You may remember that I posted not so long ago about the Hampshire County Council plan to consult on the future of bus services, while I assumed that the long term plan was to do away with council supported bus services altogether. While I think that this is still the plan, there have been somethings afoot that are are all related to the Bus Service Improvement Plan (or BSIP for a really memorable acronym) and sort of overlap at times….
…. okay they don’t – Hampshire County Council will probably cancel most of the buses that they current offer a token sum to.
From the 14 April by Bluestar
We have already posted about the Bluestar service changes (with new Bluestar bus photos) and so we will just summerise what the BSIP money is funding from the changes:
- The Bluestar 1 returns to its original 15 minute headway during the day on a Monday to Saturday basis
- A new N1 twice each Friday and Saturday night
- The Bluestar 2 will be every 15 minutes on Saturday (it already is on weekdays) and extra evening services between Southampton and Eastleigh (only)
- Additional trips on Blueatar 4 – particularly in the evenings.
From the 14 April by Bluestar
We have already posted about the Bluestar service changes (with new Bluestar bus photos) and so we will just summerise what the BSIP money is funding from the changes:
- The Bluestar 1 returns to its original 15 minute headway during the day on a Monday to Saturday basis
- A new N1 twice each Friday and Saturday night
- The Bluestar 2 will be every 15 minutes on Saturday (it already is on weekdays) and extra evening services between Southampton and Eastleigh (only)
- Additional trips on Blueatar 4 – particularly in the evenings.
From May onwards by Stagecoach
“Buses between Newbury, Kingsclere and Basingstoke will run later into the evening and on Sundays for the first time, as well as more frequently at weekday peak times. These changes are in partnership with West Berkshire Council.“
Now I have deliberately left the copy and paste from the Hampshire County Council website here. That’s because I think they mean The Link will run on Sunday evenings for the first time, but it can be read differently. I am sure that back in the day The Link and / or the 32 ran on a Sunday. Of course, as it is a West Berkshire joint funding, I would imagine this will be a full route extension on the evenings, but will the Kingsclere shorts will play a part in things as well.
Service 66 between Romsey and Winchester will return to its old half-hourly frequency, Monday to Saturday daytime.
“In Andover, more buses will run to and from East Anton throughout the week, with extra trips during the day as well as into the evening and on Sundays. Service 76 between Andover, Whitchurch and Basingstoke will improve to every 30 minutes, Monday to Saturday daytime.“
For some, this is an improvement. Now it may be that the short trips between Basingstoke and Whitchurch are simply extended to Andover, however at the same time it was not that long ago that Stagecoach had:
- Basingstoke to Whitchurch every 20 minutes
- extended to Andover hourly
I am sure that there are still buses at Andover promoting that! I remember the days as well, where the 76 would go into the West Ham Leisure Park in Basingstoke to pick up gamblers from the bingo and take them home…. shows my age as well.
From May onwards by First Solent
New late evening services will see routes E1/E2 move to an evening service of every 20 minutes. Now based on the current timetable of a bus every 20 minutes on weekdays, is the financial assistance to move to a bus on each of the E1 and E2 every 20 minutes (10 minute combined)? There is also rumblings that there are electric buses planned for the Eclipse. The existing Streetlites are only around 2 years old, so they are not contractually obliged to be replaced yet; albeit the funding for the electrification of the 1 and 3, 9 and 9A is now starting to see Wright Kite Electroliners starting to appear in Solent livery.
There is also funding for that 9/9A between Gosport and Fareham to provide an hourly evening service. Of course much of the route used to be, at least vaguely, the old Provincial 8 (or 88) and that did run in the evenings. If the original Electroliners are indeed still going to the 9 and 9A I would like to see some kind of launch and maybe a slight daytime uplift, but I am not convinced that this will be the case.
