It's all change on Yellow Buses from Sunday as Bournemouth sees the biggest shake up of bus services in years. Most route numbers are changing and all routes get new timetables. See full details here. If it's all too confusing, More routes are staying the same.
In other new, some Bluestar fares go up from 22nd January. Full details here. One fare is coming down though - the 30 day Southampton zone ticket drops from £55 to £44. Fare payers outside the city could be forgiven for thinking they're subsidising an urban price war with First.
EDIT: From the same date, some More fares will also rise. Details here. There is one reduction: the 30 day zone A ticket drops from £68 to £60. Two new tickets become available exclusively on the More mobile app: a 3 day zone A ticket for £8 and a 30 day ticket for routes M1/M2 only for £40. See their zone map here. Some Salisbury Reds fares will also rise. Stagecoach are also putting some fares up - see their new day and weekly ticket prices here.
Bursledon Road in Hedge End is closed for water works from tomorrow. The closure, affecting Bluestar 3 and Xelabus X4, is shown by the blue cross on the map above. Both routes will divert via Freegrounds Avenue, Lower Saint Helens Road and Upper Saint Helens Road. The duration of the works is anyone's guess: Bluestar say it'll last until the end of January, while Xelabus have a little less faith in Southern Water and say it could take three months!
The £5 "Limited time" offer,which both Bluestar and First are offering along a certain corridor must be keeping the profits way down.
ReplyDeleteSuggests that Bluestar might be struggling if they are trying to subsidise their city services. Not sure the people of chandlers ford and Winchester will be too pleased.
ReplyDeleteI am absolutely certain that all operators profits are down as a result of the silly price war that First started. The big difference is that Bluestar have a method of subsidy, whilst First have no idea how to get out of it! Its only a matter of time before their head office accepts a reasonable offer from another operator and ships out.
DeleteWhat do you mean by a method of subsidy ? Is it ok for the good people who live outside the city to subsidise the people of the city ? Why should they ? Poor show to be honest and so blatant by Bluestar - what a rip off !
DeleteWhether its acceptable is a matter of opinion of course, but the reality is that the good people of outlying areas pay their very small increases without complaint. This gives Blue star the stable profit margin that they need to keep the pressure on First in Southampton. Meanwhile First seem to continue to plummet down their self dug hole, with no apparent way of getting out of it, other than sell up or withdraw even more non red routes. As has been said, one has a method, the other appears to have a suicidal lack of a business plan.
DeleteAnonyous @12:22......If you care to look at the accounts for First Hampshire & Dorset (available via Companies House) I think you might find they increased their operating profit in the last financial year. This rather blow a hole in your rant doesn't it?
DeleteAnon @1222. The good people that live out of the city must have arrived from another planet according to your theory. If you think customers pay the increase without complaint you are deluded ! When prices rise demand drops - school boy economics my friend. So the business plan which first use isn't working ? I think the comment above about the accounts blows a rocket through your theory!
DeleteI am very aware of the figures quoted. I am also aware that Southampton itself has not made any profit for many years, which is why they would love to be rid of it!
DeleteSmall price rises make not a jot of difference to passenger numbers. Perhaps First should try it sometime? It would also probably be a good idea to get rid of the 10 and concentrate on trying to win back the huge numbers that have deserted the 3 in favour of the 17 which has seen a massive growth in passenger numbers in recent months, despite running with less frequency. A big lesson on quality of service, rather than an over enthusiastic and costly frequency battle, which ultimately results in zero profit.
Unless you have a set of management accounts I think you are making assumptions rather than fact - The same can be said about which parts of go ahead make a profit or loss. None of us know the depot performance of either company. As stated above you need to understand your economics - price increases equates to less demand. I think you will find the quality of service from both operators is pretty much the same unless you are suggesting the drivers at first are sub standard compared to Bluestar ? Really ?
DeleteBluestar - fare increase - Morebus are also doing so on the same day.
