As you know, I am not in the inner circle of the bus bus companies and I am not at liberty to get any of their (or Hampshire County Council’s) press releases so I am heavily reliant on seeing stories in the local and national pres to talk about. That means you have probably read a lot of this!
So I was talking earlier in the week about the new services coming to Southampton courtesy of Bluestar and the service increases in Gosport thanks to First Solent…. well the services that are not getting cut anyway. Now thanks to the Hampshire Chronicle and the Daly Echo there is more of a list, and a change that I missed, so that we have the explanation.
The £6.3 million investment from the Bus Service Improvement Plan, for a change, benefits quite a few different areas rather than focusing on a single bit of the county. In some cases there are new services, but in others it is a case that funding is extended and in all cases this funding is planned to be in place until August 2028
- First Bus network changes in Gosport and Fareham – from June 2026:
- Sunday service increase on E1/E2 (combined) – Every 10 Minutes
- Hourly service until late evening on service 5
- Sunday service increase on service 5 – Every 30 Minutes
Yes – I missed that one…. I know
- Bluestar funded timetables at current levels:
- Bluestar 1 – Every 10 Minutes daytime (Every 20 Minutes Sundays)
- Bluestar 9 – Three buses an hour Monday to Saturday
- Bluestar 15 late evening services
- Bluestar increases from September 2026:
- Later evening services on BS15 to Hamble
- NEW Bluestar N9 to Hythe and Langley
- NEW Bluestar service Southampton – Bitterne – Hedge End – Botley – Whiteley
- Stagecoach have money from the BSIP to maintain the following current timetables:
- Activ8 – Current daytime timetables
- Basingstoke 3 – Weekday daytime service
- Basingstoke 13 – 2 Hourly Sunday service
- Basingstoke 32 – Hourly Sunday service
- Basingstoke 76 – Every 30 Minutes Monday to Saturday
- Portsmouth 20 – Evening and Sunday services
- Portsmouth 23 – Saturday daytime
- Winchester 64 – Early, Late and Evening services
- Winchester 66 – Every 30 Minutes Monday to Saturday maintained
- Winchester 69 – weekday peak services and Hourly Sunday service
- Winchester 75 – 2 Hourly Sunday service
Marchwood Trains Rejected
Not long after telling you that the Office of Rail and Road are due to make a decision, the ongoing application for new open Access operations between Marchwood, Southampton and London has been decided and it is not the way that Alliance Rail had hoped.
Alliance Rail Managing Director Ian Yeowart has called it’s latest rejection from the ORR to be “shoddy, unevidenced and concerningly factually incorrect” for the proposed service along the Totton to Fawley freight branch.
The plan, from my understanding of the ORR decision letter as to have:
- 15 return trips a day between Marchwood and Southampton, and
- 7 of those trips extending to London Waterloo.
My lay understanding of the rejection
Looking at the ORR determination, all of the train operators who operated through Southampton Central railway station have objected to the operation because of performance impacts. This would pretty much be the gimme anyway as anyone who can object to someone new coming in and potentially taking money away will do do.
The Department for Transport, although not specifically listed as objecting followed suit with the potential of money being removed from what will eventually be Great British Railway. They also pointed out that public funds would likely be needed to rebuild and reopen Marchwood Railway Station.
Network Rail also suggested that the proposed operation at the current time would not work with the current timetable, although at the same time South Western Railway are about to embark on a timetable consultation to completely rewrite the service from May or December 2027. Part of the core issue to the timetable is that the current SWR Desiro fleet can operate at 100mph, but the proposed class 769 for Alliance Rail on paper can achieve that only after compatibility work and assessment.
Without making this into The Hampshire Rail and Bus Update, feel free to read the full decision on the ORR.gov website but if I wanted to gamble on a solution? Divert the SWR Chandlers Ford service to run Salisbury – Eastleigh – Southampton – Marchwood (via all stations), albeit that does sever the direct link between Romsey and Redbridge / Millbrook as GWR do not generally stop there.
Buses to Whiteley are probably funded by North Whiteley Section 106 developers money as opposed to Bus grants. It’s just HCC who are doing the paperwork for the Consortium
With regard to the decision around the Marchwood train service. My understanding is that the transport secretary will consider any application to run an open access service, however she is minded to refuse any service that would take revenue away from the state run operator.
To my mind this means that only a Marchwood to Totton service would be considered and I can’t see any operator being interested in that.
Personally I think it’s a real shame and short sighted, as it would help get traffic off the A326 and not require any new land etc., to do this. Especially if successful and they extended down the Waterside.
I’m also wondering if the existing open access operators have to renew their licences from time to time and if so how many will be allowed to continue.
And if the new Bluestar service were to be extended to Fareham on the 28/28A route, we’re almost back to the old 76 … and then on to Portsmouth, giving a bus every 20 minutes again Portsmouth – Southampton. One can dream.
I did think it ironic that (if true) 26 is chosen as the number.
Extend it to Fareham and the route is fairly reminiscent of the Musterphantom Ltd and People’s Provincial joint operated 26