Southampton's New Year's Day buses 2016

Here's what's running in Greater Southampton on New Year's Day:

New Year's Day 1st January:

Bluestar: Special timetable on routes 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 17 and 18 only.

First: Special timetable on route three only.

Stagecoach: Sunday service on route 66.

Other operators: No service in our region.



Here are those special timetables in full:

Bluestar:

First:

Stagecoach:
Route 66:

New Year's Eve bus services / Dinner For One

Here's how our region's buses are running on New Year's Eve, Thursday 31st December 2015:

New Year's Eve 31st December:

Bluestar: Enhanced Saturday service, except for route 6, which will have a weekday service.

First: Saturday service with early finish, except for routes B1/B2/B3, which will have a weekday service.

More: Normal weekday service on Lymington routes.

Salisbury Reds: Normal weekday service.

Stagecoach: Saturday service, except for route 46, which will have a Thursday service.

Xelabus: Weekday service with early finish.

Unilink: Vacation Saturday service with early finish and no night buses.



Here are the times of your last buses on routes of those operators finishing early tonight:

First:

Xelabus:

Service X4 – 1845 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Service X7 – 2015 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Service X8 – 2000 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Unilink:
U1A 2105 Southampton Central Station
U1C 2105 Airport Parkway Station
U6C 2035 Southampton General Hospital
U6H 2034 NOCS


It's a tradition in many countries, including Germany, to watch this British comedy sketch on New Year's Eve. Today it will be broadcast several times in many countries. In my vain attempt to introduce it to the country that produced it, here is Dinner For One:

Tuesday & Wednesday's bus services

Here's how our region's buses are running on Tuesday and Wednesday:

Bluestar: Enhanced Saturday service, except for route 6, which will have a weekday service.

First: Saturday service, except for routes B1/B2/B3, which will have a weekday service.

More: Normal weekday service on Lymington routes.

Stagecoach: Saturday service, except for route 46, which will have a weekday service. The 36 will run on Tuesday only.

Xelabus, Salisbury Reds: Normal weekday service.

Unilink: Vacation Saturday service with no night buses.

Tues: Wheelers W1/W1A: Route & timetable change.

Weds: Xelabus X14: Final day of operation.

Sunday service on Sunday and Monday

It's a normal Sunday service on Sunday 27th December.

As Boxing Day falls on a Saturday this year, the Bank Holiday rolls over to Monday 28th December, on which there will also be a Sunday service across all bus operators in our region.

A look ahead to Tuesday and here's the new timetable for Wheelers W1, which comes into force then. A few journeys are cut, others are retimed, but the big change is a rerouting in Romsey:

Buses from Southampton will now run directly into the town centre via Whitenap, with passengers for Woodley, Cupernham and Abbotswood having to stay on the bus as it comes back out of Romsey or even change buses in the town centre.

Southampton's Boxing Day buses 2015

Happy Christmas to all our readers!

There are no buses running on Christmas Day in our region.

Here's a comprehensive guide to which buses are running in our region on Boxing Day:

Bluestar: Special timetable on routes 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 17 and 18 only.

First: Special timetable on routes 2, three, 7, 10 and 11 only.

Stagecoach: Sunday service on route 66.

Other operators: No service in our region.


Here are those special timetables in full:

Bluestar:

 

First:

Stagecoach:
Route 66

Christmas Eve buses

Here's how our region's buses will be running on Christmas Eve:

Bluestar, More, Salisbury Reds: Normal full Thursday service.

First: Saturday service with early finish, except for routes B1/B2/B3, which will have a weekday service.

Stagecoach: Thursday service with early finish.

Xelabus: Weekday service with early finish.

Unilink: Vacation Thursday service with early finish.


Here are those early finishing last bus times in full:

First:

Stagecoach:
Route 66 
20:30 Winchester to Romsey; 21:05 Romsey to Winchester 

Xelabus:

Service X4 – 1845 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Service X7 – 2015 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Service X8 – 2000 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Unilink:
U1A 2105 Southampton Central Station
U1C 2105 Airport Parkway Station
U6C 2035 Southampton General Hospital
U6H 2034 NOCS

Christmas & New Year buses / Changes on the way

Christmas is almost upon us, so don't forget that bus services run differently over the festive period. We'll have updates over the next two weeks so that you always know what level of service is being provided by all of our local bus operators. There's an overview of service alterations here.

