Salisbury bus changes from 2nd September

In our previous posts, we've looked at the changes happening next weekend in Portsmouth, Southampton, Fareham and Winchester. This time, we take a look at what's changing in Salisbury.

Salisbury Reds have provided a summary here. Click on the route numbers below to see the new timetables. The main changes from Sunday 2nd September:

• Red 2 City Centre-Bishopdown Sunday daytime frequency cut from half-hourly to hourly.
• Red 3 City Centre-Bulbridge Minor changes to Sunday and bank holiday services.
• Red 5 City Centre-West Harnham Minor changes on Saturday mornings. The Traveline timetable incorrectly shows no Sunday service - don't worry, the Sunday service will continue as at present.
• Red 6 City Centre-Laverstock Most journeys will run slightly later than at present.
• PR7/Red 7 City Centre-Bishopdown Farm Minor changes to PR7. New hourly Sunday daytime service launches as Red 7.
• Red 8 City Centre-Ditchampton Apparently there's an additional weekday journey, but we're not sure when yet as with a week to go, the new timetable has not been published.
• Red 10 City Centre-St Peters Place Wheelers journeys withdrawn. Salisbury Reds route extended beyond Bemerton Heath to the new estate at St Peters Place. Frequency increased to half-hourly for longer on weekdays and Saturdays, plus an hourly Sunday daytime service is introduced.
• PR11/Red 11 City Centre-Old Sarum Hourly Sunday daytime service introduced as Red 11. More journeys to Old Sarum estate on Mon-Sats.
• Red 12 City Centre-Stratford Bridge Taken over from Wheelers. New timetable with a new later journey from Salisbury at 1550 on weekdays.
• Red 14 City Centre-Harvard Heights Taken over from Wheelers. New timetable.

• X4 Salisbury-Larkhill Minor changes.
• X5 Salisbury-Swindon Minor changes.
• X7 Salisbury-Southampton New later journey from Southampton at 1810 Mon-Sats. Other minor changes.
• Activ8 Salisbury-Andover Minor changes, mainly on Sundays.
• 2 Salisbury-Devizes Minor changes
• 37 Salisbury-Lockerley Several journeys are cut.
• 44 Salisbury-Woodfalls Wheelers journeys transfer to Salisbury Reds. Minor changes.
• 66/67 Salisbury-Idmiston/Tidworth These routes transfer from Salisbury Reds and Wheelers to Stagecoach.
• 87/88 Salisbury-Andover/Winterslow Minor changes.
• 201 Amesbury-Salisbury Early morning journey transfers to Stagecoach. Others remain with Tourist Coaches

Rural services to the west of Salisbury:
Routes 28 and 84 are withdrawn, with the 29 transferring from Wheelers to Salisbury Reds

New timetables on routes 25, 26, 27, 29.

Most Wheelers services in Salisbury, including the W16, are withdrawn, with replacements mainly run by Salisbury Reds. Wheelers are left with just some journeys on route 87.

We've now joined Facebook, so make sure to like us!

Changes next weekend for Southampton, Winchester & Fareham

A lot of changes are happening across our region's buses from Sunday 2nd and Monday 3rd September. Our previous post looked at Portsmouth, the next one will cover Salisbury, while today we look at Southampton, Winchester and Fareham.

We start in Fareham, where First have timetable changes to many routes. The main one is that the 10 is cut back from hourly Mon-Sat daytimes to run 2-hourly on weekdays only. All of the details and the new timetables can be found in First's Fareham & Gosport booklet.

Moving on to Winchester, where Stagecoach have new timetables on the following routes from Sunday 2nd September:

• King's City 1 Winnall-Stanmore Sunday daytime frequency doubled to half-hourly between the City Centre and Stanmore, plus extra Mon-Sat evening services to Stanmore replacing the 5A.
• King's City 3 Winchester-Harestock Weekday daytime frequency cut from every 10 mins to every 12 mins.
• King's City 4 Highcliffe-Teg Down All journeys retimed. Last Saturday service from the City Centre to Teg Down will be at 1445 instead of 1730 currently.
• King's City 5 Winchester-Badger Farm More evening services, replacing the 5A. Sunday daytime frequency increased from half-hourly to every 20 mins.
• King's City 7 Winchester-Sparsholt Saturday service halved to every 2 hours. Other minor changes.
• 64 Winchester-Alton Only minor changes.
• 66 Winchester-Romsey More evening journeys. All Sunday services will run via Woodley, no longer alternating with Cupernham.
• 86 Winchester-Whitchurch Saturday service halved to every 2 hours.
• King's City Spring Winchester-Springvale Later last bus from Winchester on Sundays at 1845, compared to 1800 currently.

