First have held a few public 'Meet The Manager' sessions recently and another is to follow this coming Saturday 13th September at the Bargate between 0900 and 1600. Full details here.
Xelabus X4 was due to be rerouted from 17th September but it looks like that has been brought forward to today. The change is in Hedge End: Wildern Lane is no longer served with all X4 buses in both directions running via Turnpike Way and Upper Northam Road. No mention of this on Xelabus's website, but the new route and timetable are on Traveline. To confuse things even more, First A on Sundays is sticking to its existing route via Wildern Lane. Here's a helpful map of how Xelabus X4 now runs in Hedge End:
I've edited this map, the original of which is from www.travelinesw.com
Thanks to PAC for leaving a comment to draw my attention to that one and also to the fact that Gardbus 139 will start running on Saturdays from 11th October. It currently runs on Sundays only and provides the only bus link between Southampton and Ringwood, plus an alternative to Salisbury Reds X7 for visitors to Paulton's Park. Here's the new timetable, which applies from Sunday 5th October:
www.travelinesw.com again
Suddenly Turnpike Way in Hedge End seems to be very popular with bus operators-However Wildern Lane seems to have lost favour-Now anyone at the end of Wildern Lane with it's junction with Botley Road, has overnight no more or less any direct service to and from Eastleigh-Nothing on the Xelabus site to have indicated this was going to happen as from today, although the new timetable was published onTraveline together with a revised map-Just what is the matter with Xelabus a so called marketing expert in informing the public-The new twitter site from what I have seen seems to be excelent in informing people,but the timetable information site is as usefull as a lead balloon-Please address this site, and put it right and stop these continual complaints by myself and others because it's becoming rather monotonous posting-PAC
ReplyDeleteThe Xelabus Passenger Charter is worth a look: http://www.xelabus.info/Passenger-Charter.aspx - not the usual promises of doing their best to provide a service and what to do if things go wrong, oh no.
ReplyDeleteOMG that charter is nuts. I love the "Customers are not permitted to buy two or more tickets for a journey that is cheaper than buying one ticket for such journey." I'm surprised National Rail haven't enshrined that one in stone given split ticketing!! Also surely its their responsibility to ensure their fares make sense. Not sure how that works with combining zonal tickets and excesses from the boundary?
ReplyDeleteEven today lots of operators up and down the country have strange fare structures and nothing new to Xelabus-Quite a considerable number have the situation where if you book from A to C as an example the through single will be say £2-If on the same journey you booked from A to B it would be £1 and if allowed rebooked from B to C it would be 80p thus saving you 20p,but as with Xelabus more than likely this would not be permitted.I'm sure this is why as has been found on the Sunday site where operators are scorred for timetable information,fares and available maps,the fare section always scores so low as they don't like giving the information out,because in most instances people would see just how absurd the fare structure was.-PAC
ReplyDeleteYou can still get to Eastleigh from Wildern Lane by Brijan 8. Maybe it's the speed bumps that put operators off using that road? I'd like to see Xela trying to enforce that charter. Then again I'd like to see Xela actually tell people of the changes without assuming all of their passengers (or intending passengers) are on Twitter or can mind read!
ReplyDeleteI do wonder now that Xela have found how bad the traffic is in the area on the X4 route if they have got such a bargain route from (old) Velvet as they thought?
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Turnpike Way is the roundabout at the junction with Charles Watts Way.
ReplyDeleteIts a nightmare trying to get on to that at the best of times from Turnpike Way, let alone with something the size of a bus. A lot of time can be lost there.
Must state have been very impressed with the Xelabus twitter site this week and their quick response to address certain issues affecting college services from next Monday-Some capacity issues have already been addressed after a few days of operation-As with most operators nowadays the main problems are with heavy traffic at the peaks and difficult to address as they can fluctuate daily-All this said they are certainly trying hard,so well done-PAC
ReplyDeleteI've noticed Velvet's Twitter has gone unusually quiet, while the Xelabus Twitter is suddenly extremely active. Coincidence? Maybe.
DeleteI'm sure your thoughts are correct as too why all the activity suddenly-PAC
DeleteA new weekly ticket introduced by Bluestar between Millbrook and City Centre at £8-The competition hots up again-PAC
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen any coverage on this ?
DeleteNo-Only way I knew was a leaflet on board the bus-Wonder what First might do next theirs being 50p more for the week-PAC
DeleteJust tried to find a mention of it on Bluestar's site and failed. :/
DeleteCorrect nothing on their website-The flyer is headed Wha---hey and shows on the front Millbrook -City reduced from £11 to £8-On the reverse side shows day ticket on 18 as being £3 and new £8 Millbrook to City and unlimited travel on 18 as £11 plus unlimited travel on all in City area as £13.50 with the key or paper ticket at £14-PAC
DeleteI note that from next Monday First are reducing their City to Millbrook weekly to £8-It should also be noted that upon enquiry the Bluestar weekly City to Millbrook at £8 is valid Bullar Road to Millbrook-PAC
ReplyDelete