Next Monday, 12th January, sees Velvet A disappear to be replaced with an extension to the S1, with a frequency cut to match. See the new S1 timetable here. There's a route change too. All journeys will run via Central Station instead of the Polygon. In Hedge End, the A's circular route is replaced by a two-way route that runs via the town centre twice each way and terminates at the superstores. Here's how it will run:
The S2 gets a new timetable too and is rerouted in the Polygon, partially replacing the S1. Here's how the S2 will now run there:
As well as that, the B4 between Bitterne and Windhover Tesco via Harefield, Thornhill and Sholing will now run every weekday, an increase from its current three days a week. Timetable here.
No mention of this as yet on Velvet's website. It would never have happened under Phil Stockley.
No,you are right it would have never happened under Phil Stockley-Also today you don;t know what colour or type of vehicle is going to turn up as the present fleet seems to not last more than a week or two before it's replaced with something else-Never seen anything like it in all my days of bus travel-PAC
ReplyDeleteDitto, quite shocking really, it almost feels deliberate or like incompetence, - though I shall refrain from making such accusations without evidence to support them.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Western Greyhound is fairing at the moment? It's fate might tell us a thing or two about the future of Velvet or perhaps even vice a versa.
Weston Greyhound will have nothing to do with Velvet from next Monday it will become part of Xela bus!
ReplyDeleteHow about Putting up a route map for the s1 in the city centre
ReplyDeleteYou might get one once Xela bus take over.
ReplyDeleteIt will be very interesting to see if the purple bus does change to a green bus on Monday and who will be driving them, and I don't mean Western Greyhound, we just need an official statement from Velvet and Xela
ReplyDeleteS1, S2 and 15 (not B4) are registered by short notice to Western Greyhound from 12 Jan as PH0006741/119,120,121.
ReplyDeleteAs noted elsewhere the use of step entrance buses is continuing on the 14 days per vehicle per year rule (allows heritage vehicle use as well as transitional spare cover, etc). Western Greyhound has a fleet of them to rotate through for a while.
Velvet Travel (not Velvet bus) is more up to date on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/pages/Velvet-Travel/376796509146876?fref=ts
ReplyDeleteThe website looks dead as is the old Velvet bus Facebook page.
For some reason Velvet replaced their old Facebook page with a new one recently, by their Twitter account seems to have been deleted with no replacement at all.
DeletePhil Stockley always had good communication with his customers via Twitter and Facebook which we have missed for the last year, you could also talk to him at anytime of the day or night, I have seen him out about at 22:00hrs and he was answering calls and responded to tweets, the moist important thing of all ,when the A first started its run from Hedge End to Soton it won most of the Bluestar 3 passengers over to the A,because it was on time and reliable and such a pleasure to catch. This will be a big challenge for Xela if they choose to keep it.so hats off to Phil for showing us what can be done.
ReplyDeletesaw this on Facebook looks like they going for good
ReplyDeletePassenger Notice - As of Monday, 12th January 2015, our S1, S2 and B4 services will be operated by Xelabus. For further information, please see the link to their website
http://xelabus.info
Velvet would like to thank all our passengers who have travelled with us over the past few years and especially through difficult times. We are sure that Xelabus will provide a great service and we are sure you will still see some of our drivers out and about!
Thank you again from all of us here at Velvet.
This all seems to be good news for passengers, but it does (re)raise the question of why did Mr Smith bought Velvet in the first place? If all he has done is run into the ground in order to close it for no apparent reason? I assume Xeala are just taking over the routes and no financial transaction has been involved?
ReplyDeleteSurely the speculation that this was a "get out jail free card" was just that - unfounded speculation?
Definetely good news for the passengers and the drivers, as now everyone should know in which direction things are travelling-As for Mr Smith the sooner His memory has gone the better for all-PAC
DeleteMy apologies to the drivers (who have likely had quite enough of it by now) for neglecting to mention them in my comment above.
DeleteThe timetables for S1-S2-B4 as from 12th January 2015, are now displayed on the Xelabus website-PAC
ReplyDeleteThis means Xela have a foot in the door in Southampton of course....
ReplyDeleteAnd Wheelers are crawling around the back streets
Deleteof Winchester with their most modern buses.
It's a breath of fresh air to have Wheelers in Winchester.
DeleteBe interesting to know why?
DeleteAlways good to dilute the monopoly!
DeleteNice to know all will be well in Winchester now there is not a monopoly
DeleteYou must work for Stagecoach I guess.
DeleteHampshire is dominated by the 3 main bus companies, and they don't like treading on each others toes (most of the time!), and that is an unhealthy market place.
I don't work for any bus company-I would rather have the bigger group company operating the services, as in my observation over the last number of years it's all the small ones that keep going under and that's not healthy for the public, as it's usual the bigger ones have to pick up the pieces-Most Counties up and down the land are dominated by large group companies and I'm sure that's the way it will stay.
DeleteI'm sure Stagecoach are quaking in their boots about Wheeler's presence...
DeleteThere's far more damage being done at the moment by the transport authority (i.e. Hampshire CC) then any perceived issues about a monopoly.
Re the Wheelers E1 and E2 service recently taken over from Bluestar - on most of the route(s) there are no bus stop flags nor timetables, although you can access info from their website - come on Wheelers - not everyone has access to your website and it looks like the buses don't serve those communities anymore - it seems to be a case of take the money whilst you can and don't bother to inform the public nor grow the business! I would have preferred BS to keep the routes as I am now out of pocket and unable to use my Key card on these routes!!!
ReplyDeleteAs you may have noted from another commentator Wheeler's are a breath of fresh air-All I have seen so far is that if you challenge Wheeler's about publicity etc they state it's up to the council to do something about it-It's not a case of fresh air but more a case of bad breath.
DeleteSo you don't work for Stagecoach. In that case you must just be a very negative person. At least Wheelers have taken the decision to enter the bus service market, as opposed to experts like you, who just criticises.
DeleteThey have only entered the present market in winning subsidised services from the council-If they had not won contracts for running the services they would not be there-I get the implication from your comment that I must be a negative person if i don't work for Stagecoach,so I take it that if I did work for Stagecoach I would be not be negative-I'm just a member of the public of who just wants a reasonable bus service to use and nothing to do with any bus company-You are it seems a person who would like multi operators on each route-I am a person who prefers just one or two main operators in the area which makes travel easier and to get information easier instead of having to trawl through bus sites to see who operates what and then find out you can't use this ticket or you can't use that ticket-Nothing in all this nonsense to give anyone who wishes to try a bus instead of the car for once any confidence in doing so.
DeleteAnd you obviously hanker for pre 1985 I guess!
DeleteI hanker for punctuation ;-)
Well you seem to be the expert,not me,I'm just an ordinary member of the travelling public.
DeleteStability of routes, times & ticketing as well as easily accessible timetables are the key to keeping people travelling on buses. Oh yes & quality vehicles too helps!
DeleteExpansion on tendered services is hardly a recipe for success.
DeleteI wouldn't be buying new buses for a tender which is only as good as it's notice period. I wouldn't want to be lumbered with the cost of expensive new kit after the council pulls the plug midway through the contract.
Wheelers didn't have a single bus 18 months ago and they've rapidly expanded across Hampshire. Stagecoach being the incumbent contractor will know the revenue and know the costs of operating, Wheelers had better hope their sums are right.
The person there driving this expansion contributed in a small way to the demise of Hatts Travel, who also bid wildly for tendered work. Will history repeat itself for a third time?
Then you have the antics of clowns with fantasy money doing lots of activity before taking their toys off to Cornwall. What a state the industry is in!