I know, I know, I have been neglecting you recently and you have been getting your information from elsewhere. You know when you have so little time and so many things to do? Well I never made it to the Alton Bus Rally this month and work dictates that I will not be able to make it to the Stokes Bay Rally next month. It’s all a bit pants. I do hope however that I will be able to bring you some pictures of Spanish buses in a few weeks time…. Because.
So we are back to a monthly round-up and I think we will start with the little changes first.
Transpora
So, you remember Transpora. A quirky little start up – lets just leave it at that gents – where schools contracts and various other short lived services were run including the Bournemouth to Boscombe service 2, various routes for Kingston Maurward College and a half a season with an open top bus along Bournemouth seafront and none of them really got off the ground.
Well despite the up and down of the Dorset routes, Transpora were reasonably strong and had buses running up the road in Bristol, until:
We have been made aware that Transpora Bus South West has ceased operations overnight. While the future of the business is clarified we will operate services X10, 25, 60, X91 and Arthur David staff buses to normal timetables https://t.co/UQQ7d9XhGu#Bristol #buses pic.twitter.com/cY8JqipEL9
— The Big Lemon (@thebiglemon) July 13, 2024
Now I know, Bristol is slightly out of our area, but of note is that the Altonian Coaches operators licence removed the Poole and Southampton outstations (the latter I am sure is very much out of date) and moved them to Bristol.
Then of course we have a public enquiry into Transpora directors Rhys Hand and Philip Higgs on 8th August 2024 where the following will be considered:
- S17 – Consideration of disciplinary action under Section 17 (The Public Passenger Vehicles Act
- 1981)
- S28 – Consideration of disciplinary action under Section 28 (The Transport Act 1985)
- S26 – Consideration of disciplinary action under Section 26 (The Transport Act 1985)
It should be noted that other operations within Transpora Group are not affected, like Blackpool and London Routemaster.
First retains Tipner P&R
That is pretty much the headline. First Solent have retained the Tipner Park & Ride for another 5 years as you can see reported in the local Portsmouth News.
With planning permission either granted, or almost granted, for the new News Centre Electric Bus Depot in Hilsea; one must wonder whether we will eventually see replacement electric double deck vehicles being ordered for this.
I am sure that someone like Tom or Luke Moore will be able to correct me, but the vehicles for the Park & Ride are owned by Portsmouth City Council and operated by First Solent? So although we currently have some Wright Streetdecks planned from being ‘electrified’ – I would expect we will be waiting for new dedicated units.
You will also find that there are more double deck vehicles running on Hilsea based routes. This appears that it could be more permanent with the influx of electric vehicles and the
Changes at Stagecoach
Although there are more minor timetable changes at Stagecoach South, the Andover network is also getting a significant recast.
Many services will be merged to create cross-town routes and this also means frequencies will change.
Full details can be found on this dedicated post.