Sunday 6 January 2013

Subsidy cuts / Hiltingbury consultation

Cuts are on the way to services that are subsidised by Southampton City Council. The Daily Echo reports that Bluestar P1 is for the chop and that First S1 and Velvet S2 will be merged and reduced. There will also be cuts to evening services within the city boundary, mainly operated by First. Full details as we get them.

Here's a quick summary of what changes we know are on the way:

14th January: Stagecoach 32 and 33 in Romsey will be diverted due to roadworks at Cupernham Lane. For 14 weeks, the 33 will be suspended and the 32 will have a temporary timetable. Full details here.

20th January: Bluestar will have a few timetable changes to routes 1, 11, 16 and 18, plus a change of which routes run from which stops in Hanover Buildings in town. CU will be used by the 1 and CT will be used by the 2 and the 16.
The dotted line is Above Bar Street precinct. Snipped from a map published by Southampton City Council.

21st January: Tavell's Lane in Marchwood will be temporarily closed, causing delays to Bluestar 8, First 11 and night buses on Bluestar 9. Full details nearer the time.

30th January: Xelabus are holding a passenger survey along with representatives from Hampshire County Council, who subsidise several routes including the C3 and C4. You can give them your feedback at the Fryern Hill Waitrose bus stop between 1000 and 1200 and at the Ashdown Road Shops stop in Hiltingbury between 1300 and 1500. Hampshire County Council are also running an online consultation into the future of subsidised bus routes to Hiltingbury - you have until 15th February to give your views.

13 comments:

  1. Aw...that nice new bus stop flag which shows P2...yes P2 not P1..in Highfield Lane that has just been put up no doubt at great expense,will now have to come down again.

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    1. Council at its very best again! Although someone will probably blame the poor operator....

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    2. I also see that after putting up a bus stop at the very end of Rownhams Lane in North Baddesley, it has been removed and there is a notice on Bluestars website saying that it is to be relocated onto the A27..... Its either going to hold up the traffic there, or they will have to build a lay by and divert the cycle lane too! Complete waste of our money again, as there are probably 5 houses between the Luzborough pub and the start of Rownhams Lane! Who is in charge at OUR Councils? They need sacking!

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  2. Xelabus considering chucking in a route shock horror! Still they gave the C3/C4 at least a couple of weeks before getting cold feet and launching into his "consultation".

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  3. Councils still stupid enough to award routes to Xelabus shock horror. Sadly,the irony is they are run by a firm which calls itself bus marketing experts...not much good at it are they ?

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  4. Where do you hear this rubbish! There are no plans from what I can see and have heard that C3 and C4 are being withdrawn? In fact th contrary. Thats why they are holding a consultation to talk to their customers. Your comments are extremely rude about a new company and think its grossly unfair. So why don't you keep your thoughts and rude remarks to yourselves. You have no idea whats going on - just rubbish rumours!

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  5. The wording of the HCC link seems to suggest they are considering if they should continue to support the bus routes.

    Xelabus are not new,and don't seem to mind upsetting genuine long-established operators in the area.This is a view that appears to be shared by many others.Most of their money seems to go to VOSA in registration and cancellation fees.

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  6. The C3 and C4 is a trial for 6 months and they say there is consultation to assess what the residents want. I know because I live there. The service Xela operate is good, started a bit unreliable but that was down to congestion. The drivers are excellent and buses tidy. The drivers tell me the management are good and looking at a Hiltingbury stand alone shoppers bus. They operate alternative type of buses to others - look at the X8 low floor against ancient brijan route 8 buses! you dont seem to know about new route from 18th February - bit behind - unusual for you???

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  7. Hello, Sorry for the slightly unrelated post about the cuts.
    I remember initially when the cuts were being talked about that the U6H in the evening was proposed to be cut after 6pm.
    I've been trying to read more about this as I wanted to tell my uni about this (I'm a budding Student nurse you see and rely on the U6H quite a bit..) But I am unable to now locate anything on the internet about it. Most of the articles online cov er first and bluestar services only and give no insight to the bluestar/unilink branch.
    Im hoping you might know something on the subject.
    I need to know if the U6 had been "saved" in the evening.

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  8. as uni-link is operated by bluestar,have you tried e-mailing mamagersmailbox@bluestarbus.co.uk?

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  9. managers not mamagers!

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  10. talk2us@unilinkbus.co.uk

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  11. I like the new look to your web site.

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