This year, Christmas falling on a Saturday has inevitably meant that there has been far less in the way of bus services than usual. Boxing Day is always a minimal service provision, but two days of Sunday services after that has almost certainly been a blessing in disguise for the bus operators who are scratching the bottom of the proverbial barrel to make sure that some semblance of the service continues to run.
Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th are much more normal for this time of year. Notwithstanding the fact that there are fewer drivers to go around, unless you are a conspiracy theorist, it is a service level that we have come to expect over the last few years.
So if you are out panic buying fizzy wine for New Years Eve, because you cancelled your nightclub tickets expecting to be locked down; this is what the bus operators are offering for the next two days.
Bluestar
Out in the sticks, low-frequency and contracted services are largely working a weekday timetable:
- Service 35 and 39 in the Romsey area
- H1 & H2 in Hythe on Wednesday
- T3 & T4 in Totton on Thursday
- Red Funnel’s QuayConnect
Everything else is scheduled to run to a normal Saturday timetable, with the following extra services in the morning ‘rush hour’:
| Route | Extra Early Morning Journeys |
| Bluestar 5 | 0705 from Eastleigh to Romsey and 0745 from Romsey to Eastleigh |
| Bluestar 9 | 0527 Langley to Southampton |
| Bluestar 12 | 0555 from Calmore to Southampton and 0625 from Southampton to Calmore |
First City Red, Solent & Wessex
A full Saturday service timetable will operate.
In Yeovil, First Wessex / Buses of Somerset service 6 will run a weekday service.
morebus
Longer distance and rural services are running to a weekday timetable:
- Services X1 and X2 between Bournemouth and Lymington
- Service X3 between Bournemouth, Ringwood and Salisbury
- Service X6 between Poole, the rural villages, Ringwood and Bournemouth
- Service X8 between Poole and Blandford
- Services 23 and 24 in Burton and Christchurch
- Service 38 in Ferndown and Ringwood
- Ringwood and New Forest community services 112, 119, 125, 191 and 193
- Ringwood RINGO
- Lymington CANGO
The core more services across Bournemouth and Poole though, they are running a Saturday timetable, with these additional ‘rush hour’ extras thrown in:
| Route | Time | Journey |
| 5 | 05:51 | Tollerford Road to Poole |
| 8 | 05:48 | Poole to Poole |
| 9 | 05:52 | Turlin Moor to Poole |
| 13 | 06:37 | Merley to Bournemouth |
| 14 | 06:12 | Kinson to Poole |
| 16 | 06:14 | Branksome to Poole |
| 16 | 06:51 | The 0651 from Branksome to Poole will additionally serve Bournemouth Square at 0640 and Westbourne County Gates at 0647 |
| 17 | 05:45 | Poole to Bournemouth |
Southern Vectis
Normal weekday timetables run across all routes.
Southampton Mini Link
Normal weekday service runs on service 5.
Stagecoach South
Stagecoach are running a weekday service on services that are under contract, or occasional.
- 5, 7 & 7a, 66, 67 and CANGO in Andover
- 95 and 240 in Winchester
- 16 and 22 in Basingstoke
- Hoverbus in Portsmouth
All other services are running to a Saturday service.
Xelabus
It’s a tale of two sets of timetables across Xelabus, with almost half and half split of the two services running out of Eastleigh Bus Station.
A weekday service will operate on lower frequency services:
- X6 & X7 to Valley Park and Hiltingbury
- X15 to Hedge End and Hamble
- X17 between Bishops Waltham, Droxford, West & East Meon and Petersfield
- The Bitterne Hoppa services X1, X2 and X3
A Saturday service will run on:
- X4 to Hedge End
- X9 Eastleigh to Bishop Waltham and X10 between Waltham Chase and Southampton
Yellow Buses
Service 31 between the Hospital, Christchurch and Somerford remains suspended.
A weekday service will run on the low frequency and contracted services:
- Service 4a to Winton and Kinson
- Service 6h between Christchurch, Castlepoint and Royal Bournemouth Hospital
- Service 18 to Canford Heath and Broadstone
- Service 33 to Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Christchurch and Broadstone
- Service 36 between Talbot View, University and Kinson
- Service 737 to Bournemouth Airport
A Saturday service will run on all over routes.