As well as the X24 launching, last weekend also saw the closure of Lymington Bus Station. All routes serving Lymington therefore have new timetables, so check with Bluestar, More or Traveline before travelling.
Bluestar's Forest Bus Baby has also launched as a tourist route between Hythe and Ringwood via Beaulieu and Brockenhurst.
From tomorrow, Sunday 31st May, there's a new timetable on First 6 to Hamble. Not entirely sure what has changed, but check before you travel to be on the safe side.
First X4 and X5 have some minor changes from 19th June. See the new timetables here: X4 X5.
Bluestar 3 is rerouted via Northam from 21st June. It will no longer serve Peartree and Woolston, which means that Peartree will be left with no Sunday buses. New timetable here.
Bluestar 11 and 12 also get a new timetable from the same date, but it looks like only minor changes.
Wheelers H1/H2 in Hythe have a new timetable from 22nd June.
The Bus Station has closed to passengers, but not to buses - the layovers are still taken there and overnight parking. Passengers have been disadvantaged by this 'closure', there are no bus stops in Gosport Street, which is the published start and end point of the Bournemouth routes. Vehicles do emerge from the bus station on the outward trips, go down the High Street, take a back street route to turn around into Gosport Street in the correct direction and then travel straight back up the High Street to load passengers at the top of the town. It is the "top of the town" because Lymington High Street is on a hill - a long trudge if your walking from near the bottom. The Saturday setting down options for passengers because of the market is almost beyond belief.
ReplyDeleteYes-it's a right mess,and all the time they have had beforehand to sort it out-As Lymington attracts many visitors during the Summer it's a poor image for public service travel by bus-The Go South Coast management team should be ashamed of themselves
ReplyDeleteAlso if you go to the Bluestar website and go to timetables it's still showing the old times for service 6. It's all a bit of a mess when you read it too.
DeleteI`m sure the residents along Peartree Ave wont notice their sunday has disapeared.Most of them don`t seem to use the bus anyway and the no.3 is so infrequent on Sundays anyway!
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right,but I'll bet those in Hedge End will miss there connection to Woolston during the week
DeleteTo Anon at the top of the comments. According to Streetview there is a bus stop in Gosport Street opposite Station Road which is the terminus of the service. This should be observed as a both ways stop for buses departing to Bournemouth. I believe there is ultimately a plan to use the station forecourt but it depends on a development plan for Lymington Depot involving some of the land to the side currently used for boat storage.
ReplyDeleteAgree about the bus stop opposite Station STREET, but is there any notice to the public that this stop serves both directions? Might be an idea to display route numbers on the flag as well.
DeleteThere is a stop in Gosport Street at the junction with Bridge Road for incoming 112's which is displaying a temporary notice that it is not in use on Saturdays and advising that the nearest stop is outside the Post Office in the High Street (at the top of the town)
What a shambles in Lymington. If First had presided over such a foul-up, certain people would be on here ranting and raving about how First couldn't run a bath. Yet such folk are conspicuous by their absence; perhaps its a busy day at GSC HQ.
ReplyDeleteThis is classic GSC. Lost of marketing hype, yet p*ss-poor operational capability. Not the first example and won't be the last.
Meanwhile in good ole Shirley Firstbus are still sending empty or near empty no.2 buses up and down Shirley rd,every 6 mins,this pointless service must be costing them a fortune in losses!
ReplyDeleteTough day at GSC HQ was it? Shame the punctuation seems to have gone missing from your post. Bit like the 18s which still seem to go missing or run in 2s and 3s whenever I try to use them.
DeleteWhereas First's 2s seem to run pretty evenly spaced most of the time; it's called regulation. Perhaps you should suggest
Bluestar try it sometime; it does improve the service.
First's 2s may not be packed but they carry many more paying passengers than the BS16 which only carries fresh air and the odd passholder..
