New Year's Day bus services

We have buses this New Year's Day, for the first time in several years!

Bluestar: Special timetable on routes 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 16 and 18 only. No service on other routes.
Brijan Tours: No service.
First: Special timetable on routes 2, 3, 7 and 11 only. No service on other routes.
More: No services in our region.
Salisbury Reds: No services in our region.
Stagecoach: No service.
Unilink: No service.
Velvet: Sunday service on routes A (between Southampton and Hedge End only), E8 and X7.
Wheelers: No service
Xelabus: No service

Here are the special timetables for New Year's Day only:

Bluestar:

First:

Velvet A:

Velvet E8:

New Year's Eve bus services

Here's how our region's bus services look for New Year's Eve:

Bluestar: Normal Tuesday service plus night buses.
Brijan Tours: Normal Tuesday service.
First: Saturday service with an early finish at about 2000, except for routes 10, B1, B2, B3, H1 & H2, which will have a weekday service.
More: Normal Tuesday service on routes in our region.
Salisbury Reds: Normal Tuesday service on routes in our region.
Stagecoach: Saturday service, except route 46 which will have a Tuesday service.
Unilink: Vacation Saturday service with early finish at about 2100. Weekday service on route U9.
Velvet: Normal Tuesday service plus night buses.
Wheelers: Normal Tuesday service.
Xelabus: Normal Tuesday service.

For those routes that are finishing early, here are the times of the last buses:

First:

Unilink:

Monday's bus service levels

Here's how our region's buses will be running on Monday 30th December:

Bluestar: Normal Monday service.
Brijan Tours: Normal Monday service.
First: Saturday service, except for routes 10, B1, B2, B3, H1 & H2, which will have a Monday service.
More: Normal Monday service on routes in our region.
Salisbury Reds: Normal Monday service on routes in our region.
Stagecoach: Saturday service except route 46 which will have a Monday service and route 36 which will not run.
Unilink: Vacation Saturday service on all routes except U9, which will have a weekday service.
Velvet: Normal Monday service.
Wheelers: Normal Monday service.
Xelabus: Normal Monday service.

Normal service this weekend

Nothing special this weekend. There will be a normal Saturday service on Saturday and a normal Sunday service on Sunday from all operators.

Click here to see how next week's bus services look.

Bus services on Friday 27th December

Here's how our region's buses will be running on Friday 27th December 2013:

Bluestar: Normal Friday service including night buses.
Brijan Tours: Normal Friday service.
First: Saturday service, except for routes 10, B1, B2, B3, H1 & H2, which will have a Friday service.
More: Normal Friday service on routes in our region.
Salisbury Reds: Normal Friday service on routes in our region.
Stagecoach: Saturday service except route 46 which will have a Friday service and route 36 which will not run.
Unilink: Vacation Saturday service on all routes except U9, which will have a weekday service.
Velvet: Normal Friday service including night buses.
Wheelers: Normal Friday service.
Xelabus: Normal Friday service.

Boxing Day bus services

Happy Christmas from all at Southampton Bus Update!

More buses will be running in our region than ever before on Boxing Day. Here's a summary:

Bluestar: Special timetable on routes 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 16 and 18 only. No service on other routes.
Brijan Tours: No service.
First: Special timetable on routes 2, 3, 7 and 11 only. No service on other routes.
More: No services in our region.
Salisbury Reds: No services in our region.
Stagecoach: No service.
Unilink: No service.
Velvet: Sunday service on routes A (between Southampton and Hedge End only), E8 and X7.
Wheelers: No service
Xelabus: No service

Here are those elusive timetables themselves:

Bluestar:

First:

Velvet A:

Velvet E8:

No buses on Christmas Day

None of our local operators will be running any buses on Christmas Day.

If you get bored, why not take a look at our sister blogs?:

Great British Bus Routes

British Bus Bugle

Christmas Eve bus services

Bluestar: Full normal Tuesday service.
Brijan Tours: Normal Tuesday service.
First: Tuesday service with early finish at about 2000.
More: Normal Tuesday service.
Salisbury Reds: Normal Tuesday service.
Stagecoach: Normal Tuesday service.
Unilink: Vacation Saturday service with early finish at about 2100. Weekday service on route U9.
Velvet: Full normal Tuesday service.
Wheelers: Normal Tuesday service.
Xelabus: Normal Tuesday service.

Last bus times on First:

Last bus times on Unilink:

S1 returns to Lordshill North & partially replaces First 10

Part of the gap left by the withdrawal of First 10 will be filled by an extended Velvet S1 from 6th January. It will have some extra peak hour journeys running via Central Station instead of Polygon and extending to Lordshill North, which has been left with only the infrequent Stagecoach 46 since the S1 was withdrawn from there at the end of June. It will however no longer serve the RSH Hospital, leaving it with no direct buses to the door.