In and around Southampton, we have the following changes on First and Bluestar:

First City Red three Lordshill-Thornhill Rerouted to serve Town Quay. Saturday daytime frequency cut to every 10 mins. Sunday daytime frequency increased to every 12 minutes.

First City Red 6 Southampton-Hamble Weekday peak journeys will no longer serve Ingleside in Netley. Other minor changes.

First Solent Rangers X4/X5 Southampton-Portsmouth/Gosport Rerouted via Central Bridge instead of Ocean Village. Reduction in early morning an early evening frequencies.

Bluestar 5 Romsey-Boyatt Wood Mon-Sat journeys between Eastleigh and Boyatt Wood will now run every 20/40 mins instead of half-hourly - no idea why, as it won't combine with Stagecoach E1/E2 to give a 20 minute frequency. Other minor changes.

Salisbury Reds X7 Southampton-Salisbury Last Mon-Sat bus from Southampton at 1735 is replaced by journeys at 1715 and 1810. Other minor changes.

Finally, I hope that anyone who went to Southampton Pride today had a good time. When I was growing up in the city, there were no such events to make LGBT people feel welcome and at home. Well there were, but they were only in London, Brighton and Manchester. What a long way we've come. It's good that now even in Southampton, gay people are officially embraced by the council and by sponsoring companies alike. It wasn't always this way. Within living memory, the councils were legally prohibited from 'promoting homosexuality' (as if such a thing were even possible - people either are or aren't) and companies would go out of their way to disassociate themselves from that kind of thing. Gay people were expected to keep quiet and be 'discrete'. Now it's the homophobes that are expected to keep quiet and be 'discrete'. Long may that continue.

We've now joined Facebook, so make sure to like us!

17 says 'ta-ra' to Tipner / Other Pompey changes

There are several service changes happening on Sunday 2nd and Monday 3rd September. See the full list here. Today, we look in more detail at what's happening in Portsmouth.

First have changes to several routes, of which the main ones are...

The 17 will no longer serve Tipner, leaving the area isolated from the city's main bus network. Tipner can still be accessed using the Park & Ride buses, but they don't run late into the evenings and even though they're run by First, the company's usual tickets are not valid, meaning two tickets to buy if your destination isn't the City Centre or The Hard. Those that can, will be able to walk to the Mountbatten Centre to use First 8 or Stagecoach 20.

This terminus stop at the turning circle at Range Green in Tipner will see its last scheduled bus depart at 1950 on Saturday 1st September:

The 17 also deserts North End as its new northern terminus will now be amongst the shops here at Ocean Park:

Here's how the First network will now look on Portsea Island:

The other major change is that the section of route 1 between The Hard and Southsea the quick way transfers to an extended route 3, with both routes interworking through Southsea, so buses arriving as a 3 will continue as a 1 via Eastney and vice versa.

First have produced this booklet with all of the changes, many maps and of course the timetables for all of their Portsmouth routes from Sunday 2nd September.

More on the other changes that weekend across our region over the next few days.

We've now joined Facebook, so make sure to like us!

Hampshire threat to free travel for pensioners

Since nationwide free bus passes were granted to pensioners, the cost of their travel has been partly covered by local councils paying money to the bus companies each time a pass is used. Over the years that amount has dwindled, especially as national government cuts have been imposed on the councils. This has meant less money coming in from the councils and to make sure they stay in profit, bus companies everywhere have increased fares at a rate higher than inflation or the increase in the cost of motoring.

Now, the Portsmouth News reports that Hampshire County Council are considering levying a 50p charge for each journey made using a pensioners' pass, ending the era of free travel.

It's not yet a given that it will happen, as a change in law would first need to be approved by parliament, which is somewhat busy with something else at the moment.

If it doesn't happen though, the inevitable consequence is surely even higher fares for those who have to pay or more routes becoming uneconomical to run and being cut. Or both.

Hampshire County Council have a consultation currently under way, but only until Sunday. You can respond to it here.

Summer seasonal services

Each summer, several seasonal services reappear, making days out to beauty spots and tourist attractions accessible to those of us without a car.

