If you are living in the east of Southampton and you are looking for a new Sunday service then you are in luck! Southampton Mini Link announced recently that it is the new operator in Southampton and it is filling the gap that some operators have not bothered to fill!
Launching on 03 October, this new operator is going to be offering a brand new Sunday service to compliment other services in the Harefield, Bitterne and Merry Oak areas. Well… I say offering a service from 03 October, the brand new bus company has not actually submitted a registration to run the service, but has posted it’s timetable on it’s brand new Website.
Who is Southampton Mini Link?
This is a new company is from veteran small bus operator Simon Gard. He has previously operated bus services in the Ringwood and Bournemouth areas, and has traded under a variety of brands in recent years such as GardBus and Southbourne Buses.
Simon is currently a bus driver with First Southampton, if his Facebook profile is up-to-date, and has previously worked with a number of other bus operators. He has acquired an accessible minibus which was previously used in Scotland (picture) for demand responsive services around Strathclyde and used by a small number of operators there. Looking at his operators licence, the bus will be running dead from an operating centre in Ringwood.
From the publicity being promoted on the Southampton Mini Link Facebook page, it appears that his registration of a new Sunday service in Southampton has proven popular:
13a Southampton City Centre – Woolston – Bitterne – Harefield
The new service appears to run along sections of the existing Monday to Saturday route 13 operated by First Southampton (City Red). It also takes in some of the Sholing estate that is run on Mondays to Saturdays by City Red’s route 9.
Southampton Mini Link are proposing that their Sunday service will run hourly for much of the day, albeit with a half-hour lunch break in the middle of the day. This suggests that the service will be run with a single vehicle and driver.
Their service page also helps offer a flat fare system for the whole route:
- Single Fares are £2 for both adults and children
- Return Fares are £3 Adult and £2 Child
- Concessionary Passes are accepted, but no other operator tickets and passes are (which I assume includes SolentGo and PlusBus)
For a service that is not going to start operating until Sunday 3rd October and has yet to be registered, bus stop flags are already being adorned with the new service details.
Other New Services Incoming?
There is also a few other services mooted in the works.
The Southampton Mini Link website shows links to a service 5 from January 2022 and an unannounced service from November 2021.
But I am concerned…
I think that new independent operators are a good way to shake up the current commercial set-up.
Look at what happened in Eastleigh; Black Velvet Travel entered the town, had a good few years and were then joined by XelaBus. XelaBus continues to operate, after acquiring much of the Velvet work and vehicles, now having a large footprint in the town.
Southampton Mini Link’s owner has had less of a successful history though. Back in 2017 Southbourne Buses started competing with More in Ringwood, registering remarkably similar routes, a few minutes ahead of the large established operator.
This was something that was covered by the previous blogger of the Southampton Bus Update with Southbourne Buses giving up not long after SotonBus posted the article. I can only hope that the new Southampton operation will not become as riled in controversy as the one in Ringwood. As you can see from the screenshot below (original on the Southampton Bus Update site can be found here) there were many concerns:
Southbourne Buses also tried competing in Burton and Somerford for six months, an open top service in Bournemouth which had operating problems and GardBus drew some criticism back in 2015 until Simon Gard sold the business.
I hope this is a new positive chapter though!
With Simon driving for City Red, he must have got a good insight into how successful the Sunday routes in Southampton could be, and has probably taken much account of the people he serves on the 9 and 13 to pitch the price properly, get a timetable that people can rely on, and then remember to register the service he is already promoting!
I look forward to a trip to Southampton in October to see a new operator entering the ring!
The 5 is running from Southampton to Ringwood
At the time of publishing, the details of the 5 were not available. We have placed a new article online today though reflecting the 5.
Cheers!