The S1 is possibly the most tampered-with bus service in Southampton of recent times. I should stress that this is down to Southampton City Council, who subsidise it and therefore decide on the route, timetable and operator. Let's take a look at all of the changes it's had in recent years:

• 12th June 2011: Operated by First as route 21. Route and timetable change. No longer serves Nursling or Hillyfields.
• 4th December 2011: Minor changes. More journeys to Lordshill North replacing route 5 which no longer runs there.
• 29th April 2012: Renumbered S1. Minor route change between City Centre and RSH Hospital.
• 30th June 2013: Major route change. No longer serves Lordshill North or RSH Hospital.
• 14th October 2013: Transfers from First to Velvet. More route changes. Serves RSH Hospital again.
• 6th January 2014: More route & time changes. Serves Lordshill North again, but no longer serves RSH Hospital.

First 10 saved... for three days.

The headline on First's website makes it look like they're running an additional seasonal special service between Christmas and New Year:

But a closer look reveals that this extra service is actually the soon to be axed route 10 running to its bog standard weekday timetable. First had decided to run a mainly Saturday service on Friday 27th, Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st December, which would have meant no service on the 10 at all. Now Southampton City Council has bunged a subsidy of taxpayers' cash to First, it will run after all, even though First are planning to withdraw the route altogether from 5th January.

It does raise the question: If the council think the 10 is worth subsidising on those three days, will they maybe step in and save it in the longer term? If they do, will it necessarily be First who get the contract or could we see the route go to someone else? In terms of network benefits for the passenger travelling from Totton and the Waterside, Bluestar would be ideal, but since when are council contracts decided based on what's best for the passenger?

In other news, First are bring the old Citybus red back on route 3 which is being rebranded as "the three". Experimental buses in old (i.e. pre-First) colours have already gone down well in the other parts of the country. It will certainly be good to see First making an effort to appear more local.

First are also investing in some brand new buses for the 1.

Boxing Day bonanza / Council cuts criticism

All of our local bus companies have now said what their service levels will be over Christmas and the New Year. We've compiled the full details here.

The biggest surprise is that more routes will be running on Boxing Day than ever before.

• Bluestar will be running a skeleton service on routes 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 16 and 18 as per last year.
• Velvet will be running a full Sunday service on the A between Southampton and Hedge End. Their website says it's a full Sunday service, which means the E8 and X7 too, but that almost seems too good to be true.
• First will be running a Boxing Day service too, with a skeleton service on routes 2, 3, 7 and 11.

No buses ran on New Year's Day 2013 in Southampton, but that changes for 2014: Bluestar, First and Velvet will be running the same service as on Boxing Day.

Full details of all buses in our region over the festive period here.

In other news, the Campaign for Better Transport has today received a lot of coverage for this report, which rings a warning bell about the number of councils cutting their support for bus services. Southampton City Council comes in for particular criticism for cutting its bus budget by 42% this year. In the rest of England and Wales, only Milton Keynes and Shropshire are making bigger cuts in 2013/14.

Don't forget there are two types of bus service in England (outside London), Wales and Scotland: commercial routes over which the operators have full control; and subsidised routes operated under contract to councils that are designed to fill in the gaps in the commercial network. It is the subsidised routes that the CBT report focuses on. The figures for our city suggest that more cuts are to come our way.

First axes 10 / Ocean Village diversion

First have confirmed some changes from 5th January which include the axing of route 10. For the first time in decades, Totton will have no direct link to Shirley and the General Hospital. Upper Shirley and Bellemoor will also lose a link. First will run a couple of journeys a day between Tauntons College and the City Centre, but they will only be useful for students. Also affected are the following routes:

• 7: New timetable and it will terminate at West Quay, no longer serving Pound Tree Road.
• 11: New timeable, weekday daytime frequency increased to 7/8 mins.
• 12: Will run via Peartree instead of Merry Oak.
• 13: Will run via Merry Oak instead of Peartree and will now terminate at the South side of Central Station.

Roadworks are going to continue for some time between Ocean Village and Itchen Bridge. Bluestar and First explain their diversions.

Wheelers W1 has had a couple of journeys retimed. Details here.

And finally, Bluestar are targetting pensioners on routes where they compete with other operators by offering them a loyalty card. If they make 30 journeys in a month, they'll be eligible to enter a monthly prize draw to win shopping vouchers. Pensioners of course don't pay for their bus travel, but each time they use their passes, the local councils that issue the passes pay a fee to the bus operators, so Bluestar can get more money from the councils by tempting pensioners to switch to them.