Following on from the announcement that City Red was leaving Southampton, Bluestar have been on a public relations drive to recruit passengers and drivers to a network of new replacement routes. Go South Coast have now released the timetables for their replacement services, after some concern was spotted by one of the city’s regular commuters.
Now, I got sent a picture by regular contributor Reece which was promoting the new Bluestar 15. He saw something that I must admit it took me a while to notice, that the service was promoted to start on Monday 20th February. Bluestar of course, were doing the timetable change on Sunday 19th February. Anyway, a few comments on one of Bluestar’s promotional posts and low-behold, there is now a set of timetables.
I am not suggesting that the two events are link, merely – coincidental.
Change to Existing Bluestar 7
There are going to be some additional Bluestar 7 departures from the city centre at 2045 and 2245 towards Sholing. Looking at the timings of these, I get the impression that they tie in with new late buses for some of the services which are being taken over.
I must admit, looking at the timetable, I had forgotten the route run all the way to Lordshill (or Aldermoor on Sundays), so I re-learnt something new today!
Six New Stars
We digress though and we have some new timetables to look at.
What I think is interesting is that Bluestar are going to introduce new late trips, but only a small number of them. I hope that if the services become successful with what is a two hour gap between buses in the late evening, that this gets a quick uplift before the summer.
I think the most important phrase for the locals to remember here, will be Use Them or Lose Them:
Bluestar 10 for Peartree & Sholing
The replacement for City Red 9 will run a few minutes later than the current daytime timetable, starting from Vincents Walk, before calling at West Quay at 15 minutes past the hour (currently starting West Quay at 11). The first weekday bus will be earlier though, giving an earlier arrival to the City Centre around 8am for the morning commute.
No new Sunday service though.
The route itself, apart from the extension to/from Vincents Walk is unchanged and you can find the timetable here.
Bluestar 13 for Merry Oak & Harefield
Also extended from West Quay to Vincents Walk is similar route Bluestar 13, which is the replacement for City Red’s 13 and Southampton Mini Link’s 13a.
Yes, Bluestar might have thought that Simon Gard was on to something when he started up the First Sunday service for a while for the Harefield Loop (don’t let him hear I said that) and Bluestar have taken the timetable and doubled down.
Firstly, the daytime service is going to run every 30 minutes (against City Red being hourly). The morning rush is a slightly reduced frequency, but adds in an earlier 0620 departure from Harefield.
Secondly there is a later evening service with regular services up to a 2010 departure from the City and a last bus at 2220. It’s a bit of an oddity in terms of having a 2 hour gap, so definitely use it or lose it! The same last buses also run on Saturday.
Lastly, that Sunday service will run hourly between 0837 and 1835 from the city centre. Fairly close to the running hours of the 13a last year.
You can find the Bluestar 13 timetable here.
Bluestar 14 for Hedge End
The extension of City Red’s service 8 is not going to continue under Bluestar and the new Bluestar 14 will run on an unchanged route between Vincent’s Walk and Hedge End Station.
New earlier buses start from Hedge End at 0555 on weekdays, and new later buses back from the city will run at 1930 and 2130 six days a week.
The Sunday timetable remains hourly, and you can download the whole timetable here.
Bluestar 15 for Netley & Hamble
This is the service that had the locals concerned for their new bus service. Thankfully the new timetable continues to show that there is a Sunday service in the offering and apart from fairly minor timing changes; it is still half hourly Monday to Friday and hourly at the weekend.
The Bluestar 15 timetable is here.
Cross-City Bluestar 19 between Lordshill and Thornhill
I was actually surprised to see that the replacement for the City Red 3 was actually kept largely as-is. Apart from the new service running via Maybush Corner instead of Warren Avenue (where Bluestar already run the high-frequency 17) the route is unchanged. With so much duplication along the Shirley corridor, maybe I was expecting something a little more…. risky?
The timetable for the Bluestar 19 is going to be a reduction compared to the City Red 3. It will run every 15 minutes for most of the day, although Bluestar have also retained the early departures towards the General Hospital as well.
The Saturday service will run every 20 minutes and the Sunday service every 30 minutes. Timetable.
Bluestar 20 for Midanbury & Townhill Park
Finally, the replacement for the City Red 7 is also a largely untouched timetable. There are again new later buses which are hourly until a 0005 departure seven days a week although the Sunday service will reduce to every 30 minutes.
It’s almost like for like!
I can see that Bluestar have gone for an element of stability and familiarity for the replacement services that they are taking on from City Red. The new network maps are also included on the Bluestar news article about the timetables and I don’t see any new glaring gaps in the network .
I don’t think that the City Red 8 really had long enough to bed in providing the cross-city link between Bitterne and Southampton General Hospital so I am not surprised that the extension is dropped. I would imagine that most people who make that journey are already mentally prepared for having to change buses in the city centre anyway, so going back to it won’t be a significant change.
I also think the routing of the Bluestar 19 via Maybush corner is sensible; I have sat on a variety of services along Warren Avenue and the traffic lights seem to take forever to get through to justify having the 17 and the 19 continuing to flood the area.
I think Bluestar are taking a risk adding in the few late-late night services that they have, on the basis that City Red were not running them. I hope that it pays off for Go South Coast and that they can provide a better service in the evenings for those that need it.
I would think that late 14 bus running is designed to fit in with T20 Blast Cricket matches.
If you see the released timetables on traveline SW, you will notice a few more changes: timetabling changes to 17 and 18, the absence of the 15 and 20, as well as a potential withdrawal of services 35, 36 and 39.
If you go to Bluestar website, no timetables are available to be seen after Feb 18.
Maybe there are more changes on the way. Let’s keep an eye on them.
I do use Traveline as one of a number of sources, however at the same time I do not rely on it as it is only as reliable as the information the operators enter onto the Bus Open Data System.
Likewise, the absence of the 15 and 20 does not concern me, as it may merely be a corrupt single byte of data in the timetable upload.
We are however, past the 56 day window for registrations, so unless there is a good reason for short notice changes, I can’t see anything major changing.