Good morning from a train racing through the Hampshire and Dorset countryside as I spend my Saturday heading down to Bournemouth to enjoy a number of open top buses. The weather is not expected to be bad, but it is also not expected to be brilliant, so I am thankful that there are a number of places that I can abandon ship if needed.
Now originally, I had planned around this time to head to Portsmouth and get some pictures of the last weeks of First Solent contracted services. As I race through the Eastleigh Railway Station though, two First Solent double deckers regrettably unidentified and not tracking on Bus Times, are providing a rail replacement bus service to Fareham.
The Plan
So today I intend to do two things; get a morebus Breezer 50 from Bournemouth Railway Station to Swanage (via the Sandbanks Ferry) and get either a First Wessex X50 (or morebus 31) from Swanage to Weymouth.
Open top buses are preferred so I am being flexible. Listening to some of the complaints on First centric social media and chat sites, open top provision from the Weymouth Depot has been haphazard at times.
At the start of the day though:
- 1W57 South Western Railway service to Bournemouth (arriving 1001)
- 1020 morebus Breezer 50 from Bournemouth Railway Station to Swanage (arrive 1140)
- 1254 First Dorset X50 from Swanage Bus Station to Weymouth Kings Statue (arrive 1431)
- Train back home
You know me though, I can not pass up a good pub, so I will probably jump off here and there and rack up a small fortune of £2 bus tickets.
The First Half – Breezer 50
Now; I have seen and heard many times how the Breezer 50 is a very popular route. Often running full, both upstairs and down and struggling to get onto the Sandbanks Ferry.
A slightly late arrival with SWR but 1712 (HF66 DSY) was waiting in the Coach Station to take on its first trip of the day. As you can see, the Coach Station is in full bloom today and you are dodging the hanging baskets just to get in the bus door.
Lots of UniBus deckers have passed in the 10 minutes we have awaited departure, running on a variety of routes including the m1 to Poole and the 5 to and from Kinson.
17 upstairs as we leave the Railway Station behind, a slightly meandering indirect route into Bournemouth Town Centre there are people waiting at every stop.
The branding from Go South Coast for the Breezer services stand proud on the town centre bus stops, with a large open top bus fleet running its own small network.
The Breezer 50 in the Bournemouth area is not what you would expect from a “beach breezer” open-top type route. The Breezer 70 and 80 routes start their trips out to the east and come along the beach from Hengistbury Head whereas the 50 comes though the town and the diverts away from the seaside each time it approaches.
As you can see, the Breezer network does interlink and interchange at many points on their routes; like in Bournemouth Square.
Following the beach along Westcliff, there is also a City Sightseeing Bournemouth tour run by Discover Dorset which equally heads out towards Sandbanks. Third operator Transpora Bus currently runs the T1 competing along the Boscombe Pier section; at least until Wednesday.
As I proof-read about always turning away from the beach, we are now heading to Westbourne, which is almost like a 15-minute community within the Bournemouth and Poole conurbation. When I am in the area, I do enjoy a pint in The Westbourne, a Green King establishment.
The number of stops the Breezer 50 is making in Westbourne and the passengers joining us shows that more than just being a tourist bus, morebus use this as a year round local bus service. Indeed the 50 runs year round in full while the other summer services are either withdrawn or shortened.
Unlike other breezer routes, this service bypasses Alum Chine and heads directly to Branksome Chine. There are still plenty of access points along the route though and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council also run a half-hourly land train service along the beach to Bournemouth Pier.
One of the problems that does then rear its head, because the bus is sporting along the various beach access points, is the traffic. Parking along side sides of the road reduces the road to a single lane, with the inevitable squeeze between double deck buses and not only tourist, but local cars too. Heading past the Inn in the Park, the top deck is now full as we drop down to Branksome Chine. Strangely (in my opinion) no-one got off; I expected some would want to get off here.
You know you have hit Sandbanks because of one very striking point. The size and cost of houses clearly goes up as you turn left out of Canford Cliffs. Huge sprawling homes with full height glass walls giving a view into massive bedrooms. They need to make their bed though.
The run through Sandbanks to the ferry is relatively quick when given a clear run and being waved past the waiting cars we were quickly on the Sandbanks Ferry.
Like the run through Sandbanks, once past the ferry toll booth things wel quick running. The breeze through our hair as what felt like a spirited run (is it 60 for a stretch?) Took us into the beautiful Studland Village.
It’s interesting to note, for me anyway, that the top deck was full all the way from Canford Cliffs. The appeal and passenger flow was not to the Branksome and Sandbanks beaches, but mostly into Swanage itself. Personally surprised that so many people wanted to make most of the hour plus trip!
