Bluestar have already released new timetables for the 5 and 6. The 5 is extended to Boyatt Wood, replacing the E1 and E2, a shrivelled up version of which is moving to another, yet to be revealed, operator. Boyatt Wood's half-hour frequency will now last for most of the day, which is a frequency increase.
More have released the new timetables for the X1, X2 and 119. There will no longer be any buses between Lymington and Bournemouth on Sundays.
Xelabus have given details of the changes to their services, but the timetables are not out yet. The C3, C4 and X7 are merged into a new X6/X7 service. The X4 will no longer serve Fleming Park in the evenings. The X1, X2 anxd X3 get new timetables too. The X5 has some early changes on 24th November.
In other news, you've no doubt spotted that the multi-operator Solent Travelcard has become Solent Go, but the regional ticket price has remained the same. From Sunday, a Southampton City Solent Go will be available for £5. Valid within the city boundary plus to West End, it will allow you to travel on the buses of any operator without having to pay for the full regional Solent Go ticket.
A question was asked on Tuesday 11th November 2014 on the Xelabus twitter site,as to wether they would be operating the E1 and E2 in the future,to which the reply was,No it would be operated by Wheeler's Travel as from 4th January 2015. There is rumour, and might I add only rumour they will also be operating T3/T4 and H1/H2.
ReplyDeleteA check on the VOSA website reveals that this is indeed the case. Wheelers have registered new HCC supported services over a large part of Hampshire.
DeleteThat was me @reece_d1993
DeleteJust checked visa earlier this evening to find new wheelers registrations for E / H / T3 plus four routes in andover - they also appear to be running the andover/stock bridge/winchester route
ReplyDeleteWhat are the route numbers for the andover routes
DeleteI heard a rumour that blue star 9 will be cut to hourly next year and the 8 will be cut back to hythe
ReplyDeleteWell,you know how silly it is to listen to rumours! Whoever suggested that one, clearly knows nothing about the area concerned.
DeleteI heard a rumour that Go Ahead were selling their GSC operation to First. It must be true, as I was told by another bus enthusiast! :D
DeleteThose first planners need to get their act together as they just seam to lurch from one disaster to another - x2 / 5 / waterside / 13 are all recent examples of this teams incompetence - but to be fair the blue star ones arn't entirely perfect either - they are giving the hedge end to Southampton market to velvet and wheelers on a silver plater!!!
ReplyDeleteSpot on! They do appear to be leaving Hedge End for the independents to take over. The 3 has so much potential but they don't really have a target market for it. First have the flow through Woolston & The Estates while Velvet market their A as a fast link but forget about the one way flow into Southampton - It was perfect when they also ran to Eastleigh ( Just add an extra bus into the F'ing timetable! )
DeletePardon my french!
DeleteThe point I was making was that the 3 is kinda in between. Shame as the rest of the Bluestar network works very well indeed. One does worry what Wheelers will add to the already confusing list of services as they do have their HQ in Hedge End.
The trouble with the 3 is that it actually used to be a very popular route, and patronage was high. It ran every 20 minutes and throughout the day you would often see them full. This is in part because there was no other competition at the time granted, but Bluestar are also to blame for the downfall of the route. Reducing the frequency gradually to increase resources on routes where competition existed opened up the door for competition in Hedge End. First in my opinion have never really been the major operator in the area - only serving a limited part of the area and going round the houses to get to the City Centre. Velvet on the other hand have seen moderate success in the A, because of its directness and regularity, which neither First nor Bluestar have now.
DeleteAs for the issue about the planners at First, they clearly live on another planet. Network shake-ups and constant U-turns do nothing to inspire public confidence. Take the short-lived Watersider for example. That lasted about 5 months before First threw in the towel and deregistered it, because it wasn't used enough. That might be true, but in the first 5 months of Bluestar's 16, hardly anyone used that either. The difference is Bluestar have ploughed on regardless and have slowly built a passenger base. Yes it might not be their strongest route but growth doesn't happen overnight. That's what First don't seem to understand.
.....but Bluestar are losing money hand over fist on the 16 and as a shareholder it is not earning me a dividend. Shareholder value seems to have been forgotten at Go Ahead. Shame on them !
DeleteFirst planners seem to understand very little, and whilst the ones that are employed at present continue to be employed,it will continue to lurch from one disaster to another
DeleteAgree to all comments. What concerns me is the damage smaller less reliable companies like Xela, Wheelers could do to the publics overall perception of public transport
DeleteBluestar are carrying out market research/customer consultation on 16 route. Code for we aint making any money, stand by for reductions !
DeleteI think Xela are building up quite a nice network and one of their drivers has said there are 5 Enviro 200s on order for January replacing some Darts. Also 5 Double Deck replacements for next summer too so not that bad surely? Wheelers, however are too widely spread with their new routes and could fall flat?
DeleteWell looking at Xelabus twitter site they certainly do require some more reliable vehicles judgeing by the amount of breakdowns-I don't know what to make of Wheeler's, and as you state they seem to be in every corner of Hampshire if certain HCC contracts go to them in January 2015,apart from the ones they at present have in Wiltshire-I hope they won't fall flat,but who knows with a very vulnerable industry at present-Perhaps it's just me but they also don't seem to be very good at handing out information to the public
DeleteIt's not just you - Traveline lists several routes operated by Wheelers, but Wheelers' own website only mentions 2 - their Salisbury ones are completely ignored.
