With the run up to Christmas being quiet, there has not been much to report. No significant bus service changes have been announced recently as everyone has been busy planning whether to run a Santa Bus or not; albeit morebus did put some more vehicles on the m1 and m2 routes in Bournemouth and Poole.
Saturday’s announcement though. Gosport, Portsmouth and London to Tier 4. Christmas cancelled for almost all of the country. All very rushed an choatic.
For those outside of the transport industry, it has been cries of “but… will my bus / train / ferry still run!!!“
Largely – Yes
There has already been changes on the railway. A shortage of train crews, largely down to positive cases of Coronavirus and their colleagues who are isolating as a precaution, has meant that South Western Railway and Great Western Railway have had changes to services.
Trains between London and the South West have been altered in the Hampshire Bus Update region. Services from Exeter and Sailsbury have been terminating at Basingstoke where connections take passengers on to London.
Bus services have been luckier though. All of the major operators have continued their published timetables, albeit I expect with some gaps in service on an unplanned basis, and people have continued to use them. I have made a more conscious effort to limit travel even within my working day, but buses do continue to be busy.
Timetables and Scheduling is Complex
Just because you are expecting a bus from A to B at 10am, it is not as simple as just saying “There is a bus at 10am.”
Scheduling and timetabling is a very complex area. Firstly the diagrams for buses and drivers has to be robust, leaving enough time for any minor delays but also making sure there is enough to go around. A driver has to have their legally mandated breaks, move between routes to give all drivers their breaks and more.
This means that in the short term bus timetables will not change. Even reducing a service from 3 buses an hour to 1 means that then you have buses and drivers sat idle, sometimes an hour away from where they are next needed. I would also very much doubt that for the time it takes to reset, re-schedule and re-publish timetables, there will be much change for the rest of the week.
Changes already announced
One service in the area that is cancelled though is the Hayling Ferry. This link between Eastney and Hayling Island was cancelled when Portsmouth was going into Tier 3 this weekend.
It should be noted though that the busier Gosport Ferry is going to continue it’s 15 minute frequency between 0530 and 2300 as it is presently.
I will be keeping an eye
As with every change to the COVID tiers in Hampshire, it completely changes my workload. I am now busy making changes in my own business to make sure we are ready for Tier 4; but I will also bring you any announcements caught across the bus companies and more as we approach the end of the year.