It's just occurred to us that Brijan 17 doesn't switch to its new timetable until next Monday, but their website already displays only the new timetable (without a start date). If you want to travel on the 17 this week, you'll be needing these:
There's some confusion about what's happening with evening buses between Hedge End and Botley. They are currently provided by Bluestar 3, but from next Monday, Hampshire County Council (HCC) are subsidising First to extend the 8A to Botley on Mon-Sat evenings. This has led us and a lot of posters to Bluestar's Facebook page to think that the 3 is being somehow cut, but no change to the 3 has been announced. First 8A is scheduled to leave town for Botley at 1717, 1826, 1934, 2034, 2134 and 2234, while Bluestar 3 is currently timed to leave town for Botley at 1715, 1745, 1825, 1905, 2005, 2105, 2205 and 2305. Botley can't sustain more than a bus an hour from Southampton in the daytime, so why would HCC subsidise a half hour frequency in the evening? We think evening cuts to Bluestar 3 will happen sooner rather than later.
Now that most of the news is out regarding our local bus cuts, let's have a quick look at the most harshly affected areas. Marwell Zoo, Chilworth Village, Nursling and Stoke Common are being cut off from public transport entirely. Valley Park is losing its direct link to Eastleigh and Southampton, which will make the bus a far less attractive option for residents there. Evening and Sunday buses are completely disappearing from Marchwood, Bishops Waltham, Twyford and Colden Common. They're just the worst hit. Many other routes in our region are having their frequencies or days of operation cut. Leave a comment and let us know how you are affected.
We now have ahead of us three weekends in a row of big changes to our area's bus services. To make it easier to understand, tomorrow we'll publish a full detailed list of the changes happening over the course of this coming weekend. We'll do the same on the following two Thursdays, so that you know exactly which bus services are changing when. In the meantime, a brief summary is in the green panel on the right.
Great post once again..
ReplyDeleteI was wondering.
So if a person lives in Botley depending on the time in the day one will have no option to buy a return from Southampton
Or... will First accept a return ticket issued by Bluestar
Traveline show the revised BlueStar evening service on the 3, it's terminating after the circuit of Oaklands estate and returning the same way (rather than just serving the estate once as on Velvet's evening A's).
ReplyDeleteThanks Dennis, Traveline does have its uses occasionally after all :-)
ReplyDeleteHi anonymous, Bluestar and Velvet have an agreement to accept each other's return tickets between Hedge End and Botley, but as far as I know First are not in on that. They'll only accept other companies' tickets if Hampshire County Council have told them to, which I very much doubt. I'll see what I can find out though.