DeleteWhen asked this week if Stagecoach were considering running any commercial services and when a decision would be made, their answer was:
ReplyDelete"With regards to the future of those current subsidised services that have had their funding withdrawn, Stagecoach will make a decision on which of these services we can operate commercially (if any) and any such decision will be publicised accordingly."
(I wouldn't normally quote private communications but as a press release was issued rather than saying anything I don't see the harm here.)
Put together with this from the local rag:
" But Andrew Dyer, managing director of Stagecoach south, told the Chronicle it was “very unlikely” its late buses would continue without council cash.
“They’re not busy services,” he said. “They do rely on that financial support.” "
Add in the arguments they have been having with the councils this year and I suspect that an ethically dubious game of 'call my bluff' is at foot hear. The question that remains is how much brinkmanship will involved before they blink.
Stagecoach are taking on a few mid-eve journeys in Havant from Jan that are currently HCC, but one wonders for how long
ReplyDeleteNew revised timetables for First in the Fareham area as from 4th January 2015 now being shown under forthcoming timetables on their website-They are service 20-21/21A-28/28A and new 27-PAC
ReplyDeleteAll i seem to read about on the Xelabus twitter site apart from delays due to traffic which is beyond their control,is of broken down college buses-I notice too that Velvet seem to have lost after only a short period of operation the 903 College bus which at short notice has gone to Exelabus this week-Between Velvet and Exelabus these College students must by now be totally fed up with how it operates for the fares they pay either daily or by term or anual pass
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletethe 21 service has actually improved and now runs hourly (apart from a gap in the day - presumably driver break), although it no longer serves Lee but other services are available from there.
28/28A is a reduced service but all that HCC is willing to pay for!
The X7 is now on the Salisbury Red's (and linked from the BlueStar) website - much like the X1/X2 at Lymington it's no longer possible to have a decent day out from Southampton as the first northbound is at 0910 and the last southbound is at 1540. Three journeys each way now miss the A36 villages and serve Romsey instead as replacement for the 34. This probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise as most ridership is with concessionary passes and reimbursement for those is notoriously poor.
ReplyDeleteWhat's even funnier is the reconnection of Totton to Romsey through a nomansland known as Ridge-No ridership here I would imagine, so not even any reimbursement from concessionary pases or for that matter anyone.
DeleteJust seen the new Xela timetables - X6/X7 don't look to bad however the x3 is cut back to 2 hourly with the same bus being used for the x1 and x2 ( which in my experience carry no passengers ) I cant understand why they withdrew from valley park as passenger numbers did seem to be climbing every week they just didnt give the service enough time - this seems to be the case all to often with the smallers companies who expect an instant profit whereas in reality it takes a couple of years for a new service to really get going
DeleteI hear wheelers are operating in Wiltshire but what are the routes as i can't see them on the website
ReplyDeleteNo-nor can anyone else-Pretty poor for information is Wheeler's.
DeleteIf you search Traveline for Wheelers you will find their Wiltshire routes, but for some bizarre reason they don't to want to tell anyone about them themselves.
DeleteA few things strike me as odd when travelling around the network in southampton. 1)why do blue star terminate their 18 at high town? Fairfax court is a much better terminus where buses could take layover whereas now they stop for only a few minutes on the high town loop which I find strange as serving the full lengh of hinkler drive would yield a lot more passengers then just the western bit
ReplyDelete2) what is first thinking when it comes to the 2? I have never seen more then 6 passengers onboard at any one time. The 1 and 13 also seem to produce disapointing passenger numbers. I can't think of any blue star services which produce such crap numbers
3) why is the 5 doing so badly between sholing and the city centre - its a lot faster then the alternative service 9.
4) I must say the earlier posts regarding blue star 3 do intrigue me. 100% they are missing out on what ( if done by a proper operator ) could turn out to be a highly rewarding corridor. I agree the past service A from Eastleigh to Southampton was a fantastic idea as you have so many different passenger flows. They should of however started it with an hourly timetable cycling in 3 hours and then allowed to grow
On Thornhill the stronger passenger section has always been the section the 18 at present operates-The Fairfax Court end was always weaker for passengers-Most First bus services perform badly because of constant change by their planners-Most are now far too frequent a carry per trip low numbers apart from the three-The 5 on the City to Sholing section performs badly due to again a constant change of frequency over the years even when it ran with another number in the past-Most of the 5 on this section is now covered by the X4/X5 and between the two services at a 15 minute frequency no one uses the 5 except those who want Montague Avenue/Butts Road-As for the Bluestar 3 that was almost killed off when the frequency was reduced and rerouted via Woolston, and I'm surprised it still survives-Anyone living in the Hedge End area will now be sick and tired of all these different operators,with the exception of Brijan and recently Bluestar, keep changing routes and times, and many will by now have their own private transport and not have to worry about the bus in future
DeleteThe 2 does get a bus full of passengers I have seen it my self
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