Fares up / Marwell

Fares are going up soon across several operators. First Solent go up on Thursday (!) 3rd Feb and Bluestar, Unilink and Southern Vectis all go up from Sunday 6th Feb.

First Solent are also withdrawing some ticket types, such as the 3 monthly and annual tickets. While Go Ahead's subsidiaries are steering everyone towards their mobile apps for the best prices, and away from The Key smartcard, which is now the most expensive way to buy your tickets - even paper tickets bought on the bus with cash are cheaper. Surely only a matter of time now before The Key is withdrawn as mobile apps have really made it obsolete.

Bluestar & Unilink Southampton zone ticket prices from 6th Feb: Time to switch from The Key to the app for the best prices!

New kid on the block Southampton Minilink have announced that they will be running the Marwell Zoo M1 service from Southampton and Eastleigh this year, starting from Saturday 2nd April. Details here, although plans could change as it doesn't appear to have been officially registered yet. We'll keep an eye out.

Don't forget that Marwell can be reached all year round on Sundays from Winchester on Stagecoach 69.

Reductions in Salisbury & Weymouth / Mini Link fills a gap

First of all, thanks for your kind comments to the previous post welcoming this blog back.

Thanks also to the Hampshire Bus Blog, which popped up while we were away, to fill the gap. Looking at its posts, it's doing a fantastic job and I hope it keeps going even though the initial intention was for it to be temporary. It covers the local bus scene in similar way to this blog, but also adds some extra analysis and insight that this blog, being written from outside the region, cannot do, so I encourage all my readers to bookmark it and check it regularly.

A couple of actual bus updates too:

Salisbury Reds have temporary timetables on most of their city routes as of last Sunday 16th January. These are mainly frequency reductions due to staff shortages.

In Weymouth, First Wessex have new timetables from today, Sunday 23rd January, on route 4, which has a weekday daytime frequency reduction to every half-hour due to staff shortages, and on the Jurassic Coaster X51/X53 in order to better connect with the trains in Axminster.

In Southampton, we have a new operator since October, in the shape of Southampton Mini Link. The Hampshire Bus Blog has been covering them since they launched. It's run by Simon Gard, who previously ran Gardbus of Ringwood and then Southbourne Buses in Bournemouth. True to form, they tried to revive a route between Southampton and Ringwood but alas, it has already been suspended. It would be good to see such a route succeed, but Ringwood and Southampton have been without a direct bus connection for so long now, that most people travelling between the two will have made alternative arrangements long ago and any new service will need to run consistently for at least a couple of years in order to gain any traction.

Mini Link's only service for now is the 13A, which provides a Sunday service between the City Centre and Harefield, via Woolston, Merry Oak and Bitterne. First City Red 9 and 13 cover the route Mon-Sats but neither runs on Sundays, so for Harefield and Merry Oak especially, the 13A is a real improvement. From 5th February, it will be running on Saturdays too, despite City Red 9 and 13 also running. Again we wish it well, but realistically, most passengers will probably stick with First on Saturdays. Here's the route of the 13A:

Update for January 2022

 We've been offline through much of the pandemic, but are back with an update...

Starting in Southampton & Eastleigh, where Bluestar cut frequencies on some routes from Monday 4th January due to staff shortages. Details here.

First City Red's last timetable change was on 12th December, when the 2 and 11 were merged into a new 2 running cross-city between Millbrook and Weston. The 1 to Calmore no longer runs on Sundays.

While we've been away, First City Red have introduced Tap & Cap, an innovative way to pay by contactless card when you board the bus and to have your total payments capped at the price of a daily or weekly ticket, meaning you don't need to know your travel plans in advance in order to get the best ticket price. It only works within the Southampton zone, so don't rely on it if you're travelling further afield, but still this is a huge step forward. It was only a few years ago that the only way to pay on the bus was using dirty, old-fashioned cash.

In Bournemouth & Poole, Yellow Buses no longer serve Somerford Estate, so More have introduced a new route, the 23, to replace them.

Yellow have reduced many services from 4th January due to staff shortages.

In Portsmouth & Fareham, First Solent have new timetables on some routes from this Sunday 9th January, including on the Eclipse E1/E2 services which last month started serving the new bit of the extended Fareham-Gosport busway.

Stagecoach have cut the frequency of the 700 due to staff shortages. Details here.

In Salisbury, Salisbury Reds have also been changing the way passengers pay for their travel. They now have a contactless ticket-free option, where you tap on and tap off the bus, with their ticket machines calculating and charging the correct fare automatically. Don't forget to tap off when you leave the bus otherwise you'll be charged for a longer journey than the one you've made.

First Bath have announced that their Discovery D1 service, which currently runs between Salisbury and Bath will be curtailed to only run between Warminster and Bath from 30th January. As it will no longer serve Salisbury, this blog will stop covering it, so anyone wanting stay up to date with that service should stay in touch with First Bath. This of course means that Salisbury loses its bus link in that direction, however much of it is duplicated by the train service towards Bristol. If you need to get anywhere that way that's not near a railway station, you'll need to either drive all the way or take a taxi from the nearest railway station. There is still Beeline 56, which provides a shoppers' service three days a week with one journey each way between Warminster and Salisbury on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays only, giving you a couple of hours in Salisbury before the return journey - not much use to most people but means access to the shops in Salisbury is retained for most of those with no other option.

In Winchester, Stagecoach are reducing some services from Monday 10th January due to staff shortages. Details here.

Don't forget that Bluestar 1 is also affected by staff shortage service reductions.

We've also had the news that Stagecoach is merging with National Express, with most of the management decisions presumably to be taken in the future by current National Express staff, so this could mean a major change in the way services are managed in Winchester, Portsmouth and Havant. More as we get it.

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