continue to run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

W&D 118 Lymington-Ringwood
Timing and route change. Will no longer serve Burley, instead running via Sopley and the Avon Valley.

W&D 119 Lymington-Pennington.
Frequency halved to hourly. Route changed.

We'll do a full analysis of the new timetables as soon as they are available.

4 comments:

  1. You are being a tad sensationalist about the W&D X1/2. Only one journey has been cut; it only ran from Lymington to Christchurch anyway, not the full route, and I've never seen more than 2 people on it. The previous journey has also been retimed later to partly compensate; not ideal but it must have been poor value for money for the council IMHO.

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  2. You're right, Ben. The main cuts are to late journeys from Bournemouth which don't make it to Lymington anyway. The last journey to Lymington will be half an hour later than now, arriving from Bournemouth at 2045 instead of 2015, and the last one from Lymington will be at 1740 instead of 1805.

    Bournemouth is outside our patch but the cutting of late journeys from there could well increase drink driving.

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  3. The late journeys from Highcliffe to Bournemouth were not in the most recent W&D timetable dated September 2011 so presumably were cut some time ago. No one used them anyway!

    The last journey from Lymington to Bournemouth is actually later at 1740 after the chnages than the 1728 it is now! The 1805 only went to Christchurch.

    The last departure from Bournemouth to Lymington at 1920 is unchanged!

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  4. Thanks for leaving this website up. I was looking at where I live on Street View and spotted some unfamiliar bus numbers on the bus stops. Only downside is now I'm sad I can't get a bus directly to Salisbury from my house!

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