Christmas Day buses for Southampton, Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight

Looking for Christmas Eve bus service levels? Click here.

See a summary of bus service levels throughout the festive season here.

Most bus routes in our region won't have any service on Christmas Day. These are the exceptions:

Southampton, Eastleigh & Winchester:

Bluestar will be running a skeleton service on the 18, which extends to the General Hospital and Lordshill, and special route 1X, which will be a hybrid of the 1 and 2 between Southampton and Winchester via Eastleigh, Chandlers Ford and the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

Stops served by the 18 from Lordshill towards the city centre:

Bournemouth & Poole:

As is now a firm tradition, More M1 and M2 will be running, with route extensions to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Christchurch respectively.

Isle of Wight:

On the island, Southern Vectis are providing what is probably the UK's most comprehensive Christmas Day bus network, with a special service on routes 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.

So many routes are running on the Island, it's easier to just show you the usual route map:

No other routes will be running at all on Christmas Day. So nothing whatsoever in Portsmouth, Fareham, Havant, Salisbury or Weymouth.


A very Happy Christmas from all of us here at Southampton Bus Update!


See a summary of bus service levels throughout the festive season here.

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Christmas Eve buses across the South

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

Southampton & Eastleigh:

Bluestar: Saturday service except for routes 6, 35, 36, 39, H1/H2, T3/T4, which will have a normal Monday service. Extra morning journeys on routes 5, 9 and 12. No early finish.
First Southampton: Saturday service with early finish around 2000.
Salisbury Reds: Saturday service on X7/X7R.
Stagecoach: Saturday service, except for routes 46 and 63, which will have a weekday service. Early finish on all routes by about 2100.
Unilink: Saturday service with early finish about 2100. No night buses.
Xelabus: Saturday service on routes X4, X9, X10 and X11. Weekday service on routes X6, X7 and X15. No service on X5 or Bitterne Hoppa.

Bournemouth & Poole:

Damory: Normal Monday service.
First Wessex: Saturday service with early finish around 2000.
More: Saturday service except for routes X1, X2, X8, 24, 38, 112, 119, 125, 191, 193 and Ringo, which will have a normal Monday service. Extra morning journeys on routes 5, 8, 9, 13, 14 and 16. Amendments to late night journeys on the X3. Night buses N1/N2 will not run.
Unibus: No service between 22nd Dec and 1st Jan inclusive.
Yellow Buses: Saturday service, except for routes 1B, 18, 33, 36 and 737, which will have a weekday service. Early finish around 2000 on all routes.

Portsmouth, Fareham & Havant:

First Portsmouth: Saturday service with early finish around 2000.
Stagecoach: Saturday service, except for route 38, which will have a weekday service. Early evening amendments to 38. Early finish on all routes by about 2100.

Winchester:

Bluestar: Saturday service on the 1. No early finish.
Stagecoach: Saturday service, except for routes 6A, 46 and 63, which will have a weekday service. Early finish on all routes by about 2100.

Salisbury:

First Bath D1: Saturday service.
Salisbury Reds: Saturday service, but with evening amendments to X3 and Activ8.
Stagecoach: Saturday service on Activ8. Early finish on all routes by about 2100.

Isle of Wight:

Southern Vectis: Normal Monday service.

Weymouth:

Damory: Normal Monday service.
First Wessex: Saturday service with early finish around 2000, except for route 6, which will run a weekday school holiday service.


See a summary of bus service levels throughout the festive season here.

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Yellow changes in January / Xmas plans

We now have Christmas service levels in from all operators in our region, including Stagecoach. See them all summarised here.

Yellow Buses in Bournemouth have changes to many routes from 6th January. Details here. Here's how the new network will look:

The main change is that the 1C will no longer run its section of route between Bournemouth and Poole, leaving the half-hourly 1 as Yellow's only remaining service to Poole. How long is that likely to last? If it does disappear, will fares increase on More M1/M2?

Other changes in January have been announced for the following routes (click the numbers for timetables where available):

• First Portsmouth 6, 12, 13, 14
• First Weymouth 2
• More X8, 13
• Stagecoach 38, 64
• Bluestar 17

More on them as we get it. Notable that in Portsmouth, new route 6 and 12, funded by the city council, will only operate between approximately 9am and 3pm weekdays and 9am to 1pm Saturdays, severely limiting their usefulness to many people. Here are where they will run:

The 12 of course, partly replaces the 17, which was diverted away from Tipner back in September. The 17 still runs between Copnor and Southsea. The 12's southern terminus will be Fratton Way. Where?

