Paulton's Park & Marwell Zoo by bus this summer!

Xelabus have announced a direct bus from Southampton to Paulton's Park. Route X24 starts on 23rd May and will start from Bitterne, running through the city centre on its way to Paulton's. We'll let you know as soon as the timetable is released. It will be a useful alternative to Salisbury Reds X7.

First M1 starts on Good Friday, providing the seasonal link between Eastleigh bus and railway stations and Marwell Zoo. Timetable here.

First M2 launches on 3rd May and will run from Lordshill, via the city centre providing Southampton's first direct link to Marwell Zoo in years. We'll let you know once the timetable is out.

This is definitely the summer to take a few days out by bus!

More Woolston routes divert from Monday

First X4 and X5 have a route and timetable change from Monday 16th March.

The main change is a weekday morning peak diversion on journeys towards Southampton. Because the traffic on Portsmouth Road is so bad approaching Woolston, all X4 and X5 buses due to arrive in Southampton between 0700 and 0930 will divert as follows via Weston Lane and Archery Road:

At those times, the last stop to be served as normal is Laxton Close on Upper Weston Lane:

After the diversion, buses rejoin the usual route at Itchen Bridge Link Road:

The following stops will have no X4 or X5 buses towards the City Centre at those times:

Wrights Hill: the 5 and 6 will still stop here

The Swan: with the 6 having its own peak diversion (see below), only the 5 will still be stopping here in the weekday morning rush hours.

St Annes Road: the three and 5 will still be stopping here.

Fort Road: the three and 5 will still stop here in the rush hours.

Woolston Library: only the three and 5 will stop in the weekday morning peak:

Buses on route 6 due to arrive in the City Centre between 0730 and 0900 are already diverting away from Portsmouth Road as follows via Radstock Road:

See the new all-stops timetables here: X4 X5.

First to launch direct Southampton to Marwell Zoo route

Marwell Zoo will be easier to get to by bus than it has been for several years, thanks to a new route from First.

The M2 launches on Sunday 3rd May and will run every Sunday and Wednesday during the summer between Lordshill and Marwell Zoo, via Southampton City Centre. More details on the exact route as we get it.

This is in addition to First taking over the Marwell to Eastleigh bus and rail stations route for 2015. It has run in previous years as Velvet M but will relaunch as First M1 on Good Friday 3rd April.

Passengers arriving at Marwell by bus will get 10% off admission to the zoo, so keep your bus ticket safe!

The M2 means it will be possible to get to the zoo using a FirstDay Hampshire ticket, which is considerably cheaper than Solent Go.

New timetables tomorrow on Bluestar / W56 replaced / Marwell / Xela changes on the way

Bluestar have new timetables from tomorrow on routes 1, 2, 16 and 18. Full details and timetables here.

Some Bluestar tickets prices on The Key smartcard are changing too. Find details of them and all Bluestar/Unilink tickets here.

This Thursday just gone was the last day of Wheelers W56. From this coming Thursday 26th February, it will be replaced by two routes: Xelabus X56 and Brijan Tours 8B.

The route and timetable for Xelabus X56 can be seen here courtesy of Eastleigh Borough Council, but curiously not on Xelabus's website nor on Traveline. The route differs from the previous W56 route in that between Hedge End and Eastleigh it runs via West End and Mansbridge instead of via Horton Heath and Fair Oak.

Brijan Tours 8B is the new Thursdays-only route that fills in the other gaps left by the W56. It serves Botley, Boorley Green and Horton Heath before running along the same route as Brijan 8 via Fair Oak and Colden Common into Eastleigh. Timetable here. The 8B does appear on Traveline, so we have this route map:

Marwell Zoo has been connected to Eastleigh over the summer by Velvet in previous years. This year the honour goes to First, who will be running it from Good Friday 3rd April as route M1. We'll link to the timetable as soon as it has been released. The fact it's not gone to Bluestar means than anyone travelling by bus from beyond Eastleigh and connecting with the M1 will need a Solent Go ticket.

Xelabus have announced further route and timetable changes from 20th April. We'll cover these in more detail nearer the time, but you can see details here.

