First to Close Southampton

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I know. One of the busiest days that I have had in a long time and First Southampