A new timetable launched today on Bluestar 5, E1 and E2. Full details here.
Now that First 10 has gone, there is no direct bus between Totton and the General Hospital. But, that could change. Xelabus are looking at running an off-peak service subject to funding from Totton & Eling Town Council. Will the council be able to find enough spare cash though?
Our sister blog, British Bus Bugle, is taking a look at how well Southampton City Council provides information about the bus services in our city. See the review here. Each Sunday, the Bugle reviews a different council and gives them marks out of 15 for their public transport publicity.
Maybe Xela could tap up Asda Totton for extra money as they do well at Supermarket Sweeping!!
ReplyDeleteSurely Totton and Eling cant do a direct deal with Xelabus, as it would have to go out to tender first? If they do, I for one will be making a freedom of information request, to find out the process followed!
ReplyDeleteThere is the "de-minimis" arrangement when contracts don't have to go out to tender, but I'm not sure of the max amount allowed
DeleteWhatever, Xelabus should be encouraged.
ReplyDeleteI see Bluestar have posted many changes and cancellations to the VOSA site to take effect in February, but can't work out how to find out the details. As a Marchwood resident I fear the worst.
Fear not Marchwood resident, unless you want to go beyond Hythe to Calshot, which gets more difficult!
DeleteI must confess I did wonder how long the reintroduced extension to Calshot might actually last. So does this imply a variation of the 9 to serve Fawley?
DeleteYes, its back to once an hour daytimes, and some in the evenings. It makes you wonder whether they needed to alienate the poor folks of Fawley for all that time! Most will have changed jobs, or purchased a car by now. Silly Bluestar.
DeleteAlthough I understand the Calshot section of the 8 will also still run through the main part of the day. It's just been trimmed at the edges
DeleteQuelle surprise. Running the 8 at a half hourly frequency is no longer "financially viable" it seems. Well that will no doubt be the reason they provide when they inform the public of the changes. Increase it to wipe out the competition (which they successfully did), then leave it a few months to give time for the dust to settle, then reduce the frequency back to how it was, hoping that people have by now forgotten why it was increased in the first place. A perfect example of why privatisation in the bus industry simply doesn't work. Both operators have made financial losses in the process, and the residents of Marchwood have been messed around as a consequence. Sad but inevitable.
DeleteWell let's all wait and see what changes Bluestar are making to services,when they make an official announcement,which I'm sure will be in the near future. PAC
DeleteThe frequency north of Hythe is not being cut.
DeleteWell, anon at 1341, you could not be more wrong. Quite simply, the frequency through Marchwood to Hythe is untouched, and the service to Fawley has been improved. Its a tiny cut out on the limb to Calshot, which is sparsely populated, so again, good business sense from Bluestar.
DeleteWhat confusion rumours cause, instead of waiting, as I have already stated, for Bluestar to officially publish their timetable plans, sometime as I'm aware in late February. Another rumour has been that they intend to withdraw service 3. This is also not so at the present moment in time. PAC
DeleteThey have already given the information to their staff, so no need to wait for official publication of the timetables, which take effect towards the end of Feb, so publication will be very soon now.
DeleteYes, that's the problem, with the staff all having different versions of what or will not happen. PAC
DeleteHaving finally tracked down the list of latest VOSA registrations, it looks as though these are primarily amendments to times, with no routes being significantly altered. No doubt this discussion will turn out in the end to have been far more interesting than the actual changes!
DeleteI've not checked properly, but a number of the nightstar services seem to be being cancelled and Bluestar 9 shows a route revision.
DeleteDon't forget timetable amendments can be pretty harsh too!
As has been stated several times before, ALL nightstar services, except U1N (which is rerouted to finish at Eastleigh), are withdrawn from end of Feb. The 9 will have two buses an hour to Langley, and one bus per hour to Fawley.
DeleteI find it hard to imagine that a Totton/Hospital link could ever be viable. However if it was extended to the Airport and Eastleigh with a basic regular yet still convenient frequency, it might have a better chance. Has anyone ever tried or even considered that before?
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine by extending to Airport and Easleigh it would have any possible chance of being viable. If it ever gets off the ground just running it between Totton and General Hospital at off peak will be a gamble, as most people who have complained about the withdrawel of Firstbus service 10 seem to be hospital staff who wish to travel to and from work. As it would run at off peak,it might be convenient for some, but possibly not the majority. By now most will have made alternative arrangements. PAC
DeleteIt would be more viable by providing a reasonably direct cross-city route linking a number of key destinations and by being rather more convenient for people who otherwise are either forced to change buses/travel through the city centre, or who decide that it's so much easier just to use their cars instead.
DeleteOnce upon a time it use to link Weston-Sholing-Bitterne-Portswood-Swaythling-General Hospital-Shirley-Millbrook and Totton. Although a long route, as I remember it was well paronised on most sections. When I lived in Bitterne I used it frequently as it was a quick route to Portswood. Also I used it for work when I worked in The Malvern public house in Winchester Road, as I could return from work on a then late bus from the Sports Centre back to Bitterne.Over the years it was chopped here and there, and had many re-routings to the point it became not much use to anyone. In fact now there is no direct link from Weston to Bitterne Village or Bitterne Village to Portswood,Swaythling or the General Hospital.The latest developments have now ended the cycle, by eliminating Totton to Shirley and General Hospital section,so the only option is if you don't want to change buses, is your own transport. PAC
DeleteIt actually started from Netley, before going onto Weston. The route was over 90 minutes in length. Ran half hourly and often on a double decker as well. It was the 6 back then (talking 8-10 years ago)
DeleteIt does appear that the Commercial Manager of Bluestar has carried the can for the poor performance of the business, as he left the company last week.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that he left of his own volition, for pastures new! I dont think anyone in the industry would regard the Bluestar performance as poor however..... Indeed quite the opposite is evident if you bother to read last years accounts!
DeleteThat would be interesting as the accounts are consolidated all into go south coast so you can't identify individual companies.
DeleteIndeed. Only GA management will know the real position. I suspect the big profit earners in GSC are SV and Unilink; without those two I suspect the GSC accounts would not make happy reading.
DeleteSo, if that is the case, how come you think that Bluestars are not up to the average of the group? You do keep shooting yourself in the foot!
DeleteIt is well known GSC have consolidated the accounts to lump them all together as one business:
DeleteThis hides the loss making Bluestar and W&D businesses and allows the combined operation to show a profit.
Bluestars. Is this yet another GSC rebranding exercise?
DeleteIf Bluestar and W&D were indeed lossmaking, you can bet your bottom dollar that they would not exist within Go Ahead group. Please stop spouting such anti nonsense, unless you can back up your wild (and IMO inaccurate) statements. Yes, there is no doubt that Unilink and Vectis are the most profitable parts of GSC, but they do not susidise the other parts of the grouping, which have to turn a reasonable profit to exist.
DeleteBlustar have got their "goldmine"in BS18,which has the upper hand over First,as Bluestar have got their "key",which must keep passengers loyal,due to the easyness of buying passes!!
DeleteBluestar 18 is no doubt one of their busiest routes,however it suffers because most of the route follows through heavy traffic on most days - Lots of the time passengers get free travel because of ticket machine failures - Lost mileage must be quite high, because when buses bunch up drivers run dead to pick up the service - The continual use of small vehicles somedays because of vehicle shortage - Very little or no control of how the service is being run because of the lack of any controler within the city centre most days, and when there is one I don't observe much action by Him. It should also be observed that the person in the Bargate box is there for selling tickets and giving passengers travel information,which He does an excelent job at. He is not a controller, and is left on numerous occassions alone, because no controller available, but when left alone He is expected to do a controllers job on top of selling tickets and giving out travel information. Bluestar management need to sort out this problem to help in their services running better.
DeleteI have to disagree about "lots" of free travel due to ticket machine failures. This is very rare, as is the small vehicle problem that you state. There remains a massive problem with regulating the service from town however. They seem to have big problems retaining controllers, as drivers often state that they can earn more than a controller, and not have a heart attack from the weight of problems. Perhaps this situation will improve when they have a manager based in town full time, which I understand will be happening when they move from the little blue box, to a proper office and shop set up. I am told this will be opposite where the box is now.
DeleteJust like in the "good olde" SolentblueLine days!
DeleteExactly,not much change apart from newer buses,and it's not rare for free travel because of ticket machine problems they regularly encounter. Small vehicles are also quite regular on service 18.
DeleteThe amount of dead mileage they have at B-star running from Eastleigh to either Millbrook or Thornhill (Hightown) must eat into their profits. I know other bus co's have dead mileage but on a service every 10 min-ish that's a lot of buses
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered why they run the 18 route from Eastleigh, instead of Totton? Totton would be so much nearer for the Millbrook start and finishes.
DeleteProbably due to lack of space at Totton. The 18 ran from Totton when LAP closed but when Hythe closed Totton was just too small.
DeleteEastleigh was once possibly the largest depot but with route cutbacks over the years now only has the 2 and E running thro the town routes. At the end of the day the current route allocations possibly achieve the best use of resources. If the 18 (Millbrook starters) was run from Totton what routes could reasonably transfer from Totton to Eastleigh ?
Could run in service from Tesco Bursledon Towers (Windover roundabout) instead of just running to Thornhill Hightown - might pick up a few passengers if they are coming/going as they seem to be (on dead mileage) at several times of the day
ReplyDeleteRe: Anonymous 19 January 2014 20:43
ReplyDeleteEvidence comes from published financial accounts submitted to Companies House.
Numbers, do not lie.
Hiding losses into a single set of accounts, as GSC now does effectively masks the individual performance of the businesses and allows BS and bits of W&D to show a profit, which is generated elsewhere in the business.
Accounts are subjective, but the basic numbers of income and operating costs quickly tell you a profit or loss figure for a business.
Nothing wild or inaccurate there. Just a calculation of simple numbers.