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.
How fortunate that Wheelers recently introduced an off peak service along the length of Hill Lane. In the withdrawal of service 10 by Firstbus, this should add a few more passengers to the Wheelers service on this section. It's no surprise that the 10 is going, as over recent years Firstbus has messed around with it frequently,so that any confidence the public might have had with it has been eroded. I expect in the future other operations they have in Southampton, will suffer the same fate. PAC
ReplyDeleteFirst have clearly lost the last of the marbles that they had left. Axing the 10 is a sad sign of the times we're currently in. I have to say that routing it to completely miss the Sports Centre I think was a bad move, as Winchester Road is already covered adequately by the U6, so few customers to be gained there. Also, routing it down Luccombe Road instead of direct up Hill Lane again seemed to make little sense.
ReplyDeleteAnother seemingly illogical change is in the 13. Axing the Thornhill section and having the route end in Townhill Park seems quite frankly ludicrous, and a knee jerk attempt of trying to make the presence of First buses in the warzone greater than Bluestar's. But who is going to want to use a service that goes via Harefield, Bitterne and Merry Oak before even getting anywhere near the City Centre?
I don't know who decided that Southampton was the best city for transport recently, but whoever they are must have been playing an extremely premature April fools joke on everyone.
I have been saying for a long time, that First have totally lost the plot. Lets go back a few years, and they started to try to encroach onto the waterside by launching their Totton service. It didnt work, so they effectively halved the service, and now it is to go altogether. Then they tried to encroach further with their disasterous Marchwood/Hythe foray. It was dropped like a stone, once the incumbent fought back. A little over a year ago, they changed just about everything, including their route numbers, and earlier this year changed them nearly all back again. They have tried putting the word "Southampton" on their fleet, to try to convince the public that First have a local interest. Then they throw the kitchen sink at the new 2 route, putting far too much frequency into it for it to be profitable..... Now the latest raft of changes...
ReplyDeleteEverything they do smacks of pure desperation and pressure from above. When will they learn that people dont want leather seats? The public want a service that they understand and can trust to be there tomorrow, next week and next year! As the first poster on this thread has suggested, they just keep eroding their customers faith, with the constant desperate changes that they keep making. Any idiot can see their mistakes, except perhaps them?
Looking at the new timetables this morning on their website,which they have revised since yesterday,it will be hard for anyone to know on certain services as to what is happening. The new 13 does not appear to serve Merryoak or Townhill Park, and the new 12 as shown in the heading does. On service 2 and 7 no times during the day are shown at time points on route,and everything seems in certain cases to be a complete mess. As I read what I am looking at it appears that the Knighton Road area in Woolston has lost it's Sunday bus service,but who knows? PAC
ReplyDeleteRoutes 2 and 7 between roughly 8am- 6pm shall have no timetable. Pretty much means when a bluestar turns up just go
DeleteI note as of today, Sunday 8th December 2013, the errors contained in the statement for the service changes in Southampton issued by Firstgroup as from 5th January 2014, have been corrected on their website, but not on facebook. The timetables on the website have also been changed, where certain errors were in the via headings for these two services.. It is now clear that on Sundays and Bank Holidays only that service 12 will run between Bitterne and Woolston via Merryoak area in each direction, and that Mondays to Saturdays will run via Peartree Avenue between Bitterne and Woolston in each direction. Service 13 will serve the section between Bitterne and Woolston via Merryoak area in each direction Mondays to Saturdays. PAC
DeleteIs this a Bluestar staff forum ?
ReplyDeleteYou dont have to work for Bluestar to see the mess that First are in! Just look at the almost constant changes that have gone on there. If it aint broke, it dont need fixing!!
DeleteI was thinking the same! I understand PAC is a former employee of the blue team which explains some of his anti First sentiments.
DeleteI have no anti First sentiments or any anti sentiments against any other bus company. I do however have a problem when they or any other operator, state on their website one thing, and it turns out to be something else. Information issued by them, or any other operator,should not be shown on the website, until it's checked and correct, and anyone viewing the information has a clear picture of exactly what is happening. As just one example the website for Firstbus for the January 5th 2014 changes states that the 13 will serve Townhill Park, whereas the facebook page informs people that have enquired it does not. The facebook reply seems to be the correct version.This also does not help their, or any other operators driving staff, who have a difficult enough job anyway,and are equaliy as confused when passengers ask them questions about changes which they can't give passengers answers too. I may also add that I have never been employed as part of the Bluestar team. PAC
DeleteWhy do people think the changes are a sign of desperation ? Bus service changes happen all over the country by definition of the law of supply and demand. This is what was designed to happen with bus deregulation. You have to ask yourself if First service 10 is so lucrative then we will see Bluestar immediately step in ? If not, then to axe the route has to be right decision as why would you run a bus with fresh air - this applies to anywhere in the country. Of course some view points would suggest that you should not change the network for many years - however does this not suggest complacency and ignores demand. From a balanced view both bus companies provide a good service on the main roads. Of late Firstbus seem to be improving their fleet quality. Whether you agree with leather seats or not it is good to see vehicle refurbishment and new buses coming Into the fleet with Firstbus as they have been lagging behind in quality for some years. At the end of the day the market makes the choice.
ReplyDeleteOf course it was the right decision to axe the 10 route, and if it had ever been a lucrative route, you can bet that Bluestar would have challenged it long before now. It seems that the arguement is purely the number of changes that First make, compared say, to Bluestar, who make fairly minor tweaks here and there, and appear to have a strong idea of where they want to be going with their business. First just seem to lurch from one crisis to another, with knee jerk reactions, rather than building loyalty and route awareness.
DeleteAt last a common sense posting, route 10 has been a dead duck for ages hence why there isn't a queue of other operators wanting to replace it.
DeleteFunny how when First axe a service the merchants of doom predict the end is nigh yet look at how other operators have slashed services in recent years.
First have sensibly decided to scrap the 10 which runs empty apart from the Tauntons journeys which they are still providing. SCC will now need to decide whether to pay for a replacement, like they did for the R1; that runs empty too but First aren't losing money on it.
ReplyDeleteI also agree First are making too many changes; I don't understand the reason for the change to the 7 route, but I do understand the timetable change. The traffic in Southampton is so bad at times that timekeeping is impossible; but equally scheduling for the worst of the traffic means hanging around at timing points.
Of course they could always copy Bluestar and ignore the published timetable altogether (particularly on the 18 and 16!!).
Ben
(current record 5 18s in line down Shirley High St. Haven't they heard of regulating the service???)
On a separate note has anyone seen a passenger on the new Wheelers services yet?
ReplyDeleteI personally have made 6 journeys on the W2 and 1
Deleteon the W3.
My wife has made 2 journeys on the W2.
To my knowledge at least 5 people from the streets
directly surrounding us have used the W2 at some
time or other.
Over a period of time on this site, there has been much criticism about Excelabus and how it operates. I notice of late that the company seems much more settled and timetables have been stable. Also the website now shows all services including the Tesco Bursledon operation, and others that had slight errors have been corrected. Their Christmas and New Years services have been shown on the website for some weeks now available for all too see, might I add before some of the larger operators showed them on their sites. Whilst I agree it appeared for sometime that it was constant change at Exelabus, the boot seems to have changed foot, and it's now the larger operators that are making constant changes. Whilst changes are to be expected, like other commentators on this site, perhaps if the frequency of changes could be reduced,it would give the general public more confidence in the services they try too provide. PAC
ReplyDeleteIndeed, its a good thing if xelabus are having a period of stability. It's sorely needed and is what should be happening.
ReplyDelete