New School Year – morebus

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Updated: There are updates below where (as was suspected) there have been issues with uploading the timetables for third-party journey planners. morebus have announced today that fares are also going up this weekend. Those using 3 far cap singles won’t quite notice it yet, however season and bundle tickets are also going up.

I have spent the last few weeks trying to battle various automation programs and learn a whole new thing called vibe coding so that I can replace what TravelineSW used to be so helpful to do for me. So it was helpful for someone to point out that morebus have their new timetables on BusTimes now, although the Traffic Commissioner has yet to update the service registrations.

So as a bit of a rant, I don’t like the DfT’s TransXChange Publisher, I am actually getting a little stressed (don’t ask me why) that I can not manage to automate the service using Python, and it’s just been one of those summers!

Anyway

Go South Coast have updated their morebus winter timetables in order to start on Sunday 14th September. Some of these service changes are expected to change again on Sunday 25th October (examples are the m1 and X3) which would suggest some element of major roadworks are due to being.

Update: Timetables are now available on the morebus website. See the morebus news item for details

morebus Changes

Minor-ish Timetable Changes

• The 0010 Bournemouth to Christchurch 1a will now run every day
• Service 6 has one trip withdrawn – Sundays 2210 Bournemouth to Wallisdown – Update – this is replaced by a trip on the 17
• A minor timetable change affecting school days on Canford Heath services 25 & 26
• Some minor changes affecting school days trips on Lymington X1 & X2 services
• Evening trips on the X3 will be up to 5 minutes later from Bournemouth and 15 minutes later from Salisbury

The Original more – m1 & m2

The night bus service on the N1 and N2 (did they not used to be mN1 and mN2 at one point?) will now also run on Sundays and Bank Holidays at the same times as now.

Updated: There is a also a new m2 from the Two Rivers Meet Leisure Centre at 0357, which goes to Christchurch then as a standard m2 to Poole.

Poole to Royal Bournemouth Hospital – services 14 & 15

There are evening timetable changes for this pair of services, including later trips on a Sunday for service 14 via Kinson & West Howe.

Bloxworth services 16 & 17

Both services will now run hourly on Sunday evenings, providing a joint half-hourly service across the common sections of the routes.

Changes in the New Forest

There are a number of timetable changes in the New Forest which appear to me to be as a combined result of school requirements changes and Hampshire County Council funding withdrawals. For these services the timetables change, some more than others, but the overall service pattern and number of trips does not:

• Beaulieu and Hythe service 112
• The Lymington and New Milton services 119 / 120
• Ringwood to Christchurch 125
• New Milton services 191 & 193

An example of why I think this, is Priestlands Schools services will run earlier this term.

The New Forest Tour also will close for the season after service on Sunday 14th September.

Breezer Changes

Jurassic Breezer services 30 and 31 end their season after service on Saturday 13th September. Breezer 31 continues on weekends until November.

Purbeck Breezer 40 returns to it’s winter timetable, which actually does not look much different to the summer one. Now, the timetables on TravelineSW are showing that the 40 is not changing at all, but I am absolutely convinced this is an errornous upload to the Bus Open Data Service (which then supplies timetables onward) likewise on …..

…..the Purbeck Breezer 50 service, were many of the summer changes do not appear to have been reversed as they usually do. I do not think that it will be long before someone realises that a half-hourly winter service probably is not a money spinner.

Likewise there are “unchanged changes” showing for Harbour Breezer 60.

Harbour Breezer 70 however, is showing as finishing for the season.

Unibus Changes

The Bournemouth University bus network branded as UniBus will have it changes on either 15th September or 22nd September depending on which source you get your timetables from.

For the less frequent services, the timetable runs five minutes later in the afternoons than the mornings – I presume so that students are not hanging around on campus for an hour before or after lectures.

Unibus U1

The U1 will return to it’s high frequency timetable with buses up to every 6 minutes during the weekday daytime between Bournemouth Station and Talbot Campus. Sometimes you forget to appreciate the intensiveness of these services with some departures only a minute or two apart at the busiest part of service.

(Should just call them duplicates!)

Unibus U2

The Unibus U2 will run during term time only. The route takes the U2 from Poole Bus Station via Parkstone, Branksome and Wallisdown Roundabout to the Talbot campus.

The U2 will run approximately half-hourly during the day and an hourly service until late evening – Weekdays only.

Unibus U3

The U3 will be extended for the term time to run later into the night, as per usual – I think.

Unibus U4

This University term only service will run from Westbourne, via Bournemouth Square to the University campus.

The service runs roughly hourly during the daytime only.

UniNightBus N5

The Bournemouth to Talbot Campus nightbus will apparently no longer run on Saturdays. That sounds a bit off to me, as I would assume that the BU Students Union on Talbot Campus would be open late(?)

Update: Multiple comments suggest that this will now run seven nights a week. Sounds like a new timetable needs to be uploaded.