The new timetable is on Traveline and you can see it now here.
As many of you have already noticed, Salisbury Reds have released the new timetable for the X7, which will start from 4th January 2015. Some journeys are cut and some are diverted via Romsey to replace the axed route 34. The cuts to this main route between Southampton and Salisbury really are quite significant, so if you use it, it's worth comparing the current and new timetables and making sure you're prepared for the changes.
The 34 has not really been axed as X7R has replaced the original 34 Southampton to Salibury route vis Romsey
ReplyDeleteXelabus poor information again surprise surprise joke outfit
ReplyDeleteSearch "xelabus" in twitter and read customer comments. Looks like they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery!
DeleteThe revised X5 Xelabus timetable as from 24th November 2015 is now being shown on their website-PAC
DeleteCorrection should have read 2014 not 2015
DeleteNo apparently as the timetables are provided by traveline on their site they only update on the day? So not Xela's fault on this occasion
DeleteWhile Anon @ 1651 is correct and the timetables on Xela's website reflect the 'current' timetable on Traveline, I have been speaking to their web designer today as I know him well (he also did Velvet's website and is about to launch a stunning new iPhone app for TM Travel). He has taken on board the comments expressed here and elsewhere and will be making changes to the website so that in future it will be possible to look at preview timetables for forthcoming changes as soon as they are available.
DeleteThanks for the post Phil. Good to know you're still keeping an eye on happenings in Southampton. The new Xela site is a huge improvement on the last one, so I'm sure it's just a minor oversight that new timetables can't be seen on there until the day they take effect.
DeleteCredit where it is due.... Phil is still taking the time to keep abreast of things down here.
DeleteI agree Xela are joint worst along with wheelers - it is such a shame their poor overall quality of service is bringing down passenger numbers certainly on the X4 which even. Before xela took over struggled for passenger numbers to maintain a half hourly timetable - now I see no more then 5 oaps per trip rarely a fare paying passenger ( outside of peak )
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have the knife in for Xelabus. From what I have seen numbers look healthy?
DeleteI bet the cowprate fat cat so called planners at first and bluestar don't care about the poeple who use there buses they proberley all drive Aston martins and jaguars I wonder if they have even ever use pubic transport just my opinon why can't they work together on routes say Millbrook to Southampton I think it will make buses more popuar
ReplyDeleteI suggest that you learn to spell before you come on here attacking people you don't know.
DeletePlease try to keep it civil. Anon at 0027 has a valid point about public transport decision-makers not necessarily using public transport themselves. They'd probably have a lot more compassion if they did. Anon's suggestion for Millbrook sounds similar to the co-operation agreement that Stagecoach and Arriva have with Merseytravel on some routes in Merseyside, where frequencies are co-ordinated and both companies accept each other's tickets.
DeleteThe First 2 and Bluestar 18 should have a co-operation style service where every other journey is operated by the other operator and each others tickets are accepted-There would still be a 7/8 minute service Millbrook to Thornhill but cut out the wastage of all these buses running Millbrook to City section-This would result in 8 buses an hour which is more than enough between Millbrook and Thornhill instead of the present 16 which is far over bused-PAC
DeleteThis would be illegal here in Southampton as the city is not covered by a pte - competition is here to stay. Buses are no different from any other business. You wouldnt see asda and tescos working together - so why should buses? People need to remember that they are no longer a public service. They are here to make money and that is the way it should be! All this rubbish about how buses do better when run by the government is rubbish! All they did before dereg was push up council tax
DeleteIf no ones competing against each other then their would be no motivation to buy new buses or invest in WiFi or USB charging points. Without these tools you wouldn't be able to find new customers. Competition is why we have such modern, well equipped buses here in Southampton
DeleteThere are no new customers, as apart from London the passenger figures fall each year throughout the country and will continue to do so. The commentator at 2345 hours states they are there to make money,but in Southampton I can't see much money being made, not an investment I would like to have shares in,and I have not noticed many commentators on this site state they would wish the government to again run bus services-Competition is not why we have such modern buses, it's because the government has indicated by such a date all buses must be compliant one way or another with vehicles being disabeled or otherwise friendly. Competition in Towns and Cities up and down the land has in most cases done nothing to encourage extra patronage, as we can witness by large areas of bus operation being lost off the map,where people now find their own transport much more preferable and most certainly reliable. You state that Tesco and Asda don't work together but I'm afraid they do indirectly, as if one drops the price of a product the otherone quiclky follows suit. The same happens in the other direction if one increases the price the other follows suite.-As an example last week Tesco had Stagg Chilli which is normaly £1.79 per tin on offer at £1 so Sainsbury had the same offer.Once Asda put after a few days it back to £1.79 per tin so did Sainsbury's.This competition lark is a nonsense and whilst some may think it's wonderful,I find it an insult to the British public.I'm like most normal people in the Country who bus wise just want a reasonable bus service to get from A to B for work or any other reason, and not be messed around by this ridculous situation that it must be competetive
DeleteDon't forget a 12 goes through Millbrook
DeleteSotonBus says "Anon at 0027 has a valid point about public transport decision-makers not necessarily using public transport themselves. They'd probably have a lot more compassion if they did".
