Bluestar 18 is every 7/8 mins Mon-Sat daytimes. They're not taking the attack lying down though...
Click the graphics for more details from each camp. Not just boasting about the buggy spaces, Bluestar have cut their fares. Slightly. A Southampton Dayrider is normally £3.50, but one will be available for the 18 only at £3. A FirstDay City is £3.20, although despite the name, it doesn't quite cover the whole city, just the pink zone of this map.
Bluestar are offering a special weekly ticket just for the 18 too, priced at £11. A Bluestar Southampton weekly ticket is already £11 if you buy it on The Key or on their mobile app, but rises to £13 if you want to buy a paper ticket (other than on route 18). FirstWeek Millbrook at £8.50 is First's answer to that, only valid between Millbrook and town. FirstWeek Southampton will set you back £17 but also includes Hedge End, which is excluded from Bluestar's Southampton zone tickets.
I can't not point out a typing error on Bluestar's rushed web page announcing the new deal for Millbrook:
The red box is mine of course. They might well need to appoint a Bluetsar to oversee this battle. Sweets? That's fighting dirty surely! How on Earth can First compete with that? If there's an obesity epidemic in Millbrook, you know who to blame :-)
Outside the city, the New Forest Tour from Bluestar and More gets going again this weekend with more routes than before. The fares are premium but include travel to and from the Forest on Bluestar 6 and More 112, although you might be hard pressed to find buses running at sensible times to make a day trip of it from Hythe on the 112. Probably best to get Bluestar 8 or 9 to Totton and change there to the 6 instead.
Bluestar now have Bitterne to themselves after 7.10 pm ,on Suns,plus their 8.17 pm Shirley to town service ,runs just moments before three firstbuses!
ReplyDeleteBluestar also have Peartree to themselves for the whole day on Sundays due to First completely removing their buses from there and Harefield. I have to admit I was expecting much more of a reaction from Bluestar after these changes were announced, especially with regard to the re-designed 2, but all they've done is create a special ticket which undercuts the price of First's City Dayrider. Then again, with First scoring so many own goals there's probably no need for them to do that much.
ReplyDeleteRunning 10 buses to the exact same route as the 18 shows a complete lack of creativity, and simply demonstrates how these changes haven't been made with the customer in mind at all and have only been designed with the aim of stealing a few customers from their rivals, which in the process is alienating existing customers in other areas.
Overall, there is almost nothing positive for customers in these changes. Cutting cross-city links and forcing customers to change buses in the city centre (particularly inconvenient when the connecting bus is missed), massive cuts in frequencies in certain areas that are served on a commercial basis (i.e. Harefield and Peartree) etc. And this is a company in a sector that is trying to get people out of their cars and onto buses. None of these are good selling points for this whatsoever and I strongly believe that First would do well to reconsider these changes.
First is reducing its price of the Southampton Month ticket to £40. But it is only for the period form the the 7th to the 13th of this month
ReplyDeleteIt does make me laugh when you say no creativity by First and imply Bluestar are very creative. The same level of creativity as bluestar for their service 16 to Townhill and the same level of creativity as bluestar deciding to double the frequency on buses to Marchwood when they lost the tender and running them 5 mins in front of First !
ReplyDeleteNowhere in my post did I imply that Bluestar had been creative, in fact I've made comments in the past on this very blog criticising Bluestar's transparent attacks on First. The 16 has been a poorly performing route from day 1, and I seriously doubt that Marchwood will see a half-hourly service beyond the end of the year if not sooner, but it seems they've obviously got more money to waste than First. The re-routing of the 3 was in no way creative either, and the route continues to slowly dwindle. All I said was that First's changes show a lack of innovation and creativity in comparison to last year's network revamp.
ReplyDeleteFrom yesterdays observations First don't seem to have made of a dent in Bluestar on the 18 as passengers are waiting for Bluestar even with 2 No 2 buses in a row. It does strike me First are a bit desperate on funding customers where they can. Velvet are in town, Wheelers with the W1 and Xela with a dedicated bus network for Taunton's College ......
ReplyDeleteStrange as the observations I saw showed service 2 with good loads especially around redbridge hill which can only be passengers from SBL 18.
ReplyDeleteI've seen passengers letting First 2s go by and then getting on Bluestar 18s but I would wait a little time before calling it a failure for First. If you're a regular bus passenger you have to pick either First or Bluestar for your passes and it'll be renewal time to see if there's any shift from Bluestar to First.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't First and Bluestar get together so we don't end up with 35 buses an hour along Shirley High Street while other parts of Southampton end up with a limited service or nothing at all.
