With thanks to Andy Gilmour, who dropped me a line, there are changes to some of the Winchester services coming up from Sunday. I missed them I must admit, whether it was unlucky timing from me or simply not clicking the right tab.
Either way – the information about all Stagecoach changes can always be found on their dedicate COVID pages.
Extra Services for Schools
In the City
To ease of the congestion of service 5 from Badger Farm, an additional 15:30 service 605 will run from Battery Hill into Winchester City.
Schools journeys on ‘open’ service 7 and ‘closed’ service 607 are retimed to better manage capacity around the temporary start and finish of Sparsholt’s sessions. This also affects the schooldays service 7 that extends to and from Salisbury.
Further Afield
Arlesford & Four Marks – Additional buses will run on ‘closed’ college service 64X for Peter Symonds College – providing capacity for the 11:30 session start and 13:30 session finishes at the college.
Bishops Waltham & Waltham Chase – The 14:53 from Peter Symonds to Waltham Chase on the 69 is replaced with a schools service 691 which runs at an earlier time suited to the 13:30 college session ending.
Salisbury – The 10:07 service 68 now runs later at 10:27, and the 14:40 return trip now runs earlier at 13:40
Romsey – There are timetable changes to the 663
… and all change for the 85
Andover & Ludgershall – Service 85 between Winchester and Andover, and it’s associated schools journeys are having a completely new timetable across all six days. The only service that is not changing is the 07:45 from Andover to Winchester. Rather than me explain it, you can download it for yourself from the Stagecoach website.
In terms of the schools services for Peter Symonds College, there are now 4 dedicated college trips in each direction daily, numbered 851 to 853 (also on the link above)
Before We Go!
With all the rumours and stories that the Government are bringing in a second lockdown, remember that there is always someone to talk to. It’s not just about staying safe, washing your hands to Happy Birthday or wearing a mask.
There is – always – someone to talk to:
You can contact Samaritans 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
You can call 116 123 (free from any phone).
You can email jo@samaritans.org
You can also call the Welsh Language Line on 0300 123 3011 (7pm–11pm every day).
There are many other services available as well. When I have felt the need to refer people, I have usually used this page from Mind as my go to list of numbers for people to call.