But First have already stopped serving that stop, keeping their buses on Bitterne Road West rather than 'diverting' around the gyratory, presumably to speed up journey times towards Bitterne.
From this Sunday, Bluestar 18 joins them. So what's left serving the gyratory?:
Once the 18 has moved, that'll leave Bluestar 3 and Xelabus X10 and X11. The 406 is a Barton Peveril College (which I once attended) route also operated by Xelabus.
So when the 18 moves, this is the stop it will serve from Sunday:
It will join First 8 and 10:
On this side of the city, First 10 and Bluestar 18 run to exactly the same route, so the 10 has had a bit of a speed advantage over the 18.
Heading into town there's no change. Buses in that direction have never gone around the gyratory and all routes will continue to use this stop.
Bluestar 3 will NOT be serving Bullar Road Gyratory either from Sunday 20th September, and will also be using the stop outside the flower shop.
ReplyDeleteYes a very bad move removing buses from the gyratory road.All it will do is when more buses are in a line together block the Bullar Road junction and frustrate motorists behind the buses even further.No shelter for waiting passengers so here again the public loose out,and looking at it, it will be difficult to provide any sort of shelter.The whole concept in the first place was to keep the traffic flow along Bitterne Road West going, without buses slowing it down.How on earth the Council has allowed this move beggers belief.I trust Xelabus will not follow the same road.On top of all the extra buses which will use the stop,the rerouted 16 in a few weeks will be an additional headach.
ReplyDeleteI note looking at the Bluestar website this morning it only states that the 18 wont use the gyratory road from the 20th September 2015.However the new bus stop flag outside the flower shop also shows service 3 and the 16 when rerouted as using it.
ReplyDeleteAs our Moderator says, all outbound buses have used the gyratory for many years. They were going that way when I first came to Southampton in 1970. I, too, cannot understand why there is this feeling of need to move into the main road unless it is purely to gain a few seconds on the traffic lights. It does nothing to help traffic flow generally and it certainly does not provide - or have room for providing - any form of attraction for the customers. If the shelters were to be moved, the advertising panels on them would need planning consent. In such a location, I would expect it to be a forlorn hope. Have any of the waiting passengers expressed any wish to move? Have they been asked? No, thought not!
ReplyDeleteI note looking round Southampton, Council issued timetables have been placed in timetable cases at many stops,which include departures for all operators using a particular stop. Whilst I myself are all for this,I must state the standard of what I have noted so far is shocking.There are many errors in operators departure times all over the place.As a small example the Broughton and Mottisfont Minibus service is shown as operating Mondays to Fridays when it's only on a Wednesday,Bluestar 3 journeys that only operate non Schooldays are shown as operating everyday,wrong timetables put into the wrong cases where there are two bus stops together, and the worse example noted so far is at West Quay,where it lists all the departures of all operators towards the City Centre at the stop underneath the West Quay bridge that links the Above Bar bit to the West Quay proper in Portland Terrace.This stop apart from Citylink and Uni-Link is for alighting only in the main although of course you could board to go to Hanover Buildings or Vincent's Walk/Pound Tree Road,which I can't imagine anyone wishing to do so.I don't know who produces these timetables for the Council,but whoever does has not been given correct information by whoever issues it to them before it goes to print
ReplyDeleteI believe the contract for bus stop info in Southampton has recently been given to a new agency. First did it for many years.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for it - why drag the majority of passengers round three sides of a square when you don't have to?
ReplyDeleteIt would seem at some stage late yesterday Bluestar have now put up revised notices at the stops in the Gyratory Road by Bullar Road,to the fact that the Bluestar 3 will still use the stop and only the Bluestar 18 will use the new stop near the Flower Shop.Let's hope today at some point they will add the 3 to the flag at this point, and remove the 3 from the flag near the Flower Shop.I can see with this arrangement drivers on the 3 missing out the Gyratory Road at sometimes,and to my way of thinking it's a ridiculous arrangement which will lead to problems.I wonder when the 16 gets going what stop will that use.Not very customer friendly which leads to confusion to the public.
ReplyDeleteFor those who might be interested there is a public meeting on Tuesday 22nd September 2015 on Harefield in the Woodlands School Hall to discuss the now poor service provided in the way of bus transport in Harefield.Anyone in the area who had cuts to bus services is welcome to attend, such as those in Sholing and Merryoak areas who have had reductions to their services.If you come by bus remember the last bus off Harefield is at 1945 that terminates at Bitterne
ReplyDeleteWhat time does this meeting begin then?
DeleteDon`t know why Xelabus haven`t diverted the X11 through Harefield,it`d pick up lots more passengers!
DeleteThe meeting starts at 1830,and sorry for not stating start time when I posted
DeleteAlthough it's a good suggestion that Xelabus divert their X11 or for that matter even their X10 via Harefield,the running time end to end on both services is at present pretty tight,and by doing this move would add quite a bit of time in each direction to either service,which would just add to the problems they have now on some journeys in keeping to time.A nice thought though.
DeleteIt would seem on viewing the HCC website for services changes in September 2015,no one has yet informed them that the Bluestar 3 will still serve the Gyrarory Road by Bullar Road.I also note the penny has finally dropped at Bluestar as to this and they have now modified their posting on their website.
ReplyDeleteAfter all the 18's yesterday serving the new stop by the Flower Shop,Bluestar have yet again changed their minds and it now won't be until 28th September 2015.I feel sorry for the person who puts the posters up on the stops as this will be the third time they have had to come along and revise the notice,let alone the confusion to drivers and customers alike.Not a good way to run a business
ReplyDeleteAbout par for the course for Bluestar. Couldn't run a bath, let alone a bus service. My neighbour waited 25 minutes for an 18 yesterday (3 arrived at once - AGAIN), and in that time 3 First 10s went past. after her monthly ticket runs out next week, she is another going passengerover to first. The 10 is so much more reliable than the 18.
DeleteThe Bluestar suffers the same problem as the First 3 in that it's a cross City service.As the 10 is not cross city it tends to be more reliable in it's running.However even with the 10 in the near three weeks it's been running this service also at times has been noted with two buses running together.The only way to make the 3 and the 18 more reliable would be to split the services into two so everyone would have to change buses at the city centre..This I don't think would go down that well with passengers who at present can travel cross city.Still She is lucky to have such an excelent choice of buses serving Thornhill,and think herself lucky She doesn't live in Harefield or Merryoak areas where First have recently decipated the service provided.
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