DeleteThese are businesses that have to make a profit, and if compassion creeps in, that's normally where it starts going wrong and there not in business much longer.
People really need to move away from looking at the bus industry as a public service, the bus companies chase the money.
No, people need to start fighting for their public services and stop business interests negatively affecting people's lives
DeletePeople, the majority will never move away from the fact that they view railways and bus services as a public transport and there to transport them to and from work or other purposes-They will never view both transports as being a business which has to make a profit-Anyone who thinks the majority of people can be re-educated into the fact it has to be a profit making concern are seriously deluded-PAC
DeleteIndeed, buses are there primarily to move people around and to make places viable areas in which to live, work, shop or play. Take away the buses and you take away part of the viability of a local economy. Under the current system bus companies have to make a profit, but those that think of long term sustainability and their place in the wider economy will last longer than those who put short term profit before all else.
DeleteThe viewpoint that every single thing in society has to make a profit is one that ultimately leads to local economies being slowly strangled.
Afraid it's all down to the 1985 Transport Act.
DeleteThere's not many bus companies that will play the long game, and that's why we see so much chopping and changing.
I have always thought the biggest challenge to making bus services more viable. is this part of the worlds love affair with their motor cars.
Do we need to go down the route of forcing motorists out of their cars with congestion charging, making city centre car parking charges very expensive?
Thoughts?
Car travel already isn't cheap, so I think there is no shortage of motorists who would consider switching to the bus. What's stopping them? Buses not serving where they need to go, high fares particularly for single journeys, long journey times in some cases and the lack of integration between what should be mutually complementary routes of different operators, plus with other modes. Potential passengers see trains and coaches as part of the 'public transport' product rather than a dreaded competitor to the bus to be shunned at all costs.
DeleteI've recently bought a car because of poor public transport where I live, albeit reluctantly. London's public transport network is protected for a reason: it is essential for a successful local economy. Run down the transport network, strangle the economy.
I too now use a car quite frequently, as I'm tired of the continual time changes or route changes to local services,which on some days makes it difficult for me to get where I want too-I'm quite disappointed about this, as I found in lots of instances the bus much more convenient in what I wanted to do i.e I now have to find a parking space or if I find one the cost of it-PAC
DeleteI also note an improved City-Link service between the hours of 1600 and 1900 on Monday to Friday is shortly to be introduced-During the day at present whilst the 30 minute service copes most of the time, it is hampered some days, when the usual vehicle used on it is not available because of servicing, by only having a single door bus allocated to it,which causes lost time in loading and unloading passengers-PAC
ReplyDeleteI would like this frequency to be every 15 minutes for more of the day like for 6 hours
DeleteWell as Red Funnel foot the bill they call the tune
DeleteI note that Velvet have released details of service changes from 12th January 2015 in the fact the A and S1 will become combined into a through service between Hedge End and Lordshill with the A being renumbered as S1-Yet another knock for passengers in the Hedge End area, who will not only loose the First 26 from January 5th 2015 plus a reduction of service on Brijan 15 and a Saturday reduction on Brijan 8 by courtesy of HCC, but will now only have a service of one per hour on the renumbered A-I just love to see bus travel promoted as an alternative to the car-I'm sure at some stage there will be yet another change to First 8 in 2015 because of some funding cut from someone-Get ready to buy a car because it will be your only hope of eventualy getting anywhere out of Hedge End by any decent means-PAC
ReplyDeleteNice offer by Velvet on Saturday 6th December 2014 of a 50p flat fare adult or child anywhere per journey on their routes-PAC
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is thank goodness I'm not a Hedge End resident, given the abhorrent state that bus travel is going to be in come the new year. The incompetent management across First only serve the areas where the fewest people reside, and at a reduced frequency; Bluestar's offering has dwindled into the joke that it is now, only being once an hour and going the ridiculous route into the City Centre that it currently does simply in an effort to annoy their biggest competitor, and now the only company to actually provide a half-decent service to the area are halving the frequency. I'm a firm believer that the best way for business to grow is through stability, consistency and actually offering customers a proper incentive to use them. For different reasons, none of the main operators are doing this.