ReplyDeleteYellow Buses - revamped its website overnight with the existing timetables on the right hand side of the screen augmented with a toggle to the new timetables.
Could it not be down to the fact they've just spent £2m on new buses for the B*1 barely 3 years after they spent £1.8m on new buses for the B*1. They'll need to get that money back somehow..
ReplyDeletedepreciation provisions/ reserves maybe? I suspect these things are well planned for at group HQs.
ReplyDeleteGo Ahead can afford a price war, because they charge such astronomic fares outside the city. Not content with that, they have bought shiny new buses for the 1, to replace the shiny 63 reg. buses that are now appear to being used solely on schools and college services.
ReplyDeleteFirst don't charge silly fares outside the city, don't replace almost new buses with new ones, and Hampshire and Dorset recorded a good increase in operating profit in 2015/16.
As for the comment about the 17 and the 3, I use both. The 3 is always at least half full, while the 17 carries about 10-12 on average, most of them passholders.
I just wish the two companies could work together on the Millbrook and Thornhill route for the benefit of passengers. Neither of them is making any money on those routes at least!
The old new B*1 buses will and have been cascaded down the fleet, 3 should now be being used on the B*2 replacing the Scania Omnicity's that were not replaced 18m ago, all 7 B*2's should now be ADL E400's (although they've been using a B*18/ADL E200 occasionally this week). But yes, because of the way the college/school duties are scheduled, they are also used for this purpose before or after joining the B*2 network
DeleteBy my reckoning, Eastleigh double decker(excl Unilink) have in the region of 25-26 ADL E40Ds. The PVR for the 1 is 9, for the2 its 7. For the 3 its 2 (one of which is usually a threadbare Citaro). They have no other double deck services apart from the odd school and college related trips on the 5.
DeleteThe Eastleigh based Barton Peveril 6xx routes are now mainly the older E40Ds; meanwhile Totton are using 58 reg Scanias in all day service, whilst Lymington are still using 54 and 05 reg. Volvos (which leak like sieves and are therefore very cold to travel on) on all day runs too.
I just wonder why some of Eastleigh's E40Ds haven't found their way to Totton, let alone Lymington. I presume there's a good reason but I can't think of one......
Lymington have received the old X3 Enviro400's, mainly for the X1 and X2 - this will allow the ex Reading (and SimplyGo) OmniDekka's to be cascaded down to the 6, presumably.
DeleteThat would leave the East Lancs Mylleniums to run the New Forest Tour in the Spring and Summer season.
Either way, a big step up for the Forest from the days of Leyland and Northern Counties Olympians!
I think it could be a good idea to merge First 2 and 12. The 12 always seems a tad redundant, both loop around Millbrook but one goes to Lordshill and one doesn't. If it were also merged with the 10 it would actually make a unique route, and do something that is oddly missing -- a direct link from Bitterne to Lordshill. But, my name doesn't end in Bainbridge or start with Chrissie, so, not my issue! :)
DeleteWish Bluestar would invest in double door buses on their busiest routes,like Uni-link does.Fed up of boarding a bus and swiping my key card,only to have to get off the bus again,all because some woman with a pushchair decides then to get off.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could take a moment to make sure everyone is off the bus before you get on. A look to the driver will tell you whether he's ready for passengers to board.
DeleteOr they could just do what Uni-link and London buses do and have a middle door.It would speed the buses up.
DeleteIt`s high time that Bluestar 11 had a Sunday service!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree.Can`t believe there isn`t one already.
DeleteIf First started one then I`m sure Bluestar would be on to it pronto.Does anyone else remember Bluestar repeatedly saying they wouldn`t provide a Sunday service on the 8,then when First started one Bluestar started one too?Amazing what they can do when they want to.
DeleteHaha.
DeleteThe 8 on a Sunday was originally run by Velvet
DeleteFrom my memory when the Bluestar 8 initially commenced there was a 30 min daytime service and hourly evenings and weekends, all operated by Bluestar.
