The nationwide driver shortage is starting to crunch into the service resilience. I see every day, that bus services are cancelled either at the start of the day, or mid-shift when pingdemic passengers pick a pot of something…
[Look – I am at work, I am not being creative today – I will think up something better later!]
First Group are the ones to have grappled with the numbers and decided to cut services. Having had some horrific trips around Gosport and Fareham, and sitting on train platforms for an hour as a result, I would prefer a resilient timetable to a fantasy pie in the sky.
These are the changes from this weekend: Sunday 19th September.
First Solent
Thanks to Tom Moore for pointing out the changes on Twitter. Tom is a deputy relief supervisor (I hope I got that right from memory) based at Hilsea depot.
First Solent also have service changes the following weekend affecting the other Solent depot at Hoeford, subscribe to the blog or follow the Twitter to see when I manage to get it up!
Service 2 – Gunwharf – City – Eastney – Copner – QA – Paulsgrove
- Weekday Daytime – Cut from Every 10 Minutes to Every 12 Minutes
- Saturday Daytime – Cut from Every 12 Minutes to Every 15 Minutes
- Sunday Daytime – Cut from Every 15 Minutes to Every 20 Minutes
Service 7 – Civic Offices & City – North End – QA – Crookhorn – Waterlooville – Wecock Farm
- Every Day – Cut from Every 15 Minutes to Every 20 Minutes
Service 8 – Gunwharf – City – Stamshaw – QA – Waterlooville – Cowplain – Clanfield
- Monday to Saturday Daytime – Cut from Every 15 Minutes to Every 20 Minutes
- Sunday Daytime – Cut from Every 20 Minutes to Every 30 Minutes
Service 25 – Gunwharf – Old Portsmouth – Southsea-ish – Eastney – Hayling Ferry
- Winter Timetable – Last trips are earlier each day
First City Red
The team at First Southampton are only making changes to the City Red 3. From my interpretation of the new timetable I am thinking that they are taking one of two of the buses out from quieter parts of the day.
Weekdays, there are buses that termininate in the City Centre, then a cases of a 15 minute gap between claims of “frequent service.” It’s like one of two entire sections of duty have been removed, which to be fair makes sense without trashing the rest of the frequency.
Weekend Services appear to be unchanged.
First Wessex
Weymouth Depot also have a shortage of drivers affecting their town routes as well as its frequent connection to Dorchester.
The revised timetable is only showing as valid until 02 October at the moment. This would suggest that things might still be very fluid in terms of driver numbers, and is only going to be valid for 2 weeks.
Service 1 – Weymouth – Wyke Regis – Portland
- Every 15 Minutes – Monday to Saturday Daytime
- Every 20 Minutes – Sunday Daytime
Service 2 – Weymouth – Radipole – Littlemoor
- Every 15 Minutes – Monday to Saturday Daytime
- Every 20 Minutes – Sunday Daytime
Service 10 – Weymouth – Dorchester – Poundbury
- Every 20 Minutes – Monday to Saturday Daytime
- Every 30 Minutes – Sunday Daytime