The drop down towards Swanage itself is one of those drives that I don’t envy bus drivers for. How the buses are not regularly full of scratches and dents as the free fall down from Studland is amazing and I know I would not want to be taking a few tons of metal down it myself!
Not surprisingly, we get to Swanage beach late, its already 1150 against an 1140 arrival at the bus station. That would probably explain the generous layover that the driver of the 50 seems to have. As we reversed into the stand next to Swanage Railway Station I was keen to remind myself that I have at least an hours break factored in for Swanage; because the First Wessex X50 open top service is on the stand right behind. For obvious reasons I did not rush and decided against a straight through run:
It’s a good thing I let that bus go as well! Not for the want of visiting the little bus spotters room, but because the White Swan had Fossil Fuel from the Isle of Purbeck Brewery and across the road The Anchor Inn had the Sharps Brewery offering of Sea Fury. Notwithstanding, I also missed the 1254 X50 that I planned to get.
Yes – it was 32200 (MIG 6219) which is an open topper…..
The Second Half – X50
Having decided to spend longer in Swanage, I am now on the 1354 First Wessex X50 to Weymouth (32329 620 HOD).
Clearly First thought about this and also gives its drivers along layover at Swanage as the bus was here for more than 20 minutes. Certainly time to visit the gents at the seafront (Swanage Railway facilities are strictly for customers only) and grab lunch in the local co-op.
Lots of “roughing it” campsites in the way out to Harmans Cross and a slow slog up some of the inclines. It’s not as bad as trying to get through Corfe Castle though, with a fight against traffic coming in the opposite direction.
The First Dorset X50 does not call into Corfe Castle Station on the Swanage Railway, but makes an exceptionally spirited run onwards towards Wareham. That made me notice a small ironic sign on the window.
A turn off through Stouborugh offers some delightful views with residents out polishing their classic cars, as we head into Wareham and a variety of local country pubs and small shops. This may be the target of a future visit as a Hants & Dorset livered morebus passes us on service 40.
A quick ‘double run’ detour to Wareham Station also revealed a bus that was apparently parked up at an auctioneers. I regret, no identification or history for this one!
It was a quick turn back to Wareham centre though and a tempting second offer to press the bell, which I did not take.
A short layover in Wool crossed us with ‘not open top’ 37276 again on its way to Swanage. This must make it a 4 bus service to maintain the hourly frequency. Incredibly tight roads in Wool and the Wool Level Crossing must hamper the timetable.
Dropping down into West Lulworth and passing The Castle Inn (recommended for its food, but too late for me to visit this time) the roads are tight and winding through the fields, approaching the Lulworth Cove bus stop.
It was then time for the very slow crawl up to Durdle Door. I remember hearing for years that summer traffic is horrendous in the area, but being late afternoon the roads appear to be clear! The few top deck seats that were vacated at various points around Wareham were quickly filled and by estimation there were a good 12 to 15 people at the stop when we got there.
Unfortunately, having a seat companion now, the chance to take photographs of passing closed top deckers on the 31 was difficult and the weather was becoming a little grey and overcast. The quick run into Weymouth was actually not as bas as I thought. I scoured for the right timetable with the little signal we had because it felt like a late arrival was on the cards; but we were soon passing Seaview and Weymouth Bay holiday parks where more tourists joined us for a late trip into the town.
For Weymouth, I thought the roads to be relatively clear. Maybe the lull between arrivals and departures quietens the roads down a bit and we were soon at Kings Statue where… the driver had no relief and the next working was cancelled. Lots of closed top Jurassic Coasters were working local routes, with a green StreetDeck working the Sunseeker 13 to Bowleze Cove.
For me though, it was the end of a few long days, so it was a quick pint in the Wetherspoons, a Proper Naughty Burger from outside the railway station and off to find 1W28 to take me home at 1655… next time I will avoid when Bournemouth and Southampton are both playing at home.
Now all of a sudden we have Go Ahead London buses operating on Southern Vectis route 1.
Southern Vectis have told the Isle Of Wight County Press that they are temporary,as a delay on new buses arriving means they won`t arrive till end of Oct,in case anyone else was wondering.
TravelineSW website has First’s summer service X50 being cut back to Wool-Weymouth only from 3rd Sept, then ending altogether on 16 Sept. First’s website, under “forthcoming changes”, says the X50 continues “until further notice” from mid Sept. Bustimes.org has the X50 continuing to run over the complete route Swanage-Wool-Weymouth beyond mid Sept. In the real world, only one of these is right, but which one? The other two must refer to some parallel universe.
Anyone know what`s happened to Southampton bus Update-been very quiet for some time?