First have some timetable changes to the
7, 8, 9 and
13 in Southampton from 13th May.
Their website says it's a Saturday:
It isn't, it's a Sunday.
Here are the new timetables:
7, 8, 9, 13. Only minor changes.
More interestingly,
First announce that
all of their Southampton routes will run under the City Reds brand. Presumably the
X4/X5 will remain under the
Solent Rangers brand, run from the Fareham depot.
This isn't as unusual as it may seem.
Bluestar started off as a premium sub-brand of Solent Blue Line, that was then extended to the whole network. The same in Bournemouth, where
More was once only applied to premium Wilts & Dorset routes, while
More is now the name for Go South Coast's whole network across Bournemouth & Poole.
What it does however is make
First's Southampton operations easier to split off from the rest of
First, especially now that the costly
travel shop in Pound Tree Road has been closed.
How likely is that to happen?
Ah,
that likely. Passengers in East Anglia, dominated by
First,
are already worried. For us in the South though, what could it mean?
Go Ahead wouldn't be able to buy on competition grounds and of the other big groups, only
Stagecoach have operations nearby onto which Southampton could be tagged. RATP, the Parisian regional transport authority and owner of
Yellow Buses in Bournemouth, can't be ruled out, but they seem to have their work cut out in Bournemouth - they've just
reversed an entire network revamp just over a year after it was introduced.
The other option is another arm of the French state:
Transdev. They have extensive operations in Lancashire and Yorkshire, currently run by no other than Alex Hornby, who used to run Solent Blue Line. I wonder whether he's feeling a little homesick? Would there be enough money to be made pour les taxpayeurs de France?