DeleteBluestar then anounced that the service was unsustainable and cut the service to hourly Mon to Sat daytimes. Evening and Sunday services axed. There was much speculation that it was an attempt to increase subsidy payments.
Velvet did operate a Sunday service for a while after Bluestar withdrew Sundays and they received a subsidy for it.
I don't remember if Bluestar then returned to operating on a Sunday or it was just withdrawn. But for a few years there was no Sunday service.
First then introduced acommercial hourly service seven days a week in direct competition to Bluestar 8. This meant that Bluestar lost their subsidy. Bluestar responded by increasing daytime frequency to 30 minutes and re-introducing a Sunday service, which seems a strange move for a service that previously required a service to be economic.
The First service received very little custom, apart from the first service of the day, which was and stilll is earlier than the first Bluestar service and on Sundays when there was no competition. Regrettably the service was not run for long enough to let Bluestar passes expire and their service was axed.
Bluestar have now returned the service to hourly, with a very poor service in the evenings. The BS 9 journeys that leave Southampton in the late evening now divert through Marchwood and I often wonder why thhey don't do more of this outside peak times.
I think we only need to look at the patronage of this route to answer your points. GSC are not stupid and know what a profitable level of service is. Yes they responded when First tried to encroach onto the waterside. However they were not particularly bothered about the 8 route itself, rather not allowing First to get any sniff of a foothold outside of the City. I think if First had still been there today, they would still be making a massive loss on the route, as they did during their brief excursion.
DeleteThe service has now returned to the level that its patronage deserves, hourly during the day and two hourly(roughly), through the evening. The Sunday patronage appears far too low for the current level of service, and I do wonder whether that resource would be better employed by providing an hourly Sunday service on the 11 route? But would they be that brave, to start cutting the 8 again, and leaving the door open to competition. Once nearly bitten, twice shy me thinks.
The Yellow Buses network recast tomorrow is set to be absolute chaos. Unlike when they did a network change a few years back there is a huge lack of information. A visit to Boscombe Bus Station today showed no indication at all which bus will stop at which stop (this information isn't available on-line either for anywhere let alone this one bus station) and no timetables anywhere. The only change is some generic promo stickers on the outside of the bus stops indicating there are new lines (but not which ones will actually stop there, or where they go). The kiosk has no information apart from a few copies ("please only take one - I haven't got many") of the very basic new overall route schematic and a confusing old route>new route chart. At the library they've taken the old timetables away because they're getting almost non-stop enquiries from people but despite the library chasing the bus company they're received absolutely no new information at all - apparently someone will phone them back at some point... Overheard one woman say "That's it I'm boycotting the yellows and will only use more. They've never been the same since that French company took over" :-)
ReplyDeleteOnline the picture isn't much better - On Facebook the most recent mention of new routes (apart from a post advertisitng a new ticket) was a post a week ago to which one person replied that their £50 monthly season ticket they bought is useless now. On twitter they still haven't acknowledged once this year there is any change at all (maybe a broken link to a facebook page is meant to be it, maybe not).
While the pdf on their website is pretty good they've made things so confusing in places - for instance not putting a timing point in the timetables between Boscombe and Bournemouth to indicate which buses go via the station and which travel fast along Christchurch Road. The website now also has times but only in the format of every single time at every single stop - good luck scrolling through pages like "https://www.bybus.co.uk/routes/timetable/R1?line=R1&date=2017-01-15&direction=inbound" on your mobile.
At a very basic level, Yellows have promoted the new network ok, but for anyone who actually wants to catch a bus it's so far been a textbook case of what not to do. According to the local paper printed timetables do exist and are available from their central Bournemouth office. Just use a morebus to get there...
Good luck drivers, you're gonna need a lot of patience...
