Velvet changes / First speculation

Velvet have announced several changes from 30th September:
A will have some of its Monday to Wednesday evening journeys restored, after they were axed last October. This is balanced by a slight cut in service on Thursday to Saturday evenings.
B will be the new route number for journeys from Eastleigh to Hamble via Hedge End.
C1 and C2 get a slight route and timetable change. Velvet also take the Sunday C1 service back from Xelabus as of 2nd September, great news for users of PlusBus and the Solent Travelcard.
E8 goes hourly on Sunday daytimes and has a slight timetable change on Thurs-Sat evenings.
46 could be disappearing, depending on what the misogynistic non-bus users at Hampshire County Council, who subsidise the route, decide.
N3 is renumbered N8 and has a route change.
N6 also has a route change.

Bluestar and Unilink have announced that all their buses are now equipped with wifi.

First have a temporary bargain ticket for journeys between Millbrook and town. FirstWeek Millbrook is £8 until 1st September.

There were many comments to our last post, which questioned the future of First in Southampton. We'd all like to see the nationally tainted First brand turn over a new leaf and let the local management teams do what they do well with only minimal interference from head office in distant Aberdeen. But the national situation described in the last post means that the unthinkable (for some) could be round the corner and their Southampton operations might not be part of the First Group for much longer. So who might be willing to buy their Sotonian network?

Stagecoach has to be a contender. A major national operator, with a base nearby in Winchester, it has a track record of running strong, professional regional operations all around the country. South West Trains has been part of Stagecoach since BR was smashed up, so they're not completely unknown here. Indeed, their 46 route used to run right into central Southampton. The only thing that might put them off is that First's regional subsidiary here also includes Portsmouth, where Stagecoach are the only major competition. The recent case in North Devon demonstrated that the Competition Commission would not be likely to approve them taking over there. But if the price is right, Stagecoach might be interested in snapping up Southampton alone, meaning MegaRiders all round. They've already had one chance in our city back in the 80s of course: they bought the whole of what was then Hampshire Bus but broke off the Southampton and Eastleigh section and sold it on to become Solent Blue Line. Stagecoach were also responsible for selling Southampton's bus station to become the Marlands Shopping Centre.

The second potential suitor is RATP, better known as the company that runs the Paris Metro. They've owned Yellow Buses of Bournemouth for a couple of years now as well as an operation in London. They even run Manchester's trams. There would be no competition issues with them taking the rest of First Hants & Dorset's operations in Portsmouth and Weymouth and with the French state behind them, their pockets are certainly deep enough to make an interesting offer. The question is will they make a move to turn our buses yellow on this side of New Forest?

This is all speculation of course. First might decide to fight back, keep hold of Southampton, sell one or more of their other operations around the country and really make a go of giving our city the service it deserves. Their track record suggests otherwise, but the changes they made here in April do suggest a significant gear change and appear to have got Go Ahead worried. Anything could happen in the next few months.