The autumn is finally with us as Storm Alex batters the Solent. Bus and train operators are already dealing with the elements and even the Sandbanks Ferry lay out of action for part of Friday!
Bus operators are also making some more changes to a small number of services over the weekend. Some are more, some are less and some were just on the cusp of reasonable notice.
Let’s look at the top to bottom of the changes:
Winchester and Basingstoke
Stagecoach South have already suspended their late night services that run on Friday and Saturday nights only. This was announced on their social media accounts on Tuesday, and was essentially with immediate effect. They cite the reason as being because of the 10pm pub curfew, and are continuing to run services on many routes right up to 11pm departures.
This is the second part of my moan, which I started here earlier in the week.
Portsmouth
First Solent’s Hilsea depot will be making changes to a number of services for Waterlooville this weekend.
The full weekday service is restored on the Council supported D1 and D2 services to Denmead and Hambledon. The Saturday frequency is still reduced, which essentially means less operating hours and a missing bus in the afternoon. One presumes this is to facilitate a driver break.
More importantly though, from Sunday the entire timetable for the Star 8 is adjusted to match current traffic levels. This means that almost every trip is retimed, but the frequency largely stays the same.
If you are travelling early morning or late night though, take extra care to check before you travel, especially as the very early Sunday trips are now withdrawn.
Some trips on the Star 8 are also adjusted to facilitate a tweak to the Oaklands School 7A closed contract service.
You can see slightly more detail on these changes on my post earlier in the week.
Weymouth
Changes also affect a number of First Wessex’s Weymouth services from this weekend.
Although many of the changes are affecting schools duplicates, service 1 is reduced from 3 buses an hour to 2 buses an hour on Sundays.
I imagine that the schools changes are simply down to level of custom from the scholars, although many parts of the Hampshire and Dorset area are seeing complaints from customers that school children are overrunning the morning buses.
Either way, I post more details earlier in the week.
… and one that got away …
Finally, South West Coaches are now back to what I think is a normal timetable across Weymouth, Yeovil, and Shaftsbury.
They had a timetable change on 1st September, including introducing duplicated schools journeys.
Please stay safe on this treacherous weekend of wet and windy weather, only go out if you have your face mask, sanitiser, lucky four-leaf clover and Twitter on your smartphone (and follow us – please) and see you later in the week when more changes are announced.