It’s Sunday night and the children are driving you nuts already, aren’t they? Well with two weeks of school closures, the weather might be just about right to take a trip out by train and bus. A number of bus operators are offering discounts for families over the school holidays and there are other ways to save as well.
Let’s look at what you could do. Let’s start with just buses!
Day-Riding with Stagecoach
Stagecoach South have again reduced the prices of their Family Dayrider across the network for Easter.
The Gold Family Dayrider gives you travel right across the company, for £12.50, but for single town areas they start at just £5. Combined with using the train, it can get you to Southsea Beach, Hayling Island or West Wittering easily.
A full price list for Stagecoach South Family Dayrider prices can be found on their dedicated news page.
Southampton Evening Tickets
If you fancy taking the family bowling or to the cinema in the evening Bluestar & City Red are continuing their £1 singles for trips after 6pm. These have recently been announced to be continuing until the end of April.
- Bluestar’s £1 offer is across all fare zones
- City Red still offers £1 single trips, but there is nothing about it on their website
PlusBus
If you are heading to the Beach, or anywhere by train, then in most cases you want to consider PlusBus.
PlusBus offered by National Rail and are day tickets (week, month and annual are also available) and you can buy them for both the start and end of any journey.
So for example; get a train to Bournemouth and you can get a Bournemouth PlusBus valid on morebus, Yellow Buses and First Wessex. I use these quite often when the family are out and about with me for the day. They certainly don’t like the 20 minute walk to beaches!
You can find out more, and get prices for PlusBus on their Website.
Marwell Zoo
Marwell Zoo – formerly known as Marwell Wildlife – have regained their summer connection from Southampton and Eastleigh. First CityRed are running the M1 again this year, with departures from Eastleigh Bus Station starting hourly from 10:10.
The full timetable is available for download from the CityRed website. A group of 5 from anywhere in the Southampton area, in to Southampton, to connect with the M1 is just £16.
On Sundays, you can also get the Stagecoach South 69 from Winchester. The timetable for the 69 is here.
Paultons Park
The home of Peppa Pig World also has regained its bus service for the summer. Over Easter there will be two services from Southampton and Salisbury to get you there by 11am and two services back in the evening.
The timetable for the X7 and X7R, run by Salisbury Reds is available on their website.
Now on to less buses.
Isle of Wight
Now this is where it gets more complicated.
Already on the Island? Well Southern Vectis have already started some of their summer services. The Downs Breezer and the Shanklin Shuttle don’t start until the late May Bank Holiday, but there are already some beautiful open-top bus rides to be had.
Island Line, with their new class 484 trains – stop snortling at the back, technically they are new – are largely running to an hourly timetable. Some journeys do not run down the pier for the Wightlink FastCat though, so check here for PDF timetables or check here on the national rail website.
Getting to the Island?
If you are not yet on the Island, then there are definitely some changes to be aware of.
This Week there is a bus replacement service for SWR trains between Brockenhurst and Lymington. This will affect you if you are travelling as a foot passenger from Lymington to Yarmouth.
Red Funnel have also recently been having problems with their Red Jet boats out of Southampton. Although there are no shortages reported yet this week, staffing issues have led to pre-planned cancellations.
With No Apologies….
…. this has turned into a bit of a Visit the Area by bus, train or boat. In the grand scheme of things though, get out and support public transport. Use it before you lose it. Things like PlusBus really do help in some places if you rely on public transport on a budget.
Over the next few days, I will also bring you up to date as to how many days of Sunday service you have next weekend.
Don’t forget that City Red are also continuing their evening bus rate of £1 per single, £2 return. And according to what I hear from the local council, this will continue to be funded until the summer at least.
Well I did wonder, but a dig around the City Red website did not find anything.