There are some other changes coming soon too:

Wheelers W1 has a route change in Romsey and a new timetable from Tuesday 29th December.

Xelabus X14 between Bitterne and Bursledon runs for the very last time on Wednesday 30th December.

First have new timetables on several routes from Sunday 3rd January. Click on the route number to see the new timetable:

• 2 details
• three details
• 7 details
• 10 details
• 11 details
• 12 details
• 13 details

Xelabus has new timetables from Monday 4th January on the following routes. See the timetables for them all here:

• X6
• X7
• X9
• X10
• X11 - No longer running to Hedge End. City Centre-Lordshill North only.
• X15

New Stagecoach website / New Xelabus timetables offline only

Stagecoach have finally revamped their website and it's far better than their old one. It now works on mobiles and provides easy access to timetables and details of buses about to depart from stops near your current location.

It also includes details of single and return fares. This is for a journey on the 66 from Romsey to Winchester:

It doesn't seem to cope well with day tickets though. The cheapest day ticket valid on the 66 is the Stagecoach South DayRider Gold at £8, but their website pushes you towards the Discovery ticket at £8.50. It also ignores the daily version of Solent Go at £8, which is also valid on all buses in Greater Southampton, regardless of operator.

Xelabus have released their new timetables starting from 4th January... on paper only. They're neither on the Xelabus website nor on Traveline.

Highfield & Regent's Park to be cut off?

BBC News is reporting that Southampton City Council is looking at cutting some subsidised bus routes in order to satisfy the government's budget cuts.

Particularly under threat are Wheelers W1 and Xelabus X12, which could potentially cut off people in Highfield and Regent's Park.

Age UK criticised the proposals, which is all well and good, but until they start campaigning for bus companies to be correctly reimbursed for accepting pensioners' passes, routes that primarily serve pensioners, like the W1 and X12, will become uneconomical for councils to continue to support.

Christmas & New Year: summary so far

So far we know the Christmas and New Year service changes from four of our local operators:

• Bluestar
• More
• Unilink
• Xelabus

There's nothing too out of the ordinary so far, but there are a few points to note from Bluestar, our area's biggest operator:

• The skeleton service on Boxing Day and New Year's Day will run across routes 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 17 and 18. The New Year's Day service level will be significantly lower than that provided on Boxing Day. In previous years it has had the same service.
• The newest route, the 17, will be running on Boxing Day and New Year's Day, but the 16 will not.
• Bluestar 2 will have services running from Southampton into the evening on Boxing Day.
• On the weekdays between Christmas and New Year, an enhanced Saturday service will run. Most of the enhancements are in the early morning, so for all intents and purposes it's really a Saturday service for most people.
• As always, no early finish for Bluestar on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve.

See Bluestar's leaflet which includes the Boxing Day and New Year's Day special timetables here.

No word yet as to what's happening on First, Salisbury Reds, Stagecoach or Wheelers over the holiday period.

X11 to leave Hedge End / X14 cut / Round up

Xelabus have announced some changes, which will apply from 4th January. There will be minor changes to the X6, X7, X9. X10 and X15.

The X11 however will no longer serve Hedge End, bring to an end Hedge End's era of three bus operators running between there and Southampton, which of course began when Velvet A was first extended. Interesting that what started as a route extension also ends as an extension, just of another route. First 8 no longer serves the centre of Hedge End or Oaklands, so that leaves these areas to Bluestar 3 for people needing to get into the city. The 3 has had a few cuts of its own in recent years, so the end of direct competition will hopefully make it more viable.

The X14 between Bitterne and Bursledon Tesco is being withdrawn.

Xelabus have also announced their Christmas and New Year arrangements. As the other operators announce their plans, we'll compile them all on our forthcoming changes page.

Wheelers W1 has an amendment from 29th December. No further details yet, but it might just be a suspension of the link to Chilworth Science Park over the New Year.

First have registered some changes to the timetables of routes 7, 12 and 13 from 3rd January. More as we get it.

