Welcome!

Southampton's buses are confusing. There are more companies than before operating them and the routes and timetables change more often than ever before. To keep up with them all, you need to check with the relevant company and/or council regularly. But we don't all have time for that. That's where this page comes in. It will be updated whenever any changes to Southampton's buses are announced, regardless of which service is affected.

I have to admit the blog is mainly inspired by First, who have two maps of their Southampton routes on their website, both of them out of date. A newcomer to our city would rightly be confused. Even Southampton City Council's public transport map (on their website, link on the right) is inaccurate.

To get the blog running, let's have a quick summary of the most recent changes to bus services in Southampton:

First fiddled with some of their routes on May 4th, including cuts to the 4, 5 and 14A. A new route, the 7A, is a part-time hourly extension of the 7 from Swaythling to Millbrook Tesco via General Hospital and Shirley. First's website makes it difficult to post links to individual timetables, not helped by the fact that you also have to wade through lists of Portsmouth services to find the one you want. Did I mention their maps are out of date? It really is quite shoddy.

As of June 14th, BlueStar's day and season tickets are now also valid for travel on the UniLink network. BlueStar tickets cannot however be purchased on board UniLink buses.

Also on June 14th, there were timetable changes to BlueStar 1, BlueStar 2 (short journeys between Eastleigh and Fair Oak withdrawn), BlueStar 3, BlueStar 4, BlueStar 8, BlueStar 9 and BlueStar 18 as well as First 26, 72, 78, 79 and 80. BabyBlueStar F is withdrawn on Sundays, no longer serving Marwell Zoo (despite what the timetable says) and is replaced by this seasonal free bus.

On 20th June, the New Forest Tour started running for the summer. Integrated ticketing is available from Southampton City Centre on Wilts & Dorset 56 & 56A to Lyndhurst.

From 2nd July, UniLink U9 only has one journey a day in each direction, weekdays only.

Every weekend until the end of August, train tickets to Brockenhurst can be used on Wilts & Dorset 56 for free travel to and from Lyndhurst.

If you live in Eastleigh, Velmore, Chandlers Ford or Hiltingbury, Hampshire County Council are running a consultation as they decide how to replace the C1 and C2 services, which will soon be changed. Take part and influence how the council subsidises buses in your area.

Diversions appear in the panel on the right.