Friday 21 October 2011

First cut is the deepest: December change details

First have already revealed the new timetables of those routes that are changing in December. My earlier assumption that it may have been extra xmas shoppers' services was wrong. Here's what's really happening as of Sunday 4th December:

1 City Centre-Weston
The last bus of the day from town at 2317 Mon-Sats currently extends to Hamble. It will continue to do this on Fridays and Saturdays only. Sunday to Thursday it will terminate at Weston.

3 City Centre-Townhill Park
Some weekday early morning journeys are retimed.

4 City Centre-Totton
Extended to Totton College on Mon-Sats. Most times are changed. Sundays unaffected.

5 City Centre-Lordshill North
Major cuts. The 5 will only continue to run between the city centre and Aldermoor (Woodman). The weekday daytime off-peak frequency is being cut from half-hourly to hourly. To make it worse, the first bus of the day will be later and the last bus earlier than they currently are. Bakers Drove will now be unserved by First. A couple of morning 21s that currently start from Lordshill will start back from Buchanan Road, but this is still a huge net reduction in buses serving Lordshill North - weekday daytime frequency is down from 3 to 1 bus an hour.

7 City Centre-Bassett Green
The Saturday daytime frequency is being cut from every 20 to every 30 minutes.

11 City Centre-Sholing
The weekday daytime frequency is cut from every 10 to every 12 mins. The Saturday daytime frequency is slashed from every 12 to every 15 mins.

16 Southampton-Hamble
Some evening services are cut. The last bus from town Mon-Wed will be at 2032. The buses at 2132 and 2232 will only run Thurs-Sat and the extended 1 at 2317 will only run through to Hamble on Fridays and Saturdays. The Sunday evening service is slashed, with the last bus leaving town at 1930.

21 RSH Hospital-Lordshill North
With the partial chopping of the 5, Lordshill North is at the mercy of the 21, so those morning journeys that don't currently start from Lordshill North, will do in future. This is a huge drop in overall service to Lordshill North, not helped by the fact that the 21 takes 53 minutes to get to town, compared with just 36 mins on the 5.

No new timetable has been published for the 80, so there might not be any significant changes to that route. We'll keep an eye out anyway.

3 comments:

  1. The last bus to Hamble at 20:32 !

    IMO a better option would be to extend route 1 in the evenings from Weston to Netley via Netley Abbey and them directly to Hamble without going through Butlocks Heath.

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  2. The only good thing about these cuts is that I like that cat Stevens song

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  3. I'm guessing that the evening Hamble journeys are supported by Eastleigh Borough, as the C1 to Chandlers Ford, E8 to Boyatt Wood and A to Hedge End also now only run 3 nights a week.

    There is no legal obligation on Borough Councils to support Public Transport at all, so good on them for maintaining at least some level of service; Winchester and Basingstoke will be devoid of any local services after 2200 from November.

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