ReplyDeleteI also find it odd that the 50p flat fare Velvet are introducing on 6th December comes a month or so before a reduction in service to their main route. Such gimmicks are normally used to attract customers into using services, which this might well do, but what's the point when the service is going to deteriorate a few weeks later? This would have been much better implemented were the frequency staying the same, or the service was being improved in some way, which it isn't. It's like a supermarket saying "try this bread, we've reduced the price to 50p", with the full intention of no longer stocking it a few weeks later. It wouldn't happen. Absolute lunacy, and I don't think I've ever seen the industry in such a sorry state as it is today.
Absolutely,the industry is in a sorry state and with no hope of recovery, because it would seem in many areas the management is not of a calliber to know what they are doing and are destroying their own business bit by bit
DeleteJust viewed the new timetable for Velvet S1-Itwould seem that Bargate Street,Asda and Civic centre are no longer served towards Hedge End-Turnpike Way looses its service-Archers Road looses its service-Between City and Hedge End Superstores passengers once again will have a longer journey via Hedge End-City to Lordshill North has been complicated at the Lordshill end, in that the service will now do two circuits of Lordshill North-If there is much more mucking around with bus services in the Hedge End area and to a lesser degree Upper Shirley area, there won't be anyone left to use them-PAC
ReplyDeleteI seem today to be having difficulty in finding on the Xelabus site of finding all their services. Anyone else finding the same problem
ReplyDeleteXelabus.
DeleteYes. I have had the same trouble as you finding a lot of their services today.
Their is also another problem with their web site. According to their twitter site the new timetables for the X6/X7 etc will be available on their web site from Friday the 28th November.
It is now Sunday the 30th November and I am unable to find them there !!!! What a surprise !!!
It was working ok for me. Perhaps there was a brief glitch connecting with Traveline?
DeleteI accept fully there has been a glitch in the system which has now been overcome-However still no details for the January 2015 changes which were supposed to be displayed as another commenentator has stated from 28th November 2014
DeleteXelabus.
DeleteIt is now Wednesday the 3rd December 2014 and still no sign on the Xelabus web site of the new timetables for the X6/X7 etc !
Spoke to them and they say its because of Traveline who update their timetables are very late with backlog to upload. Traveline had said wit would be 28th November and its likely to be this week. They also said a new timetable book will be available from buses after 17th December.
DeleteApparently it was down for maintenance and is back "live" again now.
ReplyDeleteDriver just told me that three Enviro 200's are due before Christmas to run on the ne X6/X7 timetable from January.
Dated as from 18th January 2015 under forthcoming timetables on their website,First are now showing timetables in the Southampton area as from that date-Main change seems to be a reduced frequency on service 1 Mondays to Saturdays and reduced frequency on service 6 and 8 on Sundays/Bank Holidays-In the Warsash/Gosport area there seems to be a new service numbered 55 for Schools-PAC
ReplyDeleteFrom lordshill to city centre service 1 will finish an hour earlier and last departure from City Centre at 1900
DeleteThey have made the 1 less frequent,while making the 2 run every 6 mins,instead of every 7/8 mins at present!
DeleteIndeed the 2 will go back to a 6min frequency - I find it funny no one on this blog actually noticed until now ( its been a 7/8min frequency since August! )
DeleteCurrently the 2 runs 'up to every 6 minutes' (I have the timetable in front of me) so no change in frequency there!
DeleteAlthough the 1 is reducing in frequency to every 15 minutes, the majority of services will now be extended to Adanac Park resulting in an increased frequency there.
