Biggest ever Boxing Day service

Some of our local bus operators have started telling us what kind of amended service they'll be running over the Christmas and New Year period.

Full marks to Go South Coast (that's Bluestar, More and Salisbury Reds to most of us) and to Xelabus, who have already revealed their full plans, enabling passengers to plan well ahead. Use these links for details:

Bluestar
More
Salisbury Reds
Xelabus

The big story is that Bluestar will be providing a full Sunday service on all routes apart from the 6 on Boxing Day rather than the usual skeleton timetable.

Unilink will be running a Boxing Day service for the first time ever: a half-hourly U1. See the combined Bluestar/Unilink Xmas & New Year bus guide here.

Over in Bournemouth & Poole, More intend to also run a Sunday service on most routes on Boxing Day, but not all. Check the full list here.

Most of us are used to no buses on Christmas Day itself, but More have run routes M1 and M2 in the past and intend to do so again this year, with a special timetable, premium fares and route extensions to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and to Christchurch - they'll be our region's only working bus routes on Christmas Day.

Stagecoach, Yellow Buses and Wheelers haven't yet announced their plans. Neither have First, although they have found time to put their fares up in both Southampton and Portsmouth.

As more plans are announced, we'll be linking to them all from our 'Changes On The Way' page.

Hayling, Whiteley & Hedge End

A few changes across our region this week:

Stagecoach 30/31 Havant-Hayling Island
A new timetable launched yesterday, with revised weekday times. Full timetable here.

First W1 Fareham-Whiteley
This Saturdays-only service will be running additionally this Friday so that people can get to Whiteley for the 'Black Friday' sales. It will also be free, but only this Friday. Details here.

Bluestar 3 Southampton-Boorley Green
A new timetable starts on Sunday 27th November, with a revised route near Hedge End Superstores and an extra evening journey from Southampton at 2110 Mon-Sats. It will also no longer serve the Bullar Road Gyratory or Maddoxford Lane in Boorley Green. Details here. Here are the route sections that are changing:

Final day of Xelabus X1/X2 tomorrow

Xelabus X1 (Eastleigh-Stoke Common) and X2 (Eastleigh-Boyatt Wood) run for the final time tomorrow (Thursday).

They are the last remains of Xelabus's original business model of running buses that were free of charge for passengers but paid for by the supermarkets to whom customers were delivered, in this case Tesco Metro in Eastleigh, although Xela has also previously also brought customers to Asda in Chandler's Ford.

Especially since its absorption of the routes formerly operated by Velvet and Brijan Tours, Xelabus has become more of a traditional operator running key routes across our region.

The areas that were served by the X1/X2 still have the following services:

• Stoke Common has a Carshare provided by Hampshire County Council.
• Bishopstoke has Bluestar 2.
• Boyatt Wood has Bluestar 5 (Mon-Sat daytines), Xelabus X8 (Thurs-Sat evenings and Sunday daytimes) and Stagecoach E1/E2 (Mon-Sat daytimes).

Zipline early evening diversions in central Southampton

The Santa zipline thing is now up and running in central Southampton every day between now and 23rd December, so between 1615 and 2015 Mon-Sats and 1415 until 1815 on Sundays any buses that use Hanover Buildings are diverted.

First have a summary of their diversions here. Bluestar's diversions are here.

The main changes for buses heading out of the city centre are as follows:

Bluestar 1, 2: stop CU on Hanover Buildings will not be used. Buses will instead stop over the road, outside Bella Italia:

Bluestar 3, 16, 18: Buses towards Bitterne will use stop BI on Castle Way instead of stops BL and BM on Bargate Street:

First three, 6, 11: Main stops in Vincents Walk unaffected. Diverts to/from Woolston via Queensway instead of Castle Way and High Street. All Woolston-bound buses will use stop CR:

First 10: Bargate Street stop BM will not be served, with buses using stops CR on Queensway and BF on High Street instead:

First X4/X5: Stop BI on Castle Way will not be served, with journeys starting from stop CR on Queensway, outside Debenhams:

If you're not sure exactly which journeys are affected, see the all stops timetables for any route available from Traveline here or here.

Over a million pageviews! / X11 to Wheelers

This blog has now passed a million pageviews, a point I didn't expect to reach with such a niche regional website. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with this blog through thick and thin.

In other news, Xelabus have announced that the X11 City Centre-Lordshill service will be operated by Wheelers from 3rd January due to a change of contract by Southampton City Council, who subsidise the route.

First have an offer on for group travel within Southampton. FirstDay Southampton Group is valid for up to 5 people and costs just £7 for unlimited travel in the bits of Southampton still actually served by First. So not Swaythling then.

Outside the city, FirstDay Hampshire Group is now £12 and also valid for up to 5 people.

Salisbury Park & Ride changes from Monday 7th Nov

Motorists who avail themselves of the Park & Ride facilities in Salisbury should take note that timetables are changing on Salisbury Reds Park & Ride routes 3, 7 and 11 from next Monday.

Full details here.