What's the 6A for anyway?

Amongst the bus services seeing a cut in subsidy from Hampshire County Council on 17th February is the Stagecoach 6A in Winchester. It drops from three days a week (Mon, Wed, Fri) to two (Mondays and Thursdays).

On the days it runs, there are only two journeys anyway, with a gap of 67 minutes in the city centre before the last 6A runs back to Abbotts Barton. Useful for shopping maybe, but not much else. Note also how short the route appears to be...

The northernmost stop, Colley Close, is 1.5 miles from the bus station, which is about a 32 minute walk. This route must fill in some pretty big gaps in Stagecoach's commercial network to justify the council subsidy...

But no, Stagecoach's frequent Spring service runs along Worthy Road on its way to and from Springvale every 20 mins Mon-Sat daytimes and hourly evenings & Sundays. It's supplemented by the 67, which has between 4 and 6 journeys each way Mon-Sats although this is also being reduced in February.

So the point of the 6A seems to be to cater to people on the side roads off of Worthy Road who for whatever reason can't walk the short distance to Worthy Road to catch the Spring. As few of them are likely to be fare payers, I have a feeling more cuts will come to this route.

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Changes from Monday / Christchurch preview

This coming Monday, 28th January, sees new timetables on the following routes:

Bluestar 17 - Extra early morning and evening journeys

Salisbury Reds 26, 27, 29, 29A - Minor changes



Looking further ahead, Southbourne Buses launch their new C1 route in Christchurch on 4th March:

The route links the centre of Christchurch with Burton and Somerford, including Sainsbury's. Burton's only bus currently is More 24, which runs weekdays only, is rather infrequent and finishes by 3pm. Somerford's Hunt Road is currently only served by Yellow 1B, which has a bizarre 40-minute frequency on weekdays and no service at all on Saturdays.

This has more of a chance of being a success for Southbourne than the Ringwood incident.


Timetables for the services being reduced on 17th Feb due to Hampshire County Council/government cuts are now available on Traveline. More on those before they bite.

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Changes this week and cuts to come

A few changes were implemented at the start of this week...

In Weymouth, a new timetable with only minor changes started on Sunday on First 2. 

In Bournemouth & Poole, Yellow Buses have had some major changes to most routes since Sunday. New timetables: 1/1b, 1a, 2, 3, 4/4a, 5/5a, 6, 7, 8, 18, 33, 36, 737, N5.

New timetables started on Monday on More 13 and Unibus U3, while the X8A was rerouted in Blandford. 

In Portsmouth, First 6 and 12 have launched while there is a new timetable including a Sunday service on the 13/14.

From next Monday 14th Jan, we have new timetables on:

Stagecoach 38 (Petersfield-Alton)

Stagecoach 64 (Winchester-Alton)

Hampshire County Council are continuing with austerity as they slash bus subsidies in 2019. Cuts will happen on the following routes from 17th Feb: 

Stagecoach E1/E2 (Winchester-Eastleigh)

Stagecoach 6A (Winchester-Abbots Barton)

Stagecoach 46 (Winchester-North Baddesley)

Stagecoach 63 (Winchester-Owslebury)

Stagecoach 66 (Winchester-Romsey)

Stagecoach 67 (Winchester-Alresford)

Xelabus X4 (Eastleigh-Hedge End)

Xelabus X6/X7 (Eastleigh-Hiltingbury)

Xelabus X8 (Eastleigh-Boyatt Wood)

Xelabus X9 (Eastleigh-Bishops Waltham)

Xelabus X10 (Southampton-Bishops Waltham)

Xelabus X17 (Bishops Waltham-Petersfield)

...and from 3rd March on First Fareham routes F2, F3, 10, 20, 21, 27 and 28/28A.

Details of those as we get them, but it won't be pleasant.

See a summary of all upcoming service changes here.

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