In the long running saga between Xelabus and Hampshire County Council, I have held off from posting this. I hoped that Hampshire County Council took a change of heart, Xelabus realised that Bournemouth has given them enough inspiration to run buses again or something more happened to help the people of Eastleigh.
In a few weeks time though, most Eastleigh bus services will be replace by Southampton Mini Link. This new service will run every two hours around Valley Park and Chandlers Ford.
Unusually for a bus oprerator these days, Southampton Mini Link helpfully includes a road list as the route is fairly convuluted around Eastleigh, Millers Dale and Peverells Wood. Traveline SW also goes one better if you are interested and plots all the bus stops on a map.
Have Southampton Mini Link bitten off more than they can chew? Is a roughly 2-hourly service around these estate areas going to bring passengers back onto the buses? Will the £6,000 GoFundMe that Simon Gard started to fund the service reach target?
Lots of questions that I can not answer, but I hope that for the few that might use it, that they start using it quickly in order to give Southampton Mini Link the chance to make it a success.
I think Simon has bitten more than he can chew. Spoke with a driver from Xelabus yesterday about his plans, and they mentioned that the majority of passengers are oap pass holders – hardly enough to run a service without a subsidy. And the speed that his GoFundMe thing is going, there won’t be enough to keep the service going for a week, let alone six months.
expect non pass holders would use the more frequent rail service into town
Hardly “most” bus services. Still Bluestar 2,3&5, Xelabus X4 and Stagecoach E1/E2 going through Eastleigh.
via chandlers ford?
What a convoluted route indeed! Surely it would make more sense to serve Fryern Hill straight after South Miller’s Dale? (creating an elongated terminus loop)
Also despite what the author says, this route does not serve Valley Park whatsoever.