Wednesday, 18 December 2013

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Polygon and extending to Lordshill North, which has been left with only the infrequent Stagecoach 46 since the S1 was withdrawn from there at the end of June.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.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous18 December 2013 at 23:58

    Over the past few weeks Southampton City Council have been replacing bus stop flags within the city centre area, and correcting any out of date old numbers that were on the old flags,so the new ones show correct service numbers. Because of the January changes in 2014 quite a considerable number of these new plates will have to have alterations made to them again. Just inside of Brintons Road/Six Dials, for the first time ever in the history of service S1 or S2 or any previous service number when serving this road ,flags and timetable cases have been erected on lamp standards in each direction. These will now be redundant from January 2014 because the section between City Centre and RSH is being withdrawn once again. Good council planning as usual. PAC

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    1. Anonymous19 December 2013 at 12:14

      Bit of an unfair dig at the council. How would the council know the 10 was being withdrawn and S1 replacing it when they installed these bus stops? The tender must have only just been awarded as it was only announced the other day. I guarantee there wouldn't be a change to this route if it wasn't awarded to Velvet. Seems like a perfect time to sort all the issues out... It doesn't take much work to move a bus stop. PAC, usually your points are valid, but I just can't agree with you on this one.

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    2. Anonymous19 December 2013 at 21:50

      Well in the instance of the 10 the flags have been put in the city centre this week,although agreed some were earlier and would have not been known by the council,but it has been knowlede for weeks now as too it's withdrawel,so the ones put in this week could have been delayed until the changeover. As too the S1 when the the anouncement of the 10 was withdrawn it was stated by Firstbus that they and possibaly others were in discussions with the council on a replacement for the 10 in some form or other, and the logical candidate for this was S1 which would be as an outside observer the cheapest way. It might not take much work too move or remove a bus stop, but it does cost as it's I believe contracted out. PAC

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  2. Anonymous19 December 2013 at 08:19

    Why is it the council's fault? It's the bus companies who keep changing routes!

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous19 December 2013 at 21:53

      In the case of S1 it;s the council that have changed the route not the bus company. PAC

      Delete

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