It's a pity the First 3 was not so good in operation as you suggest the First 2 is.The First 3 runs most of the day in two or three vehicles together, and some considerable journeys are missed whilst the controllers run vehicles to various points dead to try too keep the service going. Being a cross city service it has just as many problems as the Bluestar 18. As for Bluestar 16, the First 7 carries just as much fresh air at times.Bluestar don't in most cases turn round 18's the drivers, just complete the full trip when they are late, hence gaps in the service quite frequently.The First 2 is easier to sort out in late running as it's not a cross city service.With all that happens in Southampton daily with road works and other matters which effect operation,I see no improvement in the future to any services of high frequency,let alone those services that are not so frequent.In addition to this although not a cross city route the First 11, even with recent changes still suffers problems with buses running together,and most being quite empty at times.
DeleteAre those the same losses GSC are losing on the same Shirley corridor with the 18 and the heavy losses being sustained on service 16 - must of been a long day at GSC HQ today !
ReplyDeleteBluestar were there providing their no.18,when First -who can`t seem to come up with their own ideas-decide to run exactly the same route as Bluestar`s No.18,on the west of the city ,how childish can you get!You mention the no.16 ,but the no.16 serves a different route to First,NOT road by road same!
DeleteIf you were not aware this is called competition. In simple terms it's like sainaburys being next to Marks and Spencer or Teaco being next to Asda. Both of which are very common in the high street of today inclusion retail parks. If you take it one step further it is the same Heinz beans being sold by various retailers in the same high street. If you don't like the rules of competition then I am afraid you need to play a different game. Where bus operators operate there services is up to them. This is not new and has been happening the ought Great Britain (except London) since October 1986. Although in London there is competition in the city sightseeing market. Fancy those different operators providing the same route with open top buses - how childish :-)
DeletePerhaps it's the same childishness that GSC and Yellow Buss do across Bournemouth and Poole as well ! Must be catching this childishness !
DeleteYou'd think if it really is as bad as all that, it'd be in bus operators' best interests to form a truce — say GSC take one lucrative route, and First take another, approximately equally lucrative, one, and they agree not to step on each others' toes, at least beyond an agreed limit (say, for longer-distance journeys on lower frequencies like the Bluestar buses to Romsey on the aforementioned Shirley route). That way they'd probably both make much more of a profit rather than having to compete on both price and frequency. Or would that be classed as collusion and not be legal or something? I'm presumably being quite naïve here in some way or another, since you'd think this would already have been thought of if it could really improve the operators' profits — or perhaps it already happens in some places...
ReplyDelete(Of course, the best solution would be regulation ;))
SCC doesn't have the cash for regulation and also doesn't have an elected mayor !
DeleteOK...so SCC can run all the buses,and GSC and F- you- know who can run the city council.The first part is likely to happen soon if Government policy reaches our city,and the other part ...well who knows!
ReplyDeleteI wonder wether with the Bluestar 3 being removed from Woolston, will see the Xelabus X11 being re-routed via Woolston in the future?
ReplyDeleteBus co's do have unofficial truces - if not you'd get Stagecoach running buses in Fareham-Southampton corridor & First running Portsmouth - Havant/Leigh Park corridor. Just sensible thinking.
ReplyDeletePity there wern't some unofficial truces in Southampton,where there seems to be no sensible thinking
DeleteWas in Lym the other day and heard quite a few moans about not having a stop lower down the High Street than the PO. Moans justified, I think especially for the older or less firm, coming up from the quay.
ReplyDeleteI understand its the local councilors who dont want bus stops in the middle of town.
ReplyDeleteOnly carriages for the gentry and, of course, the load of yachters it harbours.
DeleteThis would be the same councillors who voted against Argos going into the empty Woolworths, and ended up with a 99p store there instead. A living testament to the effects of in-breeding amongst the gentry..............................
DeleteI was in Lymington recently,and wondered why the bus station is closed for passengers,but still open for use by the buses. A lack of public notices also does not help explain things. Presumably the bus station site has been sold,and will shortly be completely closed,otherwise why has this all happened ?
ReplyDelete