There will be improvements to the daytime frequency of bus services on the Solent Rangers X4 and X5 corridor between Fareham and Gosport via Stubbington. It appears that the Rangers will have more of a commercial change as well, with the X5 going to Portsmouth alongside the X4 and a replacement service covering the Fareham to Gosport section of the X5. Now, I would have a wish list that this increased in frequency and better served the area in the evenings, but we will wait and see.
The First Solent F1 service will be also extended from the town centre to also serve Sainsburys. This is a bit of a saving grace for the F1, where elsewhere the 20 which also serves the Fareham Highlands might get it’s funding removed.
So the funding is from a new pot?
That is to be determined. It could, behind the scenes and under the covers, be in part a reallocation of the £800,000 that HCC are potentially removing from direct funding.
I would like to think that this BSIP money is enough of a catalyst towards funding being kept for socially necessary bus routes in the area, and being a conduit to continued funding elsewhere. I am not convinced that this is the case though and that both pots of money are completely independent of each other.
I am sure I read somewhere in the BSIP small print that local authorities had to maintain at least their current level of bus subsidies to get the BSIP money. If they do not BSIP is removed. So if that is right, HCC could be jiggling budgets so they get the BSIP but once the time is up for the BSIP to be used then perhaps we will see the ‘real’ bus thoughts of HCC?!
Probably was a long term plan to cut the X5 in half. The X5 was born out of the ye olde 72 & the 34. Those going Gosport to Soton probably changed buses in Fareham anyway as X5 so loopy around Fareham. The X4 could do with earlier trips from Soton in morning if anything as well as later eve buses.
Be nice if an X6 could go Soton to Whiteley to Fareham to Portsmouth. But those ‘in power’ at First still see Whiteley as just a little offshoot of Fareham despite all the changes in last 20 years plus more to come with the 3000 homes in North Whiteley being built. The 28 28A extension to Botley just effectively twice a day is a joke. Extend to Hedge End shops I say. Anyhow, what do I know…..? ..First’s AI probably knows better!
I would say an X6 to Whiteley would largely depend on whether HCC continue funding the 28/a after the consultation closes next week.
The 28 extension to Botley is, as far as I know, just a commuter thing to keep someone somewhere happy. The 26 would have been ideal back in the day if it was running now.
I am still of the opinion that the 72 was …. diverted …. was short sighted. I wonder how they would have faired during the last few years of rail strikes and whether FHD could have claimed a few Gosport scalps.
28/28A is partly developers money as was for 3 years, so must be at least past the half way point now.
FirstBus WorstBus relevant…
Yeah, I don’t think there’s a cat in hell’s chance of any funding on any routes from HCC, I looked at the documents for the relevant full council meeting and the consultation seems as much as anything else to be, effectively, a perfunctory nicety: the budget cut is already approved. You’d imagine they’d save Dial-a-Ride-type schemes before they touch public transport, anyway.
Obviously the BSIP cash is central government money, with restrictions on what it may be spent upon. Just as it was central government money in the form of grants to operators that kept the F1 & F2 on the road (even if in sharply reduced form) when they were already condemned — the VOSA (or whatever they call it now) cancellation notification having already gone in — back between August and October 2022.
I’m not holding out a great deal of hope for either the 20 or rhe 28/28A as they’re council supported. I wonder if the F1 extension to Sainsbury’s isn’t just a roll of the dice? The F2 is surely dead in the water already.
“It appears that the Rangers will have more of a commercial change as well, with the X5 going to Portsmouth alongside the X4 and a replacement service covering the Fareham to Gosport section of the X5.” That’s not how I read the HCC press release – just that there may be extra ‘short’ X5’s between Fareham and Gosport. Nothing about the X5 running to Pompey instead. Unless you know better 🙂
It is based on something I have heard, and rumblings from various corners. One of rumbling came from someone who is not usually that far off the money either.
Although some figures come from Facebook (God Forbid) others come from a chance conversation when I was talking about the raw deal Lee-on-(the)-Solent gets these days.
Maybe & this is speculation, some X4’s when they get to Fareham from Portsmouth will then be transformed as a through bus on X5’s & vice versa