Today, the South Downs Rambler, which last ran in 2015, starts again between Winchester and Petersfield. It's run by Bluestar and provides three return trips each Sunday and bank holiday until 2nd September. See the leaflet here.

One service not returning this year is the Beach Bus 99, which usually replaces the More 112 between Hythe and Lymington for the summer season. Bad news for anyone wanting to visit Beaulieu. But if Lepe Beach was your destination, then you're in luck because Bluestar 9 will have certain journeys extended beyond Langley to Lepe Beach between 22nd July and 1st September. See the special timetable here.

Bluestar/More's New Forest Tour gets going again from 7th July until 9th September. Open top buses will criss-cross the forest from Hythe, Ringwood and Lymington on the following circular routes:

More's Purbeck Breezer routes have already converted to summer mode with extra buses on routes running between Bournemouth, Poole, Sandbanks and Swanage.

Things are looking less rosy if you like shopping at Whiteley Village. The Saturday shopper service First W1 from Fareham has already been withdrawn and the W2 from Warsash will stop running after next Saturday 7th July. Anyone still wishing to get to Whiteley will need to use First 28/28A, but make sure you don't miss the last bus back.

We've now joined Facebook, so make sure to like us!

Bournemouth & Poole changes this weekend

There are many changes happening this weekend across Bournemouth, Poole and the surrounding areas. Many seasonal summer routes are back.

More have timetable changes to most routes, plus stand changes at Poole Bus Station. Don't forget the R4/R5 are being absorbed into the 14.

Unibus U5 is withdrawn from Saturday. It was only a trial route anyway, the majority of which is already covered by the more frequent U1.

Yellow introduce the summer timetable on the 7, plus a route change on the 36. The B1 to the airport is withdrawn and replaced by the new Jetbus 737.

Looking ahead, Salisbury Reds have made their plans for the summer solstice at Stonehenge. Find out how to get there here.

We've now joined Facebook, so make sure to like us!

Clock ticking for First

First have some timetable changes to the 7, 8, 9 and 13 in Southampton from 13th May. Their website says it's a Saturday:

It isn't, it's a Sunday.

Here are the new timetables: 7, 8, 9, 13. Only minor changes.

More interestingly, First announce that all of their Southampton routes will run under the City Reds brand. Presumably the X4/X5 will remain under the Solent Rangers brand, run from the Fareham depot.

This isn't as unusual as it may seem. Bluestar started off as a premium sub-brand of Solent Blue Line, that was then extended to the whole network. The same in Bournemouth, where More was once only applied to premium Wilts & Dorset routes, while More is now the name for Go South Coast's whole network across Bournemouth & Poole.

What it does however is make First's Southampton operations easier to split off from the rest of First, especially now that the costly travel shop in Pound Tree Road has been closed.

How likely is that to happen?

Ah, that likely. Passengers in East Anglia, dominated by First, are already worried. For us in the South though, what could it mean?

Go Ahead wouldn't be able to buy on competition grounds and of the other big groups, only Stagecoach have operations nearby onto which Southampton could be tagged. RATP, the Parisian regional transport authority and owner of Yellow Buses in Bournemouth, can't be ruled out, but they seem to have their work cut out in Bournemouth - they've just reversed an entire network revamp just over a year after it was introduced.

The other option is another arm of the French state: Transdev. They have extensive operations in Lancashire and Yorkshire, currently run by no other than Alex Hornby, who used to run Solent Blue Line. I wonder whether he's feeling a little homesick? Would there be enough money to be made pour les taxpayeurs de France?

We've now joined Facebook, so make sure to like us!

Days out from Romsey / More changes / X15 reduced / D1 for Bath

New days out are made possible by two new Sunday services that combine to run between Romsey and Andover. Stagecoach 77 will run between Andover and Stockbridge, with a free bus provided by the Three Rivers Community Rail Partnership adding the link to Romsey. Full details here. They will both run on Sundays and Bank Holidays from 6th May until 23rd September. Attractions the new services make accessible include Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop and Danebury Hill Fort.

More have new timetables on most of their routes from 27th May. Also, routes R4/R5 are absorbed into an expanded route 14. Unibus U5 is withdrawn from 26th May.

Xelabus X15, also branded as Shopper Connect, has a new timetable from 14th May. Unfortunately it's being cut from six to two journeys each way on weekdays only.

First 265 between Salisbury and Bath has been rebranded as of today as the D1, part of First's new Discover sub-network centred on Bath.

We've now joined Facebook, so make sure to like us!