Some Bluestar tickets prices on The Key smartcard are changing too. Find details of them and all Bluestar/Unilink tickets here.
This Thursday just gone was the last day of Wheelers W56. From this coming Thursday 26th February, it will be replaced by two routes: Xelabus X56 and Brijan Tours 8B.
The route and timetable for Xelabus X56 can be seen here courtesy of Eastleigh Borough Council, but curiously not on Xelabus's website nor on Traveline. The route differs from the previous W56 route in that between Hedge End and Eastleigh it runs via West End and Mansbridge instead of via Horton Heath and Fair Oak.
Brijan Tours 8B is the new Thursdays-only route that fills in the other gaps left by the W56. It serves Botley, Boorley Green and Horton Heath before running along the same route as Brijan 8 via Fair Oak and Colden Common into Eastleigh. Timetable here. The 8B does appear on Traveline, so we have this route map:
Marwell Zoo has been connected to Eastleigh over the summer by Velvet in previous years. This year the honour goes to First, who will be running it from Good Friday 3rd April as route M1. We'll link to the timetable as soon as it has been released. The fact it's not gone to Bluestar means than anyone travelling by bus from beyond Eastleigh and connecting with the M1 will need a Solent Go ticket.
Xelabus have announced further route and timetable changes from 20th April. We'll cover these in more detail nearer the time, but you can see details here.
I must presume that with the X4 being cut to hourly off peak Monday to Friday that the extra journeys on X56 on Thursdays will fit in between Hedge End and Eastleigh in each direction with the X4-Also nice to note that with the revised route between Superstores and Hamble-Le-Rice will also on a Thursday complement the present Brijan 15 Monday,Wednesday and Friday route, thus now only Tuesdays,Saturdays and Sundays will have no service between Superstores and Hamble-Le-Rice-The new Brijan 8B also fits in nicely on Thursdays for an extra couple of buses over a slightly different route between Botley and Horton Heath then as the present 8 route to Eastleigh-There is no doubt that Eastleigh Borough Council on Market Day do try to bring people into shop in the town-Pity other councils like Fareham as one instance didn't have a similar approach-I'm sure none of the journeys will be particularly busy on certain sections,but the few passengers who would be issolated or would find other ways to get there a bit more difficult I trust are happy with these operations in trying to help-Well done EBC-PAC
ReplyDeleteOn a Sunday, connection with First "A" Hedge End-Eastleigh may be possible with the M1. With the M1, I'm hoping that First could run the depot journeys to/from Eastleigh via Southampton in service so a First day ticket may be a possibility albeit a limited one
ReplyDeleteFor those who have an interest in the X11, X12 and X14 we can inform that all city centre bus stops have been tidied up and further Velvet information and route numbers now removed from all locations.
ReplyDeleteThe next plan is to convert a fair number of stops along the X12 corridor starting with the Polygon area.
Customer Services
Xelabus
Why is the X4 during a small part of the day being reduced to hourly?
DeleteGood Morning... We have not wanted to do this but passenger use is very low between the hours of 0930 and 1530. Casual traffic is made up of senior citizens. We believe an hourly service will be sufficient for demand and also for the students at Barton Peveril travelling mid day.
DeleteCustomer Services
Xelabus
Also the extra journeys on X56 on Thursdays which complement the X4 I'm sure will be more than enough-PAC
DeleteGREAT GOING - a pleasure to see you guys really do care about keeping passengers informed. thx
ReplyDeleteGood Afternoon
ReplyDeleteFor our customers information, we have now completed all bus stops along the X56 corridor with bus number displays and timetables on stops. The Mansbridge Road from Swaythling to Haskins will have new bus stop flags and timetable information shortly.
The X12 corridor and X11 in Lordswood will all be receiving attention too as time permits with standard bus stop signs and more timetable cases.
This is all part of the companies commitment to transport information for our services being easy to read.
Customer Services
Xelabus Limited
Nice to note that the Family Day Ticket will from Good Friday be replaced by a Group Day Ticket-The price will be £15 and I feel good value in the quite large area that First Hampshire covers-Although their new M1 has been shown on Traveline for sometime now,First seem for one reason or another rather late in showing the service on their website-I note that someone has already pointed this out to them,but the answer was they have not yet been given the details to post the operation-A bit slow with only a week to go before the start of the service I think.
ReplyDelete