Bluestar have delayed the fares increase for users of The Key smartcards until the end of May.
Velvet's delayed fares increase has now taken place. It came into effect on Monday.
Velvet E8 gets a new timetable from Monday 11th June. The main change is the introduction of a limited Sunday service, meaning Boyatt Wood will no longer be completely stranded on the Sabbath. Timetable here.
Stagecoach 46 is changing from Monday 11th June. Stagecoach themselves will only run these two journeys and only on Peter Symonds college days. All other journeys on the 46 will transfer to Velvet, who have yet to release their timetable.
Wilts & Dorset X7 is running on Sundays again as of this coming Sunday 6th May. Timetable here. This means that a Sunday (or bank holiday) out at Paulton's Park is now possible for those of us without a car.
Bluestar have registered a timetable change to the 18 as of Sunday 3rd June. Details to follow, but this could well be a response to First's huge improvement in the number of buses running to Millbrook.
Talking of First, there's a new FirstDay ticket available covering only inner parts of Southampton, but curiously stretching out to Millbrook and Thornhill (where Bluestar 18 runs). It's £3.20 and is valid in the shaded area of this map. A FirstDay for the whole city is still £4. Interesting that Swaythling and Bassett Green miss out on the new cheaper ticket. With their evening First service having been axed, I think it's realistic to predict that First might not still be serving those areas in a year's time.
First have had a few teething problems with their new network. Many posters to their Facebook page report incorrect bus stop flags and some drivers struggling to remember the new routes.
Bus wars are back!
ReplyDeleteThe link you have given goes to the new timetable; at least it does now.
ReplyDeleteI think implementation by First has been pretty good on the whole; given the awful weather just before the change which cant have helped roadside changes. I'm sure Bluestar will retaliate, although their service has been unreliable in my area compared to the old First service. let alone the new one.
The only criticism I have of First is the destination displays which are poorly programmed but I'm sure they will sort that out.
Are you sure? I've just checked the link and it's still the old Southampton timetable booklet there. The new Fareham & Gosport one is on, but not the new Southampton one.
ReplyDelete46 Velvet Timetable including times for the Stagecoach 46 buses.
ReplyDeleteThis can now be found on the Velvet web site under Routes and Times.
It has been on there before, but was removed as it seems to cause that page to overflow somewhat.
@SotonBus - I think you might need a 'hard refresh' or something - the link on the First site is definitely going to the new timetable book now!
ReplyDeleteAs for the E8, as well as the new commercial Sunday service, we are reversing the direction of travel. This is so that it picks up on the same side of the road as E1 and E2 for passengers heading into Eastleigh.
New times for A and C will be up in a couple of days.
Times for 46 and 67 are back online. The main reason they came off before was because we jumped the gun a bit while the County was still pondering a couple of possible amendments, which in the event haven't materialised!
It is disappointing and rather sad that the new times for the a and c routes which were promised by Phil Stockley to be on the Velvet web site within a couple of days of the 4th May still haven’t materialised after eleven days.
DeleteThe new times for the a and c routes have appeared today, (the 30th May) on the Velvet web site under Routes and Times.
DeleteThanks Phil! I tried it on Firefox and got the new timetable, so I went back to Chrome and cleared the cache and then it worked there as well.
ReplyDeleteSensible move for the E8. Will certainly be less confusing for Boyatt Wooders.
I notice that Velvet will be accepting Stagecoach returns on the 46 but not vice versa. Are there any other Stagecoach tickets that will be accepted on Velvet 46 - DayRiders and MegaRiders for instance?
We are required by contract to accept returns, and we are happy to do so, and it is highly likely that in the short term we will accept their other commercial tickets on the 46 in order to avoid placing customers in a difficult position. There is still work to be done however to determine the right strategy for the longer term (ie beyond the summer).
ReplyDeleteIs the Solent Travelcard valid on any part of the 46 & 67? Also Plus-bus tickets?
DeleteSolent Travelcard is and will remain valid on the whole of route 46. I don't think it's valid on the 67 outside of Winchester.
DeleteThe validity zones of PlusBus tickets can be found at www.plusbus.info
I'm wondering why Velvet do not register their own college days 46 buses & so "take on" Stagecoach on the 46's?
ReplyDeleteThe 46 journeys that Stagecoach are keeping hold of are commercial, i.e. they get no subsidy from Hampshire County Council. The fact that the remaining journeys will all run via Peter Symonds College suggest that the college might be supporting those journeys.
DeleteVelvet's journeys on the 46 will be under contract to the county council, who set the route, times and fares. Velvet could only run extra journeys if they thought they would be commercially viable in their own right.
The remaining journeys on the 46 aren't supported by Peter Symonds College; it's just that their students form 90% of the passengers carried.
ReplyDeleteExpect further changes to the Stagecoach commercial offering for the 2012-13 academic year.