Sunday service on Sunday and Monday

It's a normal Sunday service on Sunday 27th December.

As Boxing Day falls on a Saturday this year, the Bank Holiday rolls over to Monday 28th December, on which there will also be a Sunday service across all bus operators in our region.

A look ahead to Tuesday and here's the new timetable for Wheelers W1, which comes into force then. A few journeys are cut, others are retimed, but the big change is a rerouting in Romsey:

Buses from Southampton will now run directly into the town centre via Whitenap, with passengers for Woodley, Cupernham and Abbotswood having to stay on the bus as it comes back out of Romsey or even change buses in the town centre.

Southampton's Boxing Day buses 2015

Happy Christmas to all our readers!

There are no buses running on Christmas Day in our region.

Here's a comprehensive guide to which buses are running in our region on Boxing Day:

Bluestar: Special timetable on routes 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 17 and 18 only.

First: Special timetable on routes 2, three, 7, 10 and 11 only.

Stagecoach: Sunday service on route 66.

Other operators: No service in our region.


Here are those special timetables in full:

Bluestar:

 

First:

Stagecoach:
Route 66

Christmas Eve buses

Here's how our region's buses will be running on Christmas Eve:

Bluestar, More, Salisbury Reds: Normal full Thursday service.

First: Saturday service with early finish, except for routes B1/B2/B3, which will have a weekday service.

Stagecoach: Thursday service with early finish.

Xelabus: Weekday service with early finish.

Unilink: Vacation Thursday service with early finish.


Here are those early finishing last bus times in full:

First:

Stagecoach:
Route 66 
20:30 Winchester to Romsey; 21:05 Romsey to Winchester 

Xelabus:

Service X4 – 1845 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Service X7 – 2015 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Service X8 – 2000 from Eastleigh Bus Station

Unilink:
U1A 2105 Southampton Central Station
U1C 2105 Airport Parkway Station
U6C 2035 Southampton General Hospital
U6H 2034 NOCS

Christmas & New Year buses / Changes on the way

Christmas is almost upon us, so don't forget that bus services run differently over the festive period. We'll have updates over the next two weeks so that you always know what level of service is being provided by all of our local bus operators. There's an overview of service alterations here.

There are some other changes coming soon too:

Wheelers W1 has a route change in Romsey and a new timetable from Tuesday 29th December.

Xelabus X14 between Bitterne and Bursledon runs for the very last time on Wednesday 30th December.

First have new timetables on several routes from Sunday 3rd January. Click on the route number to see the new timetable:

• 2 details
• three details
• 7 details
• 10 details
• 11 details
• 12 details
• 13 details

Xelabus has new timetables from Monday 4th January on the following routes. See the timetables for them all here:

• X6
• X7
• X9
• X10
• X11 - No longer running to Hedge End. City Centre-Lordshill North only.
• X15

New Stagecoach website / New Xelabus timetables offline only

Stagecoach have finally revamped their website and it's far better than their old one. It now works on mobiles and provides easy access to timetables and details of buses about to depart from stops near your current location.

It also includes details of single and return fares. This is for a journey on the 66 from Romsey to Winchester:

It doesn't seem to cope well with day tickets though. The cheapest day ticket valid on the 66 is the Stagecoach South DayRider Gold at £8, but their website pushes you towards the Discovery ticket at £8.50. It also ignores the daily version of Solent Go at £8, which is also valid on all buses in Greater Southampton, regardless of operator.

Xelabus have released their new timetables starting from 4th January... on paper only. They're neither on the Xelabus website nor on Traveline.

Highfield & Regent's Park to be cut off?

BBC News is reporting that Southampton City Council is looking at cutting some subsidised bus routes in order to satisfy the government's budget cuts.

Particularly under threat are Wheelers W1 and Xelabus X12, which could potentially cut off people in Highfield and Regent's Park.

Age UK criticised the proposals, which is all well and good, but until they start campaigning for bus companies to be correctly reimbursed for accepting pensioners' passes, routes that primarily serve pensioners, like the W1 and X12, will become uneconomical for councils to continue to support.

Christmas & New Year: summary so far

So far we know the Christmas and New Year service changes from four of our local operators:

• Bluestar
• More
• Unilink
• Xelabus

There's nothing too out of the ordinary so far, but there are a few points to note from Bluestar, our area's biggest operator:

• The skeleton service on Boxing Day and New Year's Day will run across routes 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 17 and 18. The New Year's Day service level will be significantly lower than that provided on Boxing Day. In previous years it has had the same service.
• The newest route, the 17, will be running on Boxing Day and New Year's Day, but the 16 will not.
• Bluestar 2 will have services running from Southampton into the evening on Boxing Day.
• On the weekdays between Christmas and New Year, an enhanced Saturday service will run. Most of the enhancements are in the early morning, so for all intents and purposes it's really a Saturday service for most people.
• As always, no early finish for Bluestar on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve.

See Bluestar's leaflet which includes the Boxing Day and New Year's Day special timetables here.

No word yet as to what's happening on First, Salisbury Reds, Stagecoach or Wheelers over the holiday period.

X11 to leave Hedge End / X14 cut / Round up

Xelabus have announced some changes, which will apply from 4th January. There will be minor changes to the X6, X7, X9. X10 and X15.

The X11 however will no longer serve Hedge End, bring to an end Hedge End's era of three bus operators running between there and Southampton, which of course began when Velvet A was first extended. Interesting that what started as a route extension also ends as an extension, just of another route. First 8 no longer serves the centre of Hedge End or Oaklands, so that leaves these areas to Bluestar 3 for people needing to get into the city. The 3 has had a few cuts of its own in recent years, so the end of direct competition will hopefully make it more viable.

The X14 between Bitterne and Bursledon Tesco is being withdrawn.

Xelabus have also announced their Christmas and New Year arrangements. As the other operators announce their plans, we'll compile them all on our forthcoming changes page.

Wheelers W1 has an amendment from 29th December. No further details yet, but it might just be a suspension of the link to Chilworth Science Park over the New Year.

First have registered some changes to the timetables of routes 7, 12 and 13 from 3rd January. More as we get it.