With the new school term approaching, First Bus has started to announce it’s service changes taking effect from 5th September.
Portsmouth
In the Portsea Island area, the combined service 1 and service 3 routes will increase to a 10 minute frequency on weekdays.
I think this is a good call. The combined service caters for a large part of the south end of Portsea Island and has multiple connection points in case a bus comes out of service due to staffing. I am not convinced that the Pingdemic is over yet; even as the restrictions are loosened.
Southampton
Planned service changes affecting the cross-city City Red 3 (Lords Hill – Hospital – City – Thornhill) and City Red 7 (City – Portswood – Midanbury) services have now been cancelled. I can only imagine that the changes to the isolation rules are not enough to maintain the enhanced service.
Weymouth & Wessex
The high season was enough to spread pings and coughs across Weymouth and the team at Edward Street had to revert to reduced timetables back on the August 8th. [well – they called it minor changes, but they cut the tourist services all but in half – depending on which Low Season timetable you presume is running]
What is finishing for the season though is the X52. Anecdotal evidence from few comments would suggest it was not as busy as it could have been. The Bridport – Weymouth – Monkey World / Bovington Tank Museum will end on Sunday 5th September; it has probably seen a bit of a spread of passengers with morebus along the coast this time around and I wonder if a collaborative working next year would be more beneficial
Bring back Nationalised Bus!!! [I’m joking, don’t worry]
First Sub-Contracting
With First Bus sub-contracting it’s Queen Alexandra Hospital staff shuttle and Isle of Wight rail replacements, it might allow a bit more stability in the Southampton and Solent operations. Weymouth will probably stabilise as well as the tourists head home and Weymouth becomes a locals town for a few months.
Winter is Coming, time for the flu season to commence.