The 1715 from Eastleigh to Boyatt Wood is withdrawn. The 1715 from Romsey to Boyatt Wood will now depart 5 minutes later.
This does leave a long gap in the late afternoon in buses from Eastleigh towards Boyatt Wood: after the 1535, the next 5 is now at 1805. The gap is filled by First E2 at 1600 and E1 at 1705 towards Winchester but they of course do not accept Bluestar tickets.
Be interesting to see wether First still retain the contract for E1/E2 after October 2016.
ReplyDeleteEastleigh seems to be the poor relation were bus services are concerned - I remember the bus network before the OAP bus pass made it unprofitable
ReplyDeleteToday with what's left,if there were no OAP passes or disabeled passes,there would hardly be anyone travelling,as most people now have their own private transport.How the present system with OAP/Disabled passes works,is the fault of successive governments,and not those who use the passes.
DeleteAnon at 16.31: Would there be a huge drop off of OAPs had to pay half fare again? Operators would get more money then currently, councils could spend some of the money on route subsidy instead. Upshot is OAPs would have buses near their homes they pay half-fare on, rather than a bus pass they hardly ever use as no buses run anywhere near them. Desiro is right - in places like the borough of Eastleigh, where there is a high number of OAPs more than capable of paying half fare, the current system has destroyed the network.
DeleteTo be honest, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the concessionary pass system, the Eastleigh network was more than capable of destroying itself anyway. Its all very well harking back to the days of high frequencies along every side road of Chandlers Ford, Boyatt Wood or Hedge End, but do you think Solent Blue Line were making any money running them? I'll give you a clue...
DeleteIt's of interest to note over the past decades bus services were fast disappearing off the map,long before OAP/Disabled so called free passes were introduced.Even today if OAP/Disabled persons were charged at half fare services and routes would still disappear off the map, and I suspect councils would reduce even further what they reimberse bus companies with, if half fares were allowed to be implemented.All councils are cash strapped becauuse of present government policy,and will save what they can where they can,and not give out in subsidy to prop up ailing bus services where passenger numbers have sunk to such a degree,due to most people now having their own transport.As an example I note yesterday on the Meridian news that Poole Lifting Bridge is closed for nine months.To ease conjestion which will be caused by this closure advise given is for people to car share for journeys in and out of Poole.Not a mention of the bus service as an alternitive to help out for local journeys.
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