From 28th November, fares are going up, but curiously only on routes 6 and 8 and only on journeys starting or ending outside of the city boundary. This means that passengers in Netley, Hamble, West End and Hedge End (who have no other choice) are being disproportionately punished for the mess that First have made for themselves locally. For now, day and period tickets are staying the same, but it's occasional travellers who buy single or return tickets who will be clobbered.
This eagerness to put up fares in those areas and not in Southampton suggests that First are struggling to make ends meet locally and know that they can't increase fares in the city because almost all of their passengers now have a viable alternative offered by Bluestar.
One thing First have managed to achieve is to tell us what levels of service they'll be running over Christmas and the New Year in Southampton, Portsmouth, Wessex and Bath (for the sake of the D1 to Salisbury).
We also have Christmas plans in from Salisbury Reds and Southern Vectis, the latter of which will be providing what must be the country's most comprehensive network of bus services on Christmas Day itself, but nothing yet from Slowcoach Stagecoach. Will anywhere on the mainland have anything like the Isle of Wight's level of service on 25th December? Certainly not Portsmouth, that's for sure.
Talking of the P word, First have registered two new routes to start 6th January. The 6 will run between The Hard and Southsea via Old Portsmouth. The 12 will run between Tipner and Fratton, similar to what the 17 did before September. Timetables are not yet known, but it looks like these are funded by Portsmouth City Council, so Tipner will probably have nothing like the frequency it used to have and after a service gap of 4 months, most regular passengers will have had to make alternative arrangements long ago.
Congratulations to Go South Coast, the company trading as Bluestar, More, Salisbury Reds, Southern Vectis, Damory and Something Or Other In Swindon. They've beaten off national competition to be crowned Large Bus Operator of the Year at the RouteOne awards, which is apparently the Oscars of the bus world.
An overview of all upcoming service changes in our region is available on this page. Why not bookmark it? It's updated often before we have time to write full posts and includes links to all of our local operators' Christmas plans. It will soon be updated to give a comprehensive day-by-day summary of bus service levels across this blog's 10th festive period for our entire region.