Yes-The 2 is a 6 minutes frequency at present, and not been 7/8 minute frequency, unless anyone knows different, and I have never seen any amendment reducing the frequency from 6 minutes to 7/8 minutes-The silly bit about the 1 is under the new timetable the weakest bit between Lordshill and Adanac Park gets an improved service,whilst the main well used bit gets a reduction in frequency-However the increase in frequency between Lordshill and Adanac Park is due to Southampton City Council subsidising this section otherwise it would have no service.-The Council have also decided to subsidise the odd late journey on the 7 and 11,why I can't imagine as in the late evening theres hardly anyone on any late late journey on any service in Southampton except perhaps for Bluestar 18-People kick up about the fact there is no late service on routes,but when their is they don't use them,and wonder why they get taken off-Most nights if you go into the centre of Southampton,apart from Fridays and Saturdays,you can observe just how dead it is-It's only the council who seem to believe it's a thriving metropolous and in most spots if it wasn't for students it would be completely dead
DeleteI am afraid to disappoint you but first reduced the frequency back in august. It must have been due to a driver shortage or something - however the buses coming of the 1 are going straight back into the 2 from january.
DeleteI am afraid you are wrong - check the current timetable on first website if you don't believe me - they didn't have to tell their passengers because the registration they have with vosa states it running "at regular intervals" which by definition is at least a bus every 10min
DeleteWhat a way to run an operation-it's no wonder why they loose passengers-They issue a printed timetable showing one thing,a website which a few months later shows to the contarary,and by just showing at regular intervals they can run the service with a bus at least every 10 minutes. Anyhow the present customers won't notice much difference except they will have more space to sit and view a few more empty 2's blocking Shirley Road and High Street during the day. I notice how quick they are to advertise so called improvements, but anything made worse just becomes small print.
DeleteWondering why this has`nt been a headline on Southampton bus update?Has someone gone to sleep over the last few days?
DeleteI have often wondered how First can afford to run so many services along Shirley road,commercially on Sun-Thurs eves,when they are so poorly used,whilst at the same time saying that they can`t run other services commercially,without subsidy,which atract far more passengers!I`m sure if Bluestar pulled out of Shirley tommorow,you`d see a huge reduction in First services,especially on route 2!
DeleteHow can you state people are wrong-Most people will be going by the printed timetable as from June 2014-As First have never published a reduction in frequency to the 2 except as we might know on their website,and even then not under forthcoming timetable changes,most passengers who go by the book will still think it's running up to every 6 minutes-Even with the change in January 2015 on their website it just states minor daytime changes to service 2,when in fact those of us in the know,know it means reverting back to an up to 6 minute frequency from a 7/8 minute frequency-It's no surprise the general public get fed up with travelling by bus when it seems quite legally running at regular intervals by definition can be a bus up to every 10 minutes when stated in the timetable it's every 6/7 or 8 minutes-PAC
DeleteIn fairness to first all timetable info at bus stops for the 2 clearly say at regular intervals also their website had the reduced timetable since it started - the only thing I can see people getting confused on is the timetable booklet which if things stay the same will be dicontinued from next year
DeleteFull details now shown on First website of service changes in Southampton from 18th January 2015 under news and initiatives-PAC
ReplyDeleteWould seem that Velvet looks in a bit of a mess again looking at their facebook page with missing morning journeys on the A.No reply either from them to the complaints it would appear.
ReplyDeleteAt least first reply to near enough all comments
DeleteLooks like first are increasing the 2 back to every 6min - crazy considering the crap numbers they get compared to the 18. Looks like velvet will cease trading over the weekend maybe next week as they have already sold half their fleet ( which is why a brijan dart and a white dawson rentals solo are currently on loan.
ReplyDeleteI don't know,but looking at the comments on the Velvet facebook page today, it's not looking good-PAC
DeleteWhen I look at the Xelabus twitter site,it would seem by postings that most are by Barton Peveril College students,who in their comments are some of the rudest individuals I have ever read comments by-They I'm sure have issues with the operation of their college buses on some days,but lack skill in putting these issues over to Xelabus in a reasonable manner-PAC
ReplyDeleteXelabus drivers have also been exceedingly rude to students (to the point of management involvement). Goes both ways
DeleteGardbus are withdrawing the 139 from 31 January.
ReplyDeleteAnother success story, after only just incuding Saturdays into the operation. Roll on the day the majority have their own private car and can forget the bus forever on.
DeleteWasn't that the original intention?
DeleteWheelers giving up W56 from mid February.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why that would be?
Delete