Portsmouth goes 24/7 (and more)

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A round-up of some news that I first started talking about a few weeks ago, and news have reached the BBC – in a notable national way – that buses in Portsmouth are going 24 hours a day from next month.

Thanks should also go to Reece for reminding me of these changes.

So, you may remember just before Christmas that I was talking about the service 1, running between Gunwharf and Southsea (and usually continuing as service 3 to Fareham) having noted added and then withdrawn about a 24 hour service. So despite this change to service in fact being withdrawn, it is not the end of the story.

From February there are a number of service changes which actually affect not only First Solent, but also Stagecoach South. These in part at thanks to funding from the Bus Service Improvement Plan funding, which was a central pot of Government money that was bid on by local councils. The funding is confirmed for these enhancements until March 2026, however apparently there is also a commitment from First and Stagecoach to run them until December 2026(?!)

Think of it as the Department for Transport hating the railways so much that they will throw potentially limitless money at buses.

Portsmouth has already seen so much benefit from the BSIP money, with weekend 24 hour services on many routes as well as buses on Christmas Day. So to see further extensions to this is good for the local economy.

Service 2 will be the new 24 hour service from First Solent.

The overnight frequency, seven days a week, will be hourly. At the moment the Paulsgrove to Gunwharf service runs every 30 minutes up to around 1am on a Friday and Saturday, so whether this continues as well will be told when the timetable appears. At an hourly frequency though, it will require a pair of buses.

The Star 7 and Star 8 services will see additional evening services, providing a half-hourly service to Wecock Farm and Clanfield. Star 7 will also see a timetable change with a 15 minute weekday frequency (12 minutes in the peak) and a 20 minute weekend service.

Solent Rangers X4 and X5 has a timetable change for punctuality.

Service 9 and 9A has a timetable change seeing less buses running. This is a bit of a shame considering electric buses are due for the route:

• The first and last few buses start or terminate at various points between Alver Village and Bridgemary, depending on direction and time.
• For journeys starting at Farnham or Gosport, they start up to an hour later
• Weekday services finish up to an hour earlier

First Solent have a news page about it here – where hopefully timetables will appear in due course.

Also in First Solent

The new electric Wrightbus Kite EV’s are now being regularly seen around the area on weekdays as drivers complete their familiarisation on the electric fleet. Again funded if I recall by the Bus Service Improvement Plan these are initially planned to run on Gosport services 9 and 9A, and Fareham and Portsmouth services 1 and 3 (which interwork together…. so makes sense) and indeed looking at the various pictures and BusTimes tracking some of the runs have been along these routes.

Thank you for all the usual social media posts that pop-up in various groups. I think the blue livery suits them and those of you in the Fareham area have been quick to whip out the camera-phones.

From April it has also been reported that services 1 and 3 will increase to every 10 minutes. With the new buses due over the next couple of months I wonder whether February or April will see their entry into passenger service.

There are also changes registered with Stagecoach South, which take place on Sunday 18th February and some of these are also in line with the funding made available from the BSIP grants. At the moment, I can not see anything on the Stagecoach website about it, although I tend to have trouble even setting my “location” on their website these days. This is what my understanding of it all is.

Services 13 & 14 which were recently taken on from First Solent will gain additional evening services and a new Sunday timetable. I presume hourly evening and Sundays each way? At the time of looking the new timetable is not on the open data feed I am using.

Service 18 will increase to half-hourly at the weekends, which confused me last time I tried to use it on a Saturday, as well as new later evening journeys. Timetable not available yet.

Service 23 will run overnight services seven days a week. There will be an hourly timetable using two buses, although some additional trips run on Friday and Saturday nights to keep the service half-hourly until approximately 0200. For the early adopters, the timetable is available on TravelineSW.

Service 30 & 31 will have a reliability-based timetable change. There is an extra 10 minutes running time that I can see in off-peak weekday trips, so other times are likely to also vary and it does appear that some trips may also run the opposite way around the loop to now.

Oaklands School parents – The school bus will now be 15 minutes earlier in the mornings! Don’t let the children fool you!

Coastliner 700 (the Portsmouth to Chichester section) will have a reliability-based timetable change.

Also in Portsmouth

From Monday 15th January, there will also be revised bus stopping arrangement in the Portsmouth Ciity Centre area at Commercial Road South. There is a closure arranged for Stanhope Road (the bit of loop road the buses use alongside PRYSM Nightclub) means that buses will use alternative stopping arrangements for a period up to April.

Stagecoach in Portsmouth’s operational changes can be found on the Stagecoach website, but essentially the 20 and 23 will use the Park and Ride stops in Bishop Crispin Way.

First Solent also confirm that the same stops will be used for the 3, 8 and X4.