More(bus) service changes in September

Reading Time: 3 minutes

While I was busy enjoying a bit of a jaunt photographing buses in Northern Europe, Go South Coast have registered a large number of service changes across Bournemouth and Poole from Monday 19th September.

Overall, I think morebus are just adjusting to the low season timetable and this is what we come to expect around this time of year. I will be the first to admit that I do not know the 11 well enough to say whether the withdrawal is a good thing or a bad thing, however the benefit to a regular timetable for the X6 should surely help between Bear Cross and Ringwood.

I was expecting more of a network change to account for the merging of the former Yellow Buses network. I would go as far as saying that morebus not merging the two network maps yet is a little of a sign that it might happen. With Breezer “deep winter” withdrawals on the 40 and 60 taking place 23 October…..

Anyway – speculation over. On to changes from Monday 19th September:

Bournemouth and Poole Town Services

m1 and m2 – Poole & Bournemouth to Castlepoint & RBH / Christchurch – revised peak times with no change in frequency
10 – Poole to Lychett Matravers – Revised to run every 70 minutes
11 – Poole to Kinson – Cancelled with Bearwood Estate served by the X6
12 – Alum Chine to Hestingbury Head – Suspended for the Winter
14 – Poole to Royal Bournemouth Hospital via Alderney and Kinson – Extra running time on some peak time trips.
16 & 17 – Bournemouth to Alderney Wallisdown and Poole – Many trips will depart Bournemouth a few minutes earlier, and all daytime trips on the 16 run 2 minutes earlier throughout (for some reason).
There is also an extra Sunday night trip on the 17 at 2339 from Bournemouth
20 – Poole to Bournemouth and Castlepoint – The first trip from Castlepoint runs a few minutes earlier and the 1615 from Poole / 1718 from Castlepoint runs 20 minutes later
898 – The ASDA bus will lose it’s last trip with the 1445 departure from Poole withdrawn.

Out of Town services

X3 – Bournemouth to Ringwood and Salisbury –
Monday to Saturday, the entire timetable changes including departure times from Bournemouth and Salisbury.
Sunday’s timetable has a few extra minutes running time.

X6 – Bournemouth to Ringwood and Poole – The X6 timetable is having a bit of an overhaul if I am honest.
Bournemouth to Ringwood: There will be less weekday services on the express section of the route. There are 5 trips from Bournemouth and 4 from Ringwood.
Ringwood to Poole: This will move from an irregular to an hourly timetable for most of the day. All trips will divert into Bearwood replacing the withdrawn service 11. There will also be a 2-hourly Sunday service now running beyond Ferndown to Poole. I hope this consistent timetable will draw more customers in!

38 – Ringwood to Ferndown – Full timetable revision to add an extra trip into the timetable. On Saturdays and School Holidays, this now means 5 return trips – with one trip running to and from Trickett’s Cross only on schooldays.

Breezers

As usual there are the winter seasonal withdrawals of a number of the Breezer branded services:
30 between Weymouth, Lulworth and Swanage
31 between Wool and Bovington / Monkeyworld
35 between Swanage and Wareham Forest

Other changes see the rest of the Breezer network move to their winter timetable
Breezer 40 – Poole to Wareham and Swanage – Hourly every day until 23 October (when Sundays move to Every 2 hours)
Breezer 50 – Bournemouth to Swanage via the Sandbanks Ferry – Hourly
Breezer 60 – Rockley Park to Poole and Sandbanks Ferry –
Hourly Monday to Saturday between Rockley Park, Poole and Sandbanks
Hourly Sundays between Poole and Sandbanks until 23 October then withdrawn for winter
Breezer 70 – Alum Chine to East Cliff – With the 12 not running for the winter, the 70 will continue running Monday to Saturday on a shortened route for the foreseeable future. I am not convinced it will still run after 23 October.