The following stops won't be served during those times towards Hythe:
And these won't be served towards Southampton:
This diversion will be in place from 1900 to 0700 on both nights, so will affect some evening and early morning journeys on both routes.
The 11 will hopefully be diverted altogether soon!saves running a near empty bus,which must cost first a fortune,in bad judgement!
ReplyDeleteSaid the Bluestar driver above driving an equally empty bus at all times of day and night. The 11 may divert to somewhere where there there is real money to be made whilst Bluestar are busy trying to extricate themselves from running journeys they should never have registered. PR disaster waiting in the wings for the boys in blue :-)))))))
ReplyDeleteAnon 22:50 will hopefully get bored soon of critising route 11, after all any publicity is good publicity, the more he talks about it the more awareness he raises. If he really wants it to go away just ignore it and if everyone else does the same it will go.
ReplyDeleteDifferent anon here! Publicity about a route that produced nothing for Bluestar, even when they cut the service in half, and even less for First! The first anon is absolutely right about First having poor judgement with their 11 route, but anon at 0904 has hit the nail on the head by saying that First need to divert the 11 to something that stands a chance of making a profit. The trouble is that heads will need to roll at First, and that will be a publicity disaster! Bluestar have run through Marchwood for donkeys years, and no doubt will continue to do so, long after First have gone back to doing what they do best....the old Southampton Corporation patch. The public still see First as the City route operator, and Bluestar as Hants & Dorset. Nothing is likely to change that perception, particularly now that First have put the word "Southampton" on the side of so many buses. It just reinforces the view of local.
ReplyDeleteWell i think First made a bold move to register the 8 commercially before it was re-tendered - nice try. Bluestar have no interest in Marchwood but decided to vigorously defend it at huge expense to keep First out of the rest of Waterside and Totton. Bluestar made an equally bold move with the 16 but they chose the wrong route and are stuck with a service that will never make money. It's interesting - will the next move be a retreat or an advance and by whom.
DeleteNice try? To attempt a route that no-one has made a penny out of for years, and that has needed cut after cut, to try and make any sense of? I think it was pure stupidity and a huge lack of commercial sense.
DeleteI totally agree that the Bluestar resonse was for the reasons stated. I also agree that Bluestar made a bad choice with the 16 route.
As you say, what will the next move be? For as long as the instigator within First remains employed, there can only be one answer.... They will re-jig, and try something else (if only to save face), and then Bluestar will again respond. Once the management team within First realize that the instigator got it so horribly wrong, that they need to dispense with his (or her) services, normality will resume, with each operator resuming normal trading. The problem is, how many jobs will be cut as a result? As we stand, most could probably be protected, but any further escalation of this nonsense will result in a lot of tears.
You sure have it in for someone at First ! I doubt anything was done without top level approval and someone made a reasonable job of the new network. I think Bluestar are the ones suffering loss of profit at present with big expense on extra buses on 8, 11, 12 and of course 16. I think First would be better off going all out for Hedge End and Botley where Bluestar struggle. Interesting times !
DeleteI just cant understand what the thinking was at First, when they instigated the 11 route. Yes, there is some business from Hythe (but its served by an almost impregnable 9 service from Bluestar), but Marchwood has been a dead duck for years. I can only think that they watched Bluestar cutting the service, and thought there was an opportunity there. Sadly for First, Bluestar had cut the service because no-one was using it, not because they had lost touch with reality, as perhaps could have been said of their Hedge End service. It just stikes me that whoever suggested the 11 route at First, failed in dramatic fashion to to their research properly, and should pay the ultimate price for their failure, by losing their job. In any other industry, the person responsible would have been sacked, without question.
DeleteThe rest of Firsts network is entirely reasonable. They just got their waterside offering horribly wrong.
I dont think Bluestar are suffering too badly with their West Totton and Calmore services, as they are utilizing smaller, more fuel efficient buses (which were formerly very under utilized), and at the same time, making sure that Firsts X2 never gets off the ground along Millbrook Rd, but undoubtedly you are correct about the 8 and 16, although I suspect the need to prolong both will be short lived.
Very few locations warrant a bus service unless they are part of a route. Marchwood undoubtedly suffered as it is the main part of the 8 route since BS started their BS9 and removed all Hythe/Blackfield etc passengers from the 8 route.
DeleteA few years ago Velvet ran a Sunday '8' route under contract until BS decided it wanted it back
Millbrook Road hardly warrants a bus service on its own but has a very good service purely because of its location on the western approach to Soton City.The X2 was presumably aimed at Millbrook Estate and must be in danger of ending because many passengers from Millbrook only travel to Shirley which the X2 avoids
Perhaps someone should make the Hythe ferry operator a good offer? Until the Fawley passenger rail service is re-instated in a few years time,the shortest distance between Waterside and the city is across the water.Never any roadworks either!
ReplyDeleteThe Hythe ferry somehow keeps running. Despite being very old, and backed up by something even older, it just keeps chugging along. Strangely though, loads of people cannot cope with the trek (or draughty ride) up the pier, and the inhospitable ride over the water, and prefer to catch the bus all the way round. I am pretty sure that the Fawley branch line will never see the light of day again. This has been discussed many times, and the general view is that too many bits of the original route are in different ownership, that it simply could not resurface.
DeleteThe Fawley branch is part of the national network owned by Network Rail! Investment would be required in stations and signalling but not insurmountable.
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