With the Summer holidays rapidly closing in, the big operators are already announcing their autumn timetables with summery abandon. Stagecoach will be making it’s move from summer to autumn timetables on Sunday 04th September (albeit some schools restart on Thursday 1st September – Go My Kids School!) (Shame they are out of the country that day!)
Andover area
There are a few changes to early morning and schools services on many routes such as the P20 for Picket Piece and 76 to Basingstoke.
On a more significant change, services 13 and 13 will be diverted outbound (only) via Locksbridge Road.
Portsmouth area
Service 20 will have a route change in QA Hospital Grounds serving ”all stops in QA” – I think that this is basically going back to the pre-COVID route via Portsdown Hill Road, although the official submission to the Traffic Commissioner says it is for a “new school opening.”
Services 37 & 38 and it’s school variations will have a revised timetable. The Alton College 37X will be replaced with a new 38X in the afternoon.
Service updates in the Portsmouth area
Basingstoke area
In many cases, it looks like last buses are being removed in some areas. Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council have removed funding for:
Service 8 at 23:10 from Basingstoke Railway Station to Kempshott Park and Hatch Warren (and return)
Service 11 at 20:17 and 21:17 from Basingstoke Railway Station to Oakley (and return)
There are also changes to early morning buses on route 76 to / from Whitchurch & Andover and some buses will run 5 minutes earlier.
You will also find school buses for Queen Mary’s College (QMC) change because the college has revised hours.
Service updates for Basingstoke
Winchester area
Many of the reduced “summer timetables” will be removed as schools return.
Some service reductions will also happen where there is low patronage though:
Service 1 will see a reduction in services before 0830 and between 1800 and 1900.
Services 3, 7, 46 and Spring have changes that basically change a single occasional trip, either slightly different times or merging two departures together.
Some trips on service 69 will start and terminate at Wickham because of the low patronage between Wickham Square and Fareham. In the morning the first trip to Fareham is slightly later, however the 1725 from Winchester will now terminate in Wickham and then run out of service back to depot. This loses a fair bit of mileage in the grand scheme of things.
Some minor changes to the evening 85 and 86 out of Winchester as well.