X7 Sunday scandal! X12 flops! 80 to end Wrights Hill snub!

Xelabus X12/X13 runs for the last time tomorrow. No mention of this on Xelabus's website, so I hope they've made an effort to let any regular customers know. The whole route is covered by Bluestar 2 so no-one will be left isolated. I take no pleasure from the fact that the prediction in my post of 18th April (that the X12 wouldn't last 6 months) has been proven correct.

Now to our top story: Wilts & Dorset X7 no longer runs on Sundays, contrary to what we previously reported. The last Sunday service between Southampton and Salisbury was the now withdrawn X71 on 16th October. When the timetable first changed, W&D misleadingly published this Sunday service timetable on their website (screengrab from 17th October):

No prizes for guessing which bit of that I added myself. The organisation of public transport in this country is truly in a sorry state when a bus operator and a state-backed public transport information portal (Traveline) can both publish timetables for a non-existent service! So, what if you need to get between Southampton and Salisbury on a Sunday? The trains still run. If you're allergic to them, your only remaining option (according to Traveline) is to take a National Express coach to Ringwood and change there to W&D X3, with a total journey time of 2 hours. If you need to get to any intermediate points (well, anywhere between Testwood and Salisbury anyway) on the X7 route on a Sunday, you can't.

First 80 will have a few route changes from 4th December. As well as the one in Locks Heath a couple of posts ago, it will be rerouted to serve Wrights Hill (instead of by-passing it on Portsmouth Road as the 72 will continue to do) and in the city centre, it will use Castle Way in both directions instead of Queensway.