Boxing Day 2023

HantsBusBluestar, First Hampshire & Dorset, First Solent, First Wessex, GoAhead Group, morebus, Seasonal Services, Service Updates, Southern Vectis, Stagecoach South, UniLink
A Southern Vectis bus at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight
Reading Time: 2 minutes

So the cold turkey is being sliced for sandwiches, the most hardy are getting dressed ready to head to the Boxing Day sales that started on Saturday 23rd December (go figure) so what are your chances of getting there? Well it depends where you are in Hampshire and Dorset I suppose, as there are no trains to London today!

Don’t worry, none of that AI generated bus stuff that I posted yesterday. I am sure that a few spat out their morning Bucks Fizz and others closed the window in disgust; I am not sorry.

Go South Coast

There is a Sunday service on both Bluestar and Southern Vectis today with two exceptions:

  • Bluestar 6, which is actually mostly operated out of morebus Lymington, does not run.
  • Unilink (run by Bluestar) will only operate a special service on the U1

There is a mostly Sunday service operating on morebus.

  • Sunday service runs on 1a, 1b, 1c, 3 & 4, 5 & 5a, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 22, 25 & 26, 40, X3 & X8
  • Special service run on m1/m2 and Breezer 50
  • No other services run

First Bus

There are no services operating in Weymouth and Dorchester on First Wessex.

There is a Special Service operating on the following First Solent routes:

  • Services E1 & E2 in Gosport [Every 40 Minutes on each variant]
  • Services 1 & 3 on the Fareham – Gunwharf – Southsea – Gunwharf “figure of 6” [Every 30 Minutes]
  • Service 2 between Gunwharf – Southsea – Copner – Paulsgrove [Every 30 Minutes]
  • The Star 7 running Gunwharf (via Queen Street) – City Centre – Wecock Farm [Every 30 minutes]
  • The Star 8 running Gunwharf to Waterlooville only [Every 30 Minutes]

The timetables for the Boxing Day services are on this PDF from First Solent.

Stagecoach South

Where Stagecoach South is such a large cross-conglomerate of operating areas, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Only the following services will run:

  • Winchester depot based services are a Sunday Service
  • Services run from Blackwater Valley depots, that cross into parts of our area are a Sunday service
  • Portsmouth area will run special services on
    • Portsmouth to Farlington [every 30 minutes] and Havant [hourly] on service 21
    • Southsea and Portsmouth to Havant and Leigh Park on service 23 [every 30 minutes]
    • Gunwharf to Havant and Chichester on service 700 [every 30 minutes]
  • The Barfoots of Botley staff bus (725 – formerly 25 until the First 25 became the Stagecoach 25, and then there were 2 25s which …. I promise I wrote this on a work day) is running as normal – but does not appear on BusTimes.