With the new school year already feeling like it is next week. Bluestar have confirmed their changes taking affect on Sunday 31st August. There appears to be a lot of Bus Service Improvement Plan funding coming in for services in Southampton which is always a good investment, but at the same time what happens when the money runs out?
If you hate my synopsis on things like this, then simply head to the Bluestar news article on their website.
It does not appear that there are any changes listed for the Bluestar managed UniLink services. Of course the University academic year starts later than schools so there is still time for them to appear. I wonder if the U1N will have a change to tie in with the new N2 or be cancelled altogether?
Bluestar 1
Daytime frequencies will increase to every 10 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 20 minutes on Sunday.
There is a new Monday to Friday 05:05 trip from Winchester and later Sunday night services (00:10 from Southampton and 00:05 from Winchester). I am not sure whether to be surprised or not that the N1 will still only run Friday and Saturday nights.
Night & Bluestar 2
Sunday daytime frequencies will increase to every 20 minutes and later last buses (23:13 from Fair Oak and 00:20 from Southampton). There are also additional trips in the weekday morning rush hour.
New Nightbus N2 will run every day on a circular service which is loosely based on the existing route:
- From Bargate following Route 2 to the Giddy Bridge Wetherspoons
- Then to the Royal South Hants Hospital – Bus Times suggests via Bellevue Road and Kings Park Road
- Then via Onslow Road to Portswood and to the University Highfield Campus and along Burgess Road (the same route as the U1A)
- Then following the Bluestar 2 route back to Southampton via Portswood and Lodge Road
There will be three trips daily, leaving Bargate at 01:35, 02:35 and 03:35 and appears to interwork with the new N18 service.
Bluestar 4
General reliability improvements and a new 06:05 Saturday morning trip from Southampton.
Bluestar 5
A college day extension (presumably for Barton Peveril) will mean a morning trip from Salisbury. There are also a few smaller bits like an extra Saturday morning trip towards Eastleigh.
Bluestar 7
There will be additional Sunday (funded) trips aligned with shift times for Southampton General Hospital. this will mean new earlier and later trips.
Bluestar 10
Saturday afternoon trips will be reduced from every hour to every 75 minutes. This is because of issues with traffic conditions on Saturdays and looking at the current timetable I think the 10 interworks with another service, so it may be that this means the 10 will retain a single bus throughout.
Bluestar 13
Some additional rush hour trips will run via the school day Spring Road diversion route.
Bluestar 15
New funded late evening trips will be funded by the Bus Service Improvement Plan on Monday to Saturday. The last trips will be at 23:35 from Southampton and the return trip at 00:10 from Hamble.
Bluestar 16
Bluestar are changing the route of the 16 within Townhill Park. Buses will run direct via Mousehole Lane to Witts Hill, rather than the current route of Townhill Way, Meggeson Avenue and Wakefield Road.
The rest of the clockwise loop along Forest Hills Drive to Townhill Way is unchanged.
Night & Bluestar 17
There are minor timetable improvements for the mainstay of the service, however NEW service N17 will run the full length of the current 17 route hourly throughout the night.
The N17 will also extend beyond Adanac Park to the Nursling Industrial Estate. I will be honest, I am not sure what the use case for the industrial estate is, the recently introduced service 61 only runs three times a day based around shift change times.
Looking at the timetable on BusTimes, there is a 01:07 arrival on the 17 to Adanac Park, so I assume it will run light to the industrial park to pick up the 01:10 N17 (or indeed the 00:37 will run across and layover for 20 minutes?) but the timetables suggest that the n17 will loop the industrial estate twice.
It would probably be a morale booster if an empty bus can just sit in Mauretania Road for the 20 minutes.
Night & Bluestar 18
The Bluestar 18 service will also gain a new night service across the whole of the route although eastbound the service is split at Southampton City Centre.
NEW night service N18 (I keep trying to call it Nightstar) will also run hourly along the N17, but from the timetables available an example of what happens is:
- 02:15 West Quay to Thornhill (arrive 02:35)
- 02:35 Thornhill to Millbrook (arrive 03:08)
- 03:08 Millbrook to Southampton (arrive 03:30)
Now, from the timetable of the N2 leaving at xx:35 from Bargate, I think the N2 and N18 interwork but it does mean a 45 minute wait for anyone trying to go between the two halves of the route.
Bluestar 20
There is a more general re-timing of all trips to better co-ordinate with re-routed Bluestar 16. There are earlier trips on all days of the week though.
General Reliability Improvements
Bluestar service 21, 23, 24 and 35 are all listed as minor timing improvements. Bluestar 23 trips will leave up to 5 minutes earlier from Eastleigh and the first Bluestar 24 of the day will divert via Barton Peveril on it’s way into Eastleigh.
Contracted Hythe and Totton services
The H1 and H2, T3 and T4 are all being completely re-timed for reliability.
The number of trips on the Hythe services H1 and H2 remains the same, however the first H1 from Hythe Pier starts 15 minutes later and all trips will be later than they are now by varying lengths. Rather than 200 words explaining it, here is the timetable.
Likewise, the current Tuesday and Thursdays 2-hourly T3 and T4 will now become two and a bit-hourly.
Timetables will be available “soon”
I am not going to get too griped about this, but Bluestar have not yet published their PDF timetables on their news page piece. The thing is that timetables are already uploaded onto the Bus Open Data Service so I do not know why the PDFs are not also ready?
Maybe I am just getting old, grumpy and picky about things. Bluestar know the new timetables, so why not have them ready?
All the bus service improvement plan money for services already there & well established but meanwhile the loss of other services in Hampshire goes on… The 61 Winchester/Eastleigh The 20 Fareham/Knowle/Wickham & of course the continued missing gaps that have needed a bus service for years Whiteley to Hedge End for example! But of course it is a different money pot … so who cares!?
U1n is still running as I’ve asked on Facebook group and a member of management comment on it
I wonder if there will be changes though.
The autumn changes for Morebus – including 7-day night bus services – are now in Bustimes.org if you manipulate the dates
I have been slowly going through the timetables while on holiday. I am not convinced that whoever uploaded them has uploaded the right ones though.
For example, the Breezer 50 and 60 are still showing as their summer timetables (except the Sunday night “extras” from Sandbanks on the 50 disappear) right through to May 2026!
I see Blue Star have today announced fares increases for the non-capped fares from Sunday.
The lack of notice seems to be most inconsiderate for those on a tight budget.
The Unilink U8 will be withdrawn and partially replaced by Bluestar 28.