It was bound to happen. Hundreds of thousands packed beaches right across the coast, just as many packed pubs and bars to watch teams of men kicking a fake pigs bladder across a field; and a little virus has started to run rampant.
Yes the COVID ping-pong of application continues and a larger number of bus drivers and train crews have fallen foul of the Ping Of Isolation. Doth may they not fall ill.
I don’t think any of the local bus operators can honestly hold their hand on their heart and say they haven’t been affected. First Solent have already announced service reductions on Eclipse, albeit I have not been to Gosport to see if it was enough, and now Yellow Buses announce new service reductions.
Yellow Buses from Sunday 25th July
Service 1 will largely revert back to a Saturday timetable and provide a bus across 3 core sections of route:
- Poole to Bournemouth every 30 minutes
- 1 an hour continues, 1 an hour appears to need a change of bus for
- Bournemouth to Tuckton Bridge every 10 minutes
- Continuing to Christchurch every 20 minutes
- The two 1N night buses still run on Fridays
- You can download the timetable here.
Yellow Buses still only run an hourly service between Poole and Bournemouth on Saturday’s and Sundays, which does not change – hence the “largely”
Service 5 will run on a reduced weekday timetable during most of the day:
- Each line of route (5 via Coombe Avenue, 5a via Columbia road) will run every 20 minutes instead of every 15 minutes
- Early morning (up to 0808 from Bournemouth and 0836 from Kinson) will not change
- Evening services (after 1823 from Bournemouth and 1740 from Kinson) will not change
- 5N and 5aN services will still run on Friday nights
- You can download the timetable here
All Operators report Shortages
It’s not a surprise that all bus operators across our regions are reporting a shortage of staff. The number of people self-isolating or contacted by track and trace is significantly on the increase and cancellations at short notice are commonplace at the moment.
Remember. You might not need a mask by law, but if you are travelling on a bus, every little thing to protect passengers and more importantly the drivers helps keep as many services running as possible.