It's no normal Easter weekend by any means. Most operators, including Bluestar, More, Salisbury Reds, Yellow Buses and Southern Vectis, will be running a Coronavirus Sunday service on Good Friday and Easter Monday, but check the operator's websites before you travel just to make sure.
A bit of good news amongst all the service reductions: many of our local operators are accepting each others' tickets. There's a mutual agreement between More and Yellow Buses in Bournemouth. In Southampton, First are accepting Bluestar tickets on common sections of route. In Portsmouth, First are accepting Stagecoach tickets on common sections of their routes. Not yet clear whether Bluestar and Stagecoach have reciprocated, but hopefully they will.
No sign yet of any temporary replacement for Xelabus's service, which are all currently suspended.
More semi-temporary changes are on the way in the next few days:
- First Portsmouth are revising timetables on some routes from Sunday and reinstating a few routes in Fareham and Gosport, albeit on temporarily reduced timetables.
- Salisbury Reds R1 gets extra journeys on its temporary timetable from Tuesday, to make it easier for key workers to get to and from Salisbury District Hospital.
- Yellow Buses have revised timetables on several routes from Tuesday, including new route 31 linking Christchurch to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.
Stay safe!
- Please only travel if absolutely necessary, otherwise stay at home
- Check the bus operator's website to make sure what level of service they are running
- Please don't use cash. If you can, pay by contactless, smart card or mobile ticketing app
