February 2025: First Solent Bus Service Changes

Reading Time: 4 minutes

While in the midst of their industrial dispute, First Solent have announced that they are making some timetable changes to services mostly across Fareham and Gosport. These changes are due to take effect on Sunday 23rd February although with the strike action taking place there will be alterations to the alterations.

I would say that I hope that Unite and First Bus are talking positively. Looking at the Unite South East Facebook page though there is this quote from Ian Woodland, the unions regional officer:

“First Bus are acting like stroppy children and refusing to even meet with Unite for talks.“

Ian Woodland, on the Unite South East Facebook Page

In contrast, First Solent appear to have removed all references to the strike action from their website and have not announced the new action starting next Sunday.

Services 1 and 3

The figure of 6 service from Fareham still appears to be running as a through service, so easy to talk about them together.

All trips have been retimed slightly to “improve punctuality” and there are a few extra trips on a Saturday.

Service 2

Extra trips have been added into the timetable during the peak, but the AI has made sure it’s not a strictly 10 minute frequency.

Service 5

There are timetable changes of a few minutes to some of the trips, but nothing really significant. No late evening service for the communities around Lee-on-the-Solent and Stubbington.

The Star 8

The Star 8 between Gunwharf, Stamshaw, Waterlooville and Clanfield will have a timetable change where pretty much the whole timetable will be a few minutes different to what it is now. Frankly it looks like someone has given the data to the AI engine after giving the computer a bottle of vodka.

Someone, somewhere, must have made a small fortune by suggesting that moving from a departure every 15 minutes to some gaps being 14 minutes and others 18 minutes. In the grand scheme of things, by the time a bus starts loading you find that a lot of buses do not depart bang on the start of the minute timetabled. So why it’s needed is something I think AI is going a little to far for. It does give a chance to hide that there are some hours where there are only 3 departures instead of 4.

Some trips which terminate at Clanfield on a weekday evening will now run back down to Cosham.

Services 9 & 9a

Most timetable changes are minor, except Saturday evenings where buses on service 9 will run 15 minutes later, including the later 2330 last departure from Gosport.

Service 11

Having used service 11 on and off over the last few years, even I know that the reliability of this service can be patchy. The timings of all 4 round trips have changed.

Of note though, is that the 0930 departure from Fareham will now be at 0920. This presumably will mean that senior (and disabled from 1st April) concessionary bus passes will no longer be valid until around Hoeford bus depot.

Eclipse

The E1 and E2 services will get extra trips in the rush hour with the advertised frequency being every 7 to 8 minutes. An additional E2 will leave Gosport at 0522 on weekday mornings, running via A32 rather than the busway.

The Saturday service will also increase, with each route increasing from every 24 minutes to every 20 minutes (a 10 minute headway on the BRT).

Sunday timetables will also change, but no increase in frequency.

Solent Rangers

I don’t think the X4 and X5 are actually branded as the Solent Rangers anymore, but I quite like the name so I have kept it.

The timetables are being revised (mostly just by a few AI minutes again) and the route changed before 0915 on weekdays to fight the Portsmouth Road “car park” towards the Itchen Bridge and Southampton.

Specifically, this diversion should be taken on weekdays by:

• The 0632 Fareham to Southampton X4 (arrives West Quay 0738 & Central Station 0744)
• The 0636 & 0716 Portsmouth to Southampton X4 (arriving West Quay 0827 & 0907 – Central Station 0834 & 0914)
• The 0650 & 0730 Fareham to Southampton X5 (West Quay 0803 & 0847 – Central Station 0810 & 0854)

There are some other changes to the timetable which are partly obscured by the fact that online sources don’t merge the X4 and X5 into one timetable like they do with the E1 and E2:

• The current X5 morning ‘short trips’ from Fareham to Portsmouth will now be an X4 – not that the route is any different.
• There are some extra early evening trips to / from Southampton, however departure times on both routes have changed significantly. So check your timetable carefully

I think that covers everything:

Of course, I hope that Unite and First Solent get the chance to try and prevent the February of Discontent happening. If you are buying a weekly or longer ticket this week, then you really should make sure you are going to be able to use it.

First Solent have not released any timetables for the upcoming action which sees a mixture of 2 day midweek strikes and whole week 7 day action. You can read the details as I understand them on last weeks post. I may pop over to the picket line if I get a chance, however some of the Hoeford drivers have a particular dislike of me for some reason.

You can also find the First Solent webpage on the upcoming changes on their website, alongside a “timetables coming soon” moniker despite the fact they are already on Traveline.