First fares fall as Bluestar 17 begins

First have pulled out the big guns ahead of Bluestar 17's launch this Sunday, by cutting most of their fares within Southampton. This is how they're trailing the move on the front page of their website:

A bold move or a last gasp? When the 17 launches that will leave most of First's potential passengers with a Bluestar alternative, so First had to do something in order keep Sotonians' bums on their seats.

As a comparison, FirstDay Southampton's new price at £3.50 is 20p less than Bluestar/Unilink's Southampton Dayrider at £3.70.

Here's a quick comparison of the route networks each ticket is valid on. Here's First's current route network in our city:

A big gap in the middle there. Here's the Bluestar/Unilink network in the city before this Sunday's launch of Bluestar 17, which will add new links to/from the General Hosiptal:

See full details of Bluestar 17 here.

First E1/E2 timetable fiasco

First have issued a news item on their website about the E1 and E2, which transfer to them from Wheelers from next Monday.

And it has several inaccuracies...

Inaccuracy 1: "The first three E1 morning journeys an will start from Portswood Broadway". A look at the timetable reveals that only the first two journeys will start from Portswood. Whoever wrote the news item didn't notice that one journey (the 0723) is marked schooldays only and the other (0733) runs on school holidays and Saturdays only.

Inaccuracy 2: "The last E1 afternoon journey will also return to Portswood Broadway". While technically true, this doesn't give the full picture. The last two buses continue to Portswood, one of which is an E1 and one of which is an E2.

Inaccuracy 3: The timetables on First's website still incorrectly show most northbound journeys as starting from Boyatt Wood when they actually start from Eastleigh Bus Station.

Here are the accurate timetables, courtesy of Traveline:

First E1/E2 timetable blunder

First have published the timetables for their version of the E1 and E2 between Eastleigh and Winchester, which they take over from Wheelers as of 12th October.

See the weekday timetable here and the Saturday timetable here.

Smiler52 commenting on the previous post points out that most northbound journeys appear to start from Boyatt Wood rather than Eastleigh:

Well spotted! On closer inspection, the line for Eastleigh Bus Station is marked 'arr' for arrivals, so will only include those journeys coming through from Portswood. All other journeys will indeed start from Eastleigh Bus Station at the same times as the current Wheelers service does (4 mins before the time shown for The Arrow), with the exception of the last journey of the day in each direction, which is axed:

• 1805 E2 Eastleigh to Winchester - axed
• 1850 E1 Winchester to Eastleigh - axed

The last bus from Eastleigh to Winchester will be the E1 at 1705 and coming back the last bus will be the E2 at 1800 from Winchester, which will run through to Portswood. All times mentioned are Mon-Sats only.

Traveline has the maps for First's service, but not yet the timetables - clicking on the links for them just shows the current Wheelers service. Traveline's maps however say that First will be terminating on Broadway in Winchester rather then the bus station. First's timetables say Winchester Bus Station. Hopefully this can be clarified before First take over.

First to run Eastleigh-Winchester

The mystery surrounding Wheelers E1/E2 has been solved. Wheelers run the routes for the last time on Saturday 10th October, then from Monday 12th October First takes over the E1 at least. Here's their official registration:

PH0006159/405 - FIRST HAMPSHIRE & DORSET LTD, BUS DEPOT, EMPRESS ROAD, SOUTHAMPTON, SO14 0JW

• Registration Accepted by SN
• Starting Point: Southampton, Portswood Broadway
• Finish Point: Winchester, Broadway
• Via: Eastleigh, Compton, Twyford
• Service Number: E1
• Service Type: Normal Stopping
• Effective Date: 12-OCT-2015
• Other Details: Monday to Saturday hourly.

No mention of the E2, so it looks like all journeys will be numbered E1. The fact that both Twyford and Compton are mentioned suggests the route will remain more or less as it is now, albeit with an extension on at least some journeys south to Portswood.

With less than two weeks to go until the change, First's website has no news yet and neither does Traveline. When I looked on Hampshire County Council's website, they didn't bother mentioning it either, even though it's them who made the decision to give the contract for this subsidised route to First.

For passengers between Eastleigh and Winchester, First will be the third operator on this route in ten months.