Today appears to be the day that the buses want to get back to the new normal. Over the next two weeks, almost every bus company are changing their timetables to return to near “pre-pandemic” levels and re-introducing schools specials.
Be aware though, the cost of schools re-opening is that some bus operators are going to withdrawing some buses to provide a schools ‘bubble’ service for pupils and staff only. Regular customers like you and I will not be able to use them and in many cases the bus company are not providing a replacement for full-fare paying customers.
Havant & Portsmouth
Stagecoach
Stagecoach in Portsmouth are mostly back to a normal frequency, although the timetables themselves might be different. A scout around the timetables provided on the Stagecoach South pandemic page suggest that the late buses are now as late as they used to be and everyone will be able to get where they are going!
The services to watch out for though;
- The 21 will have its normal two buses an hour running all the way from Gunwharf to Havant, but only two (rather than 4) additional buses on the Gunwharf to Anchorage Park trips (normal timetable on Sundays)
- The 30/31 has a reduced timetable during the rush hour (pre-0900 and post-1600)
- Service 39 continues to run every 20 minutes (normal timetable on Sundays)
- Service 700 continues to run half-hourly from Portsmouth (normal timetable on Sundays
- The 621 Havant to Portsmouth College and 737 Petersfield to South Downs and Havant is reintroduced, while schools services on the 30 (extended to South Downs and Oaklands), 700 for Bishop Luffa, and 37X (for Alton College) are now “scholars and their staff only”.
First
First Solent are continuing to run their amended timetables into September, but are introducing additional buses to manage the school flow. None of these services are being advertised as “schools only” but encouraging parents to put children on the First Bus that comes along to ensure they get to school.
[No – that was not a planned pun]
Most importantly for most of us though is the new First Solent 25 which replaced the 6, 15 and 16 this weekend. It’s a new route, it avoids Commercial Road and I am still not convinced it will survive.
I have taken the time to actually check this, side-by-side, with the May timetables. I am not just going to give you a list of timetables to look at.
- Passengers on the 2 still get their greatly enhanced weekend service. I do not remember when there was a 0509 bus at Gunwharf on a pre-pandemic Sunday. It continues though, as does the “QA Shuttles”. The schools 2A is re-introduced for students and staff at Portsmouth College.
- Service 7 gains an additional schools service Cosham to Oaklands, but more importantly the 7A Southsea to Oaklands and the 7C Gunwharf to South Downs services restart. Both are offering Four buses instead of the usual 2 to get children to school.
- Service 13/14 gets a morning and evening schools extra service, but disappointingly still only a 2 hourly Saturday and Sunday service each way around the loop.
- School Specials 654, SD5 and SD7 all resume for South Downs College and it’s Havant Campus.
Lucketts Travel have also announced that their Red and Yellow schools routes for Portsmouth schools will recommence with the new term but the Whiteley Connect commuter service remains suspended.
Gosport & Fareham
Most of the buses run in Gosport & Fareham remain the domain of First Solent, so before we get to their changes a summary of the rest.
Everyone but First
Stagecoach in Hampshire have made changes to the 69 Fareham to Winchester as traffic returns to the roads. Je regrette – the timetable is not working on the Stagecoach website.
Schools services are returning though. Xelabus have their usual range of schools services for Itchen College, Barton Peveril and Sparsholt. Unusually for Xelabus though their dedicated King Edward VI School services are still awaiting publication….
Bluestar also have their timetables in place for Barton Peveril although again, you must have a Barton Peveril ID in order to board.
First
So on to First Solent and their Gosport & Fareham Changes.
The non-schools change is that the curtailed short trip on the Hampshire County Council supported 11 has been restored. Until this weekend the 11:39 from Alverstoke terminated at Gosport Bus Station and the return trip started back up with a 12:57 back to the village.
This will now continue through to Fareham Bus Station. I assume that rather having it as a dedicated bus and driver each day, the run will be split between 2 drivers at Fareham around 12:30. The Timetable can be found here.
What does disappoint me though is that the Forton Road area is now very much unserved. Spring Garden Lane through to Anns Hill Road has very little service where the old number 1 & 5 (or 81 and 85 if you are younger) used to provide a regular service.
Even the service 10 ( which used to be the 7 & 37, or 87 & 87A depending on your age) has been completely withdrawn!
So, for the schools changes:
- Bay House School gets a schools service from/to Gosport on the 9 / 9A – although the morning 9 from Gosport will run through to Fareham Bus Station.
- The Solent Ranger X4 and X5 get a number of additional schools trips. Warsash and Locks Heath students get one to Fareham. Gosport and Portchester students get ones for Fareham College as well.
- Interestingly, the 15:00 X5 from West Quay is now listed as running on School Days Only…. I am sure that this is going to be a typo as there is a duplicate from Fareham to Gosport which is also School Days only.
- The SD5 from Gosport to South Downs College returns.
It’s a Tale of Two Companies
Both companies though have returned to a near normal service. They have cut back on their most frequent timetables though and it might be a while before we see the likes of Waterlooville getting 5 buses an hour on it’s core routes.
Hopefully if the offices start to fill up with workers, the rush hours will get more buses, the pubs and bars will fill up again on a Friday night and the later buses will return.
We can dream! Have a great bank holiday and check out the other posts today if you are travelling across Southampton, North Hampshire or Dorset.