Outside Tesco Extra on another large new retail park. Good to see a new bus link here, but let's hope that the frequency and operating hours get a boost to make use really attractive to passengers.

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First turns the screws on Hamble & Hedge End

First 11 was their last high frequency route on which they faced no competition. That changed on 11th November, when Bluestar 17 was extended to Weston. First responded by increasing the frequency of the 11 to up to every 5 minutes on weekday daytimes. This suggests their plan isn't working out well:

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.

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Festive bus services: What we know so far

Christmas is only a few weeks away and the following operators have published their service levels over the festive period (click for details):

Bluestar

Damory

More

Unilink

Xelabus

Yellow Buses

No word yet from First, Stagecoach or Salisbury Reds.

On Christmas Day, Bluestar will be running two routes: the 18, which is extended to the General Hospital and Lordshill, and the 1X which will be a hybrid of the 1 and 2 - it'll run as per the 2 between Southampton and Eastleigh, then along Leigh Road to Chandlers Ford and then via Otterbourne and the Royal Hampshire County Hospital to Winchester.

More will be running the M1 and M2 on Christmas Day again, with each route extended to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Christchurch.

Boxing Day will see a full Sunday service from Bluestar, except for route 6, which will not run. More will also have a Sunday service on most routes in the Bournemouth/Poole conurbation.

After all that, the weekend of 6th/7th January sees changes to many services, especially on Yellow Buses in Bournemouth. First Weymouth 2 (which has an extra weekday evening bus for Overcombe and minor changes on Sundays) and More X8 and 13 will also be amended. We'll let you know the details of those as soon as they come in.

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W1 cut back to Chilworth / Christmas Day buses

Wheelers W1 is being cut back from 5th November, to only run between Southampton and Chilworth. It stopped running at weekends in September last year. Now it will no longer run to Romsey. New timetable here.

11th November sees changes to several Bluestar routes, including the extension of the 17 to Weston and Adanac Park. Full detail here of the changes to routes, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18.

Christmas bus service plans are slowly being released. Services that will be operating on Christmas Day include Bluestar 1 and 18 and More M1/M2. More as details are confirmed.

There's a change to First Weymouth 2 from 6th Jan. Not yet clear what it is, but we'll let you know as soon as details are out.

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Bluestar coming for First in Weston

11th November is when changes happen to several Bluestar routes in Southampton, most notable of which is the 17, which is being amended to operate between Weston and Adanac Park.

Adanac Park, home to the Ordnance Survey, has been without a bus service since First withdrew the 1. The 17 is its nearest route, but will now be serving Adanac proper.

Weston was the scene of bus wars between what was Citybus and Solent Blue Line back in the late 80s, when a truce saw SBL left with the 18/19 Millbrook-Thornhill route as their only route wholly within the city boundary. Over the last few years, as First have floundered and reduced their network, Bluestar have gradually expanded onto more city routes. Sholing, Aldermoor, Oakley Road, Townhill Park - all used to be Citybus/First territory, now all with a Bluestar presence.

What makes this especially significant is that First's Weston route has until now been their only high-frequency route on which they have not faced direct competition. That changes in November.

The move will surely hit First's profits in our city and make it more likely that they will leave sooner rather than later. We just have to hope they sell rather than close down, as a Bluestar monopoly will be free to raise fares to the higher levels they charge outside the city.

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Changes on Unilink, First Wessex and First Pompey 15

A couple of changes have happened this weekend...

In Southampton, we have timetable changes on all Unilink routes, including extra morning and late night services on the U1, more morning journeys on the U6 and the U2X being replaced by more journeys on the run of the mill U2. New timetable also on the U9.  Details here.

First in Weymouth have new timetables from today on the following routes:

1, 2, 3, 4, 4A, 8, 10, X51, X53, X54

Summer services X55, 500 and 501 are withdrawn for the winter. See their new timetable book here.

And in Portsmouth, First 15 has a new timetable as it extends on weekdays to connect with the Hayling Ferry.

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