morebus are one of the few bus operators who have announced their service updates to take effect this weekend, rather than over the Bank Holiday. Maybe this is because their school commitments only need to start on Monday, maybe this is because Bluestar were changing the week before and the management team in Poole wanted better focus.
Either way, after we announced their changes for most services last week, they have now added their schools changes into the mix. I imagine this is because they were still in conference with the schools to get the requirements just right.
So this is what is changing on Sunday 6th September at morebus:
Core Routes
Most core routes return to their pre-COVID frequencies, and so rather than a long list of “returns to pre-pandemic service”, this is what is NOT:
- Nightbus N1 and N2 remain suspended
- Service 3 will now depart Poole Bus Station Stand H
- Service 10 now depart Poole Bus Station Stand E
- Service 15 now depart Poole Bus Station Stand E
- Breezer 30 is withdrawn – presumably for the winter season
- Service 38 will now divert all journeys via Heatherlands Estate
- Breezer 50 has a revised timetable
- Breezer 60 has a revised timetable
- and the Rockley Park service will depart Poole Bus Station Stand E
- Breezer 70 will now only run on Sunday 6th, 12th/13th and 19th September before being withdrawn – presumably for the winter season
- X2 trips at 0755 (New Milton to Lymington) and 1515 (Lymington to New Milton) are withdrawn to provide a dedicated schools service for Priestlands
- X6 has alterations to the evening service.
- RINGO will now finish earlier with the last service being the 1415 from Ringwood – presumably to free up a vehicle for schools commitments.
- Bluestar 6 will return to pre-COVID levels, run on behalf by morebus.
You can see the official morebus announcement on their website.
Schools Routes
morebus are encouraging students using the buses to get to school to more onto their dedicated schools routes. In most cases, every service has an alternative ‘closed-doors’ service for students to use. This is because schools bubbles.
Looking down the list of schools and colleges now getting dedicated bus services – you can see all the schools services here – there does seem to be an extensive list and far more than usual.
What I will be interested in, is seeing whether these services last. Once the Government drops the social distancing, masks and other recommendations and guidelines; will such an extensive network still work more profitably for GoAhead? Will students prefer to actually use the service buses and leave schools specials consigned to a U-grade at the next assessment?
For those of you in Bournemouth, you might also have seen Yellow Buses service changes taking place last weekend and you can still see a list of those updates here. There were a few early complaints about alterations not being advertised, but bus operators (as far as I am aware) are still on their pandemic-friendly system of only needing 72 hours notice for service changes.
We are however, near to a normal pre-pandemic service across the Solent and Dorset.