Day out ideas: Beaulieu

UPDATE 23rd JULY 2014: More 112 becomes the Beach Bus and will serve Beaulieu National Motor Museum daily from 26th July until 1st September 2014. For details visit my more recent blog entry and the Beach Bus website.

The National Motor Museum in Beaulieu is well worth a visit, but as you may have guessed, isn't too easy to get to by public transport.

The only bus route serving Beaulieu village and the Motor Museum is the three-day-a-week (thanks to Hampshire County Council cuts in October 2011) More 112 between Hythe and Lymington. Timetable here. This route really is a shadow of its former self, but still offers some useful connections.

To go via Hythe, you'll first need to get over there if you're not already on the Waterside. You could use the Hythe Ferry from Town Quay or go by bus using Bluestar 8 or 9 or First 11, H1 or H2. Solent Travelcard is not valid as far as Beaulieu, so the best value way of doing this is to use Bluestar to get to Hythe and buy a Bluestar Explorer (£8 adult, £5 child, £18 group), which is also valid on More.

More 112 leaves Hythe Ferry Yard at 0907 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only, arriving at Beaulieu Garage at 0928.

From there, continue along past the garage, turn right into Hatchet Lane and the Motor Museum is 5 minutes walk on the right. To get back to Hythe, you'll need to be back opposite the garage at 1422 to get you back to Hythe Ferry at 1443.

The other option is to go via Lymington, where on its three days of operation, More 112 has some journeys that even run to the museum door. You can get to Lymington by train or by using Bluestar 6 from Southampton or More X1 & X2 from Christchurch or Bournemouth or the 119 from New Milton.

More 112 departs from Lymington Bus Station at 1010 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only, taking about 36 minutes to get to the museum. There's a later bus at 1220, but you won't be able to get back to Lymington again. It returns from the museum bus stop pictured above at the ridiculously early time of 1303, not much good if you intended to spend the whole day there.

From the end of June, Bluestar and More's New Forest Tour usually runs, offering extra connections to the museum, but until that starts again, you'll have to make do with the 112 or go somewhere else for a day out.

See previous posts (updated for 2014!) for how to get to Paulton's Park or Marwell Zoo by bus.

UPDATE 23rd JULY 2014: More 112 becomes the Beach Bus and will serve Beaulieu National Motor Museum daily from 26th July until 1st September 2014. For details visit my more recent blog entry and the Beach Bus website.

City Council cuts: Buses will be affected

Southampton City Council has voted for major cuts to all publicly-funded services in the city. Details here.

As the Echo mentions, buses will be affected. In the next few months expect cuts to evening, Sunday and night services as well as to wholly subsidised routes like Bluestar P1, First S1 and Velvet S2.

We'll keep an eye out and will let you know the exact cuts to our city's buses as soon as they are announced.

In other news, Bluestar are having technical problems with Southampton Plus season tickets issued on The Key smartcards. Their advice is to print out proof of payment in order to make sure you'll be allowed on the bus.

Our advice to Bluestar is that they shouldn't be taking passengers' money on a flawed smartcard when they might be refused access to a bus journey they've already paid for. Suddenly First's lack of a smartcard doesn't look as foolish as it did when The Key worked.

Millbrook & West Totton diversions / First are last to Paypoint

The following bus stop is currently not being used due to roadworks at the junction of Millbrook Road and Regents Park Road:

Bluestar 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12 and First X2 and 11 are affected.

There are also diversions for about 3 weeks around Morrisons in West Totton. Bluestar 11 is reverting to its traditional route, missing out Morrisons altogether and terminating at Goodies roundabout:

The T3 and T4 are still serving Morrisons, but from Calmore Road, they are having to run via Calmore Corner and Goodies in order to get there. This will last about 3 weeks. More reasons to shop elsewhere!

Just as Bluestar have decided that PayPoint is old hat, opting instead for The Key smartcard with online top ups and mobile ticketing apps, First have decided to only now start selling tickets through PayPoint. First of course do have an app, but they haven't thought to sell tickets on it yet.

Oi, First, where's yer smartcard?!

Marchwood diversions: Mon & Tues overnight

On Monday and Tuesday nights, there will be diversions in Marchwood due to closures of Tavells Lane and Trotts Lane. Bluestar 8 and First 11 will be affected. Here's how they will divert:

The following stops won't be served during those times towards Hythe:

And these won't be served towards Southampton:

This diversion will be in place from 1900 to 0700 on both nights, so will affect some evening and early morning journeys on both routes.

Bluestar ticket changes

Bluestar are revamping their ticket range from Sunday 3rd February. The biggest change is to the zones in which their daily, weekly, 30 day and 90 day tickets are valid. Here's how the zones currently look:

Southampton City forms a zone and Eastleigh, Chandlers Ford and Hedge End form another zone. Those two zones and the rest of the network is the Solent zone, except beyond Ashurst on the 6 and beyond Testwood on Salisbury Reds X7, which is the Explorer or Network zone.

Here's how it looks from Sunday:

Gone is Eastleigh, Chandlers Ford and Hedge End's own zone, which becomes Southampton Plus, an extension of the Southampton City zone and also includes Totton. The rest is still left with the Network offering. So what does this mean for each area?:

Southampton City: Little change. Dayrider is up from £3.40 to £3.50. Weekly Southampton Freedom tickets are up from £12 to £13 (£11 on The Key). 30 day Southampton Freedom is up from £45 to £50 (£42 on The Key). 90 day Southampton Freedom stays at £115 (£105 on The Key). An annual ticket is available only on The Key for £349.

Eastleigh, Chandlers Ford and Hedge End: No longer their own zone, but an extension of Southampton's. Good if you're travelling into and out of the City, not so good if you usually remain in the old zone. Here's how the old and new fares compare:

Totton, Testwood and Calmore currently only have Network tickets, but from Sunday they'll also be part of the Southampton Plus zone, representing a cut in fares for passengers heading into the city:

The rest of the network has not such a good deal from the change. The Waterside, Romsey and Winchester are outside the new zones and still have nothing but the Network zone tickets:

A change that won't go unnoticed, especially on the Waterside, where First offer a day ticket which includes Southampton for £5.70. The Solent Travelcard (valid on all operators) at £7.50 will now be cheaper than a Bluestar-only day ticket.

How will this affect you? Let us know. Leave a comment.

Bluestar changes from this Sunday

Bluestar have a few changes from Sunday, so let's summarise what they are:

1: Weekday morning peak journeys are retimed to improve reliability. Moves to stop CU on Hanover Buildings.

2: Moves to stop CT on Hanover Buildings.

11: Early evening journeys that currently terminate at Goodies will continue round the loop to Calmore Corner.

16: Weekday peak journeys are retimed to improve reliability. Moves to stop CT on Hanover Buildings.

18: Rerouted to serve Kingsway again on journeys from Hightown towards Millbrook.

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.

Buses on Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 5th January

From Wednesday 2nd January, most bus services return to normal service levels.

Most, that is, except for First. Route X2 is still suspended. Routes 4/4A/X4, 26, B1/B2/B3, H1/H2 and S1 are back to normal. All other First routes are still running to a reduced timetable.

It's all back to normal from Sunday 6th January. Even First X2 will be running again.