Wednesday 22 January 2014

Timetable changes this weekend / Itchen Bridge closure

This weekend we have timetable changes on First 4A & 26 and Bluestar 16.

From Sunday:

  • On First 4A the weekday morning journey from Fareham at 0705 will replace the current 4B bus at the same time and will run right through to St Anne's School. New timetable here.
  • On First 26, the last Mon-Sat bus from Hedge End to Fareham, currently at 1730, will be retimed to 1745. The last bus from Fareham on Saturdays will be at 1755 (instead of 1730 now). New timetable here.


From Monday:

  • Bluestar 16 has a route change in Townhill Park and only minor timing changes. Full details here.


Looking further ahead, Itchen Bridge will be closed between 1900 and 0530 overnight from 2nd until 7th February. Buses will need to divert. First give their diversion details here affecting routes three, 4, 4A, X4, 6, 11, 12 and 13. Bluestar 3 will also be affected - but only on the 1900 Mon-Sat departure from Southampton.

Even further ahead, Bluestar have revealed details of their changes for the end of February. This includes the withdrawal of all night buses.

14 comments:

  1. So does anyone know why Bluestar cannot seem to make night buses work in a large city like Southampton, whereas Southern Vectis can on the Isle of Wight?

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    1. Back in early December I caught the N9 wanting to go to Marchwood.

      The driver didn't turn off the bypass as per the route. His explanation was that he didn't know anyone wanted Marchwood, I pointed out that he was now off route and he hadn't asked for my destination. He took the next turning into Marchwood and dropped me at the wrong end of the village leaving me a long walk ahead of me.

      I emailed the manager's mailbox with it's promise of a reply within 5 working days, saying if the driver was correct, then this practice should be made clearer. I then requested a response a further three times before going to head office in Newcastle, who did reply.

      A rambling way of showing the culture in Bluestar obviously has no respect for the customer and until it changes, they will only attract customers who have no other choice. Naturally that will only last until they chop that part of the service the passenger needs.

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    2. Since a new manager was put in place of Steve Cuff at the early part of 2013,when you send them e-mails the response is now very poor. I have sent them e-mails on various occassions during 2013 and where as before they were prompt in reply,it's very slow or not at all.

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    3. Bluestar were recieving a council subsidy to run the nightstar service, this subsidy was not renewed because of cuts, so the service ended, too.

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  2. IMO, they have failed to promote and advertise the service correctly, and have chopped and changed the route and times within Southampton, so that it totally confused those who did use it. Far too many buses, attempting too many routes too often. They could have easily routed a bus per hour (on each hour!) out of town via Shirley, around Millbrook estate, down to Millbrook roundabout, out to Totton, and onward to Marchwood, Hythe and Fawley/Blackfield. That same bus could have got back to town, in time to do a trip an hour and a half later, out to Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh,Fair Oak and Winchester. 2/3 buses maximum needed, instead of the 6 currently employed. But instead of using the KISS system (Keep It Simple Stupid), they have over complicated timings. But the key to it, was mainly promotion. I fully expect Velvet to take some of it on (particularly the N1), and make a roaring success of it. It almost feels as if Bluestar found it a nuisance, and didnt bother trying to make it work, because it was an inconvenience to them, in terms of supervision and wage structures.

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  3. I note that Xelabus also have some timetable changes on 20th January and 24th February PAC

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  4. So who is actually operating Chandlers Ford - Eastleigh college service "D" as Velvet have a timetable on their website yet Xela are claiming to have taken it over from 20 Jan on theirs? Velvet being crinkled or Xela being crafty?

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    1. Yes I note no mention on Velvetbus website that the D goes to Xelabus or the H going to Wheeler's

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  5. I notice on the timetable for service D it states it's being operated on behalf of Black Velvet Travel PAC

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  6. The D is being operated by Xelabus on hire to Velvet (on Velvet's registration) in order to release resources within Velvet to combat peak time traffic delays around Hedge End arising from the Colden Common road closure - some mornings since Christmas have seen delays up to an hour even with no accidents or incidents.

    Having said that, assuming that Xelabus find the D to their satisfaction, it is now expected that this will become a permanent change, formalised with appropriate re-registrations, as the D fits much better with Xelabus's daytime network but is out on a limb from the Velvet network, and should therefore be much more convenient for students who can benefit from opportunities to travel between the peaks.

    It is a little harsh to suggest that we have not yet informed the world about the loss of Thursday off-peak journeys on service H. We only found out about Wheelers' success on Thursday, we have no idea what their route or timetable will be, the change doesn't take effect for over two months and we will need to formulate an alternative solution for student off peak travel. Although a preliminary announcement certainly won't be far away, there is not very much we can actually tell people yet!

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    1. Two bus companies talking to each other to help the passenger! That's surely not in the spirit of deregulation!! Nicholas Ridley will be spinning in his grave!

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    2. Yes He was known as Nicholas Ridiculous which is now the state of the bus industry with constant service changes up and down the country making private motoring more and more the only way too get to work or do other things.

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  7. I just wonder when someone is going to come along and put errors right on the new stop flags now being errected in many areas of Southampton.Many have incorrect service numbers,which is not the fault of the council, as there have been service changes since they were put up,but no one seems to be addressing the problem,incorrect flags put up at some points when they should have been put elsewhere,and timetable cases that in some cases have been with no information in them,in many instances for weeks and weeks. I have pointed out errors I have spotted to the relevent people in the council transport department as have others,but still no action as yet.The electronic displays at many stops have been out of action for weeks if not longer at many points or sometimes they are on,then they are off again. Some places don't any longer have any plates or timetable cases.Never have I seen such a poor roadside lack of information in years. It must be stated that Bluestar and Velvet have done their best to replace the timetables as the stop flags have been replaced,however I am told that corporate timetables that should be in these stops is the resposibility of the council.What does not help is the fact it's difficult enough sometimes to find an outlet to obtain a printed timetable book or leaflet for some operators in Southampton,apart from the larger ones, Needs a vast improvement made for the benefit of all who use buses. PAC

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  8. To add to the lack of worse of public transport there is still a bus shelter in place in Shirley Road, that has not been used for the best part of 2 years, since the bus stop was moved down the road by the council, but the council have still not removed the sheleter (slightly down on the oposite side of the road Tintern Grove) and the S1 has been running for months in Upper Shirley but still stops still do not have bus flags at all and to cap it all a few weeks back the wrong flag was put up outside the old police station in Shirley marked Bitterne Park Bend (that has now been corrected). A vast improvement does need to be made, didn't this electronic bus timetable thing start out originally as an EU project and other cities have now overtaken Southampton?

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