Updated on 01 June to add details of the now released timetable.
Following on from the success of their new buses in Southampton, Simon Gard’s Southampton Mini Link has announced an extension to their weekday service in the City.
The number 14 bus, between the City Centre Woolston, Bitterne and Chartwell Green will be extended from an off-peak to an ‘all day’ service between 0745 and 1745.
The new timetable is of a similar format to the weekend Southampton MiniLink service 13a between Southampton city centre, Bitterne and Harefield.
Hourly departures will do a round trip leaving Vincents Walk at 0745 and then hourly until 1545 (except 1245 – presumably for a single driver to have a break and do the whole day) and then a final trip to Chartwell Green only leaving at 1715. Alongside the day tickets on offer, Southampton Mini Link will also offer a new £9.50 weekly ticket as well.
If you are a bus driver looking for work; Southampton Mini Link have also been advertising for CPC holding drivers to work.
It comes at a cost!
Whether this decision came directly before, or after; Southampton Mini Link have announced the service cancellation of school day service 38.
This service, predominantly for the students of Ferndown School is once again no longer being run by Simon Gard from the end of the school year. It was published formally on Gov.UK recently, but I was hoping it was merely as a Summer Season tidy up.
This continues a bit of a saga, with:
- Gard Bus (Southampton Bus Update covered them long before this blog was a twinkle in my eye) ran buses in the Ringwood area for a while including to Southampton. The business was mostly sold to Ringwood Taxis.
- Southbourne Buses (the next(?) Simon Gard endeavour) ran the S38 school service until 2021 in the middle of the COVID pandemic. Southbourne also ran a service in Burton and Somerford, per this leaflet in a local publishers portfolio. The service was then taken over by Dekkabus
- Simon bought (or at least had transferred to Southampton Mini Link) the Dekkabus business – including the S38.
- It lasted an academic year and the 38 is now over.
That does make mention though, that the operating centre for Southampton Mini Link is in Ringwood [it was in Ringwood – Simon Gard has confirmed that they now have an operating centre at Barton Park in Eastleigh]. That is a fair bit of dead mileage for the services running within Southampton, unless there is alternative parking found nearer by. It only takes one blip on the meandering trip through the forest for the service to take a hit.