Rat run / Renumbering / Ringwood

First 6 is diverted on weekday mornings towards Southampton in order to avoid jams caused by traffic avoiding the roadworks on Northam Bridge. Details of the diversion are here.

Xelabus have given notice that from 9th February, the ex-Velvet routes will be renumbered. The S1 becomes the X11, the S2 becomes X12 and the B4 becomes X14. Confusingly their website says that the X14 will only run three days a week. The B4 has only just been increased from three to six days a week. Hopefully it's an oversight on their part.

This Saturday 31st January is the last day of Gardbus 139, after which Ringwood is yet again cut off from Southampton's bus network. After then, you'll need to use National Express if you can't drive to Ringwood.

First fares & timetable changes this weekend

Some First fares are changing on Saturday. Full details here, but here are the highlights:

• Adult single fares on the 8 between Hedge End and the City Centre cut from £4 to £3.50
• FirstDay Southampton rises from £4.20 to £4.30 and is no longer valid to/from West End, Hedge End, Netley or Hamble - its boundary is now the city boundary. Those areas' cheapest FirstDay ticket is now FirstDay Hampshire, going up from £5.90 to £6
• SouthamptonPlus weekly and monthly tickets will be introduced, covering the city plus West End, Hedge End, Netley and Hamble, costing more than the Southampton zone tickets that used to be valid, but less than the Hampshire zone tickets

Several First routes get a new timetable from Sunday. Timetables are in First's new timetable booklet and Traveline. Here are the main points:

• 1: Mon-Sat daytime frequency cut from every 10 mins to every 15 mins, but all buses will run beyond Lordshill to Adanac Park
• 2: Minor timetable changes
• 3: Some poorly-used journeys will be cut. The last bus of the night will run earlier
• 6: Sunday daytime frequency cut to hourly due to Hampshire County Council subsidy cuts
• 7: Minor timetable changes, plus and extra late evening journey
• 8: Evening route changes in Hedge End and some off-peak journeys are cut
• 9: Minor timetable changes
• 11: Revised Sunday timetable. Extra late evening weeknight journey
• 13: Minor timetable changes

The timetable booklet has some excellent route maps. Here's the one for the 8 to show the new route in Hedge End:

Daytime journeys terminate on the Hedge End loop. Evening journeys don't serve Charles Watts Way (marked A334 above) but run two ways from the superstores, via the railway station to Barleycorn and then Botley.

They're also holding an online 'Meet the Manager' session this Thursday in which you can put your questions directly to them.

In other news, Bluestar have some changes to routes 1, 2, 16 and 18 from 22nd February. We'll have more on those nearer the time.

The end for Velvet: Xelabus takes over

It was announced today that Velvet will close after the last bus on Saturday 10th January and that its routes will be run by Xelabus from next Monday.

This means the changes mentioned in the most recent post below will now be run by Xelabus.

How the news was announced on Xelabus's website.

Hats off to Xelabus for having a timetable leaflet already prepared for what will be the ex-Velvet routes.

In other news, First have new timetables on many routes from Sunday 18th January. Details here.

Velvet changes next Monday

We've just had a raft of changes this weekend gone (see previous posts for details), but there's more to come.

Next Monday, 12th January, sees Velvet A disappear to be replaced with an extension to the S1, with a frequency cut to match. See the new S1 timetable here. There's a route change too. All journeys will run via Central Station instead of the Polygon. In Hedge End, the A's circular route is replaced by a two-way route that runs via the town centre twice each way and terminates at the superstores. Here's how it will run:

Buses from Southampton will run via Oaklands first, then via Maypole to the superstores. Buses towards Southampton start from the superstores, then run to Maypole and into the city via Oaklands. The town centre is sure to be particularly confusing, where buses on route S1 will run in four directions from the main crossroads.

The S2 gets a new timetable too and is rerouted in the Polygon, partially replacing the S1. Here's how the S2 will now run there:

As well as that, the B4 between Bitterne and Windhover Tesco via Harefield, Thornhill and Sholing will now run every weekday, an increase from its current three days a week. Timetable here.

No mention of this as yet on Velvet's website. It would never have happened under Phil Stockley.