It’s Christmas Week!
We are all busy panic buying the last cauliflower, because obviously they come from abroad, queueing outside Costa at 5am to get the coffee to get through the 6am queue at Sainsburys, and then getting the bus home again.
So while we are all saying Merry Christmas Everyone, it’s also time to look at the buses and what they are running through the 4 tiers of Southern England.
FirstGroup
Across the region, FirstGroup are running their standard weekday school holiday timetable.
Stagecoach South
The special Christmas timetable is still ongoing on the Winchester Park & Ride where buses will run at least every 10 minutes.
Most of the network is running to a Saturday service across Stagecoach South. There are some excpetions to the rule though, which we have remarked previously:
Andover: A weekday service operates on:
* Route 5 (Monxton MOD, Grateley and Thruxton)
* Route 7 & 7A (Highclere, Greenham & Newbury)
* Routes 66 & 67 (Tidworth & Laverstock to Salisbury)
* Routes C5, C6 & C8 – The Tuesday service will run on Tuesday
Basingstoke:
* Route 16 (Steventon) runs on Monday and Wednesday
* Route 22 (Sherbourne) runs on Tuesday
* Special services run on Route 9 (Alton) and Route 13 (between Whitehill & Haslemere)
Portsmouth:
* Hoverbus runs to a weekday timetable
* Route 38 (Petersfield to Alton) will run to a School Holiday weekday timetable
Winchester: A weekday service operates on:
* Routes 46 & 461 (North Baddesley)
* Route 95 (East Stratton) on it’s usual Monday
* Route 240 (Ropley to Alresford) on it’s usual Monday
GoAhead (morebus, Salisbury Reds & Bluestar)
Across all the GoAhead companies, there is a normal weekday service, right up to Christmas Eve, right up to the end of service.
So technically, if you are riding the last Christmas Eve buses, you might be able to look up and find Santa’s Sleigh.
This is except for:
- Bus for BU Unibus services where there is no service except an hourly U3
- Joint service Activ8 between Stagecoach and Salisbury Reds will run to a Saturday service
Yellow Buses
Yellow Buses will be running a Saturday Service on most routes, which accounts for the fact that schools are closed and some offices are still working from home.
There are always Exceptions to the service level though:
- Weekday Timetables:
- 18 (for Canford Heath, Waterloo Estate and Broadstone)
- 21 (Bransgrove to Christchurch) d
- 33 (for Boscome, Hospital and Southbourne)
- 36 (Talbot View to University and Kinson)
- 737 (for Aviation Business Park and Bournemouth Airport)
- NO service will operate on the 6h and 31.
Xelabus
Now…. Xelabus are still running a significantly reduced timetable for the month due to low patronage. This means that they are not even running a full Saturday timetable on a weekday:
Special Service
- Services X6 and X7 to Velmore, Chandlers Ford and Hiltingbury is still running it’s combined 2 hourly service.
Yes, that’s right, Every 4 hours in each direction.
Saturday Service
- Service X4 (Hedge End – West End – Colleges – Eastleigh)
- Service X9 (Bishops Waltham – Hedge End – Eastleigh)
- Service X10 (Southampton – Bishops Waltham – Waltham Chase)
- Service X11 (Southampton – Lords Hill)
Weekday Service
- Service X12 (Southampton – Freemantle – Shirley) will run on Tuesday
- Service X15 (Hamble – Hedge End – Fair Oak – Eastleigh)
- Service X17 (Eastleigh Petersfield) will run on Wednesday
- Service X21 for Southampton Science Park
- The Bitterne Hoppa will run on Monday & Wednesday
Non-bus Services
As we are in strange times it is also worth mentioning that there are quite a few changes on the boats, trains and more.
- Gosport Ferry continue to run every 15 minutes between 0530 and 2300
- Hayling Ferry is suspended until the New Year
- South Western Railway services between London, Salisbury and Exeter are only running between Basingstoke, Salisbury and Exeter
- Great Western Railway have service reductions across the top of our region between Reading, Guildford and Gatwick Airport, as well as to the South West and Cardiff
- Island Line has been having problems with both the old class 483 trains and power supply issues. There is often a reduced service