You can blame Deregulation/privatisation for that. Thank you Mrs Thatcher/the Tories/Man's greed ! Great if you live in good bus territory - tough luck if you don't.
DeleteWe all thought First and Bluestar would get together and sort out the mess over Marchwood, but it didnt happen. One operator had to blink first, and of course it was First! Their tactics smack of desperation, but at least this time they attacked a valid target. Bluestar have hardly reacted yet, which is a surprise, but you can bet they are working on a cunning plan to hurt First more than First will hurt them! They know that they have First on the rack in the local area, and must be champing at the bit to announce something that will stretch them just a little bit more. I think the widely rumoured revisions in September could be very interesting indeed.
DeleteSoon after Blueline started an agreement was reached (after a bus war period) between the 2 operators for each to run on Millbrook Estate as they have up until July this year. Presumably BS will respond by attacking a First core route. If this happens expect First to increase frequency on that route at the expense of less popular routes it now serves. At the end of the day the passenger will suffer with an overall poorer service. To make a positive impact a new route needs to be found that will increase the number of passengers travelling - can anyone suggest such a route ? BS history with Beep Bus suggests they don't like any competition an any part of their route
DeleteThere is no such agreement, it would be illegal cartel operation which lands people in prison.
DeleteGood point about bus pass renewal of passes - my money is still on Bluestar. Far superior fleet riding on their 18's against time expired rattly darts. Do we really want 35 buses an hour in Shirley for gods sake!
ReplyDeletebluestars fleet is boring on the 18 first uses a veriety of buses on the no 2 in that case id rather travel with first and also firsts drivers are more friendly than bluestars whos can be rude and a lot of them look really miserable
ReplyDeleteNoticed some overtaking by first and blocking 18's. Bus wars hit the High Street?? At least Bluestar buses are modern comfortable and clean. Dirty oily Darts and mixture of ancient Olympians - yes they do "transform travel" by making it worse!
ReplyDeleteLooking at the new forest tour, I understand that they have had to make an "emergency" application to VOSA, to re-time the new blue route. It appears that they have made an almighty mess of the timings with buses running ridiculously late. So much so that they have had to reduce the number of services operated and frequency, as they have no spare capacity at all. The blue route also had 2 buses quite seriously damaged within the first 3 days of operation, and got banned from one of the holiday parks that it serves, I understand. It also appears that the sound systems, newly installed this year, have proved an absolute disaster. What with the scaring of horses story in the press today, its a really bad start for what has become a real success story in recent years. Expect heads to roll over this, and knowing Go Ahead,they probably will, and rightly so IMHO.
ReplyDeleteIt is starting today the First promotion £40 a monthly ticket
ReplyDeleteThe loadings on First no.2 on Saturday that i saw were rather poor.Is it going to be another flop like the x2?
ReplyDeleteBluestar Citaros are good enough buses (although prone to niggly faults) but their drivers are so unfriendly that I expect more Millbrook passengers will move to First over the coming weeks and months, as pass renewals kick in. The 18 also bunches badly at times due to the cross-city nature of the route. Time will tell!
ReplyDeleteYep agree about staff which is a shame when the product they drive is far superior than First's efforts. I think we will see another round of changes again in the Autumn by First and a frequency reduction on the 2. I don't think I have ever seen such a deterioration of a bus network as in Southampton and the city deserves so much better.... it should be more Brighton & Hove style!
ReplyDeleteReally...aren't the wonderful B&H at a public inquiry today?
ReplyDeleteThe bunching on the 18s could be resolved at a stroke with a little effort,but nothing changes.Nice clean buses though.
As a general comment about the Southampton network I despair of the situation in Upper Shirley.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to school there in the 1980s there was a 15 min frequency along Wilton Road and St James' Road with a good evening and Sunday service, with good frequencies in Hill Lane too. Now cut after cut over the years has ended up with a couple of hourly services, one of which finishes around 3pm, with nothing at all on evenings and Sundays.
I'm not surprised to hear Richard Taunton College are procuring their own services (King Edward's have had their own for some years), and these bespoke networks may in turn of course threaten or have already diminished the viability of the remaining public services.
Probably the car-using populace of this prosperous area, and diminishing council funds, also haven't helped but I suspect Stagecoach would not have allowed this to happen.
Bluestar have the upper hand in the Millbrook bus wars,as their customers can top up their period passes,online and at their convenience,instead of visiting a First travel shop ,or looking for a paypoint in first`s case!!!You can now use Bluestar passes on Unilink as well!!!
ReplyDeleteAs you normally can for the University's summer vacation!
DeleteAfter reading the Echo on Saturday night I find it amazing how First can say there is a demand for their 2 route when there is a 7 minute route 18?? Where are all these people????????
ReplyDelete