First City red were caught short!
These changes are superseded at incredible short notice by changes taking effect Sunday 12th December. The changes can now be found here!
I know. I know. We are still not even in December yet and I am talking about January 2022. Yet at the insistence of someone who really can’t wait, First Bus is already under pressure to release details of it’s timetables for service changes that are planned to take place on Sunday 16th January 2022. These affect central City Red routes within the Southampton City season ticket area.
Now…. Firstly this would have been the first that anyone on social media might have heard of any service changes.
Also when will u inform customers that u won’t be running the 11 from Jan 16th?!
— Claire Thomson (@Clasamthom) November 28, 2021
First So’ton instead are gonna be extending the no2 to go from Millbrook to International Way, Weston from Jan 16th. So almost like it was yrs ago then.
Now. I had already spotted the changes as well. I watch the Notices and Proceedings from the Traffic Commissioner and so I was just waiting for two things; the official announcement and the timetable. The latter is obviously the most important as there is no point me saying Oh – you know there is a new bus timetable and we can tell you it will be coming, but we don’t even know the route yet!
As Claire has let the cat out into the public at large bag; let me tell you – First City Red have some changes coming up that are going to mean people will see a different number on the bus, but it will be going the same route.
Changes to City Red 2 and City Red 11
From the 16th January, despite the fact that I think there is already elements of inter-working in the off-peak; services City Red 2 and 11 will merge to form a single cross-city service.
The new City Red 2 will run from Millbrook, through the City, to Weston, International Way. This is one of the existing stops that is on the Weston loop of the number 11 and as far as I can tell from the service registration it will simply be a like-for-like replacement.
Other Timetable Changes
First Bus have also registered changes to services City Red 3 between Lords Hill – City – Thornhill and City Red 7 Townhill Park to Southampton City Centre taking effect on 16 January, and to City Red 9 on 30 January.
As this is a bus service variation registration, and not an actual news announcement, we have no further details. While we allow Claire to continue trawling the bus service registrations, noting that they gave more than the pre-pandemic 56 days notice (as far as I know this is still relaxed from the March 2020 temporary rule changes); we will come back when this is updated with more detail.
Note that many service registrations are extremely short notice to the Traffic Commissioner.