OK, let's try and round up all these random comments, with a recently related conspiracy theory, which comes from within the industry locally. It seems to be widely recognised that First would sell up in Southampton, if they could find a buyer, due to their inability to turn a reasonable profit. The most likely buyer would appear to be Stagecoach, but despite 2 rumoured bids, neither have come close to the vendors valuation, apparently. Blue star have upped the frequency of the 1 route and constantly upgraded their buses to the very best available, in terms of comfort and innovation, for no apparent reason on this route.... Could it be that they also think that Stagecoach are the likely victors to run Firsts operation in Southampton, and the first thing that they would want to do, is link their 2 depots in Winchester and Southampton with a new service, so Blue star are attempting to make the 1 route impregnable? I quite like this theory, which sounds plausible. What do you all think?
ReplyDeleteYou've added 1+1 to make 3. The 1 route has been continuously upgraded and well-invested into because it receives a good patronage. It's an important asset for Bluestar.
DeleteWe have zero idea how much money the Southampton depot itself had made. We can't make any judgements upon its performance, and there is little indication that they are wishing to sell up. People say things that just want to hear.
I cannot see any justification for the increased frequency, nor the constant recent upgrading of vehicles on the 1 route. They ran the Scanias for about 5 years without any upgrade previously, so there does seem to be something going on here.
DeleteFirst seem to lurch from one desperate measure to another and look extremely vulnerable to the outsider.
The main reason new busses arrived was to get the Go South Coast Fleet upgraded in time for the DDA deadline on the 1st of January. Now it would be silly to invest in new buses for services which receive council subsidy, or poorly used routes, so instead opted to put them on their flagship services, 1 in Southampton and X3 in Bournemouth. This has allowed movements in other parts of the fleet, so the buses on the 1 went to the 2, 3 and school routes, the omnicity's largely went to Totton, to help school services their and the Volvo B7TL's to Damory, to remove the last of their step entrance buses from regular service.
DeleteTo me this makes perfect sense, especially as the buses for the 1 and X3 would likely to have been replaced in the next couple of years anyway.
Yes. In short it's normal cacading, something GAG has plenty of opportunities for.
DeleteI used to commute by Bus and train (Bishopstoke to Winchester) - Then Bluestar drops the Eastleigh zone ticket and offers me a weekly ticket £15 instead of £10 ( going back a few yrs now)
ReplyDeleteSo I walked and got the train - then the train fares kept going up.
So for less than the weekly cost of the Bus and train fares I now drive
This sounds frankly impossible. I cannot think that you could run a car for under 24 quid a week. If you manage to find a cheap diesel that would last a couple of years for a grand, that's 10 pounds a week spent. Add fuel, tyres, mot, tax and insurance and the odd repair bill. Impossible for a total of 24 pounds per week.
DeleteNew First Southampton timetables are now available on Traveline Southwest,the changes looking very minor.
ReplyDeleteThe only change of any major note is the reversal of the loop of the 7 around Townhill Park. For some reason it will now go anti-clockwise.
DeleteThe no.11 00:25 Mon-Sat journey from city centre to Weston is being curtailed to run on Fridays only.
DeleteThe no.9 will leave town every 30 mins till 17:30 on Sats!
DeleteThe number 1 will run via Olive Road instead of Aldermoor Avenue
DeleteAnon@05:33: That's interesting. There's no bus stops on Olive Road itself -- will there be some erected? I know this is a council matter.
DeleteNumber 6 now has an official schoolday only diversion via Radstock Road and will exit the Itchen Bridge via Central Bridge, stopping at Oxford Street and not serving Ocean Village.
DeleteApologies, make that clearer -- in the mornings only!
DeleteIt will be interesting to see the number 1 go down Olive Road - it means I won't have to walk far to catch a bus now - it will be right outside my house!!
DeleteThere is still one bus stop sign left - on the inbound - the other was removed a while ago. But shouldn't take much to attach one to the lamppost!
People forget that the BS service 1 does in some way compete against trains between Soton & Winchester so why not have the bestest buses available!
ReplyDeleteSo all the hype about massive changes is a load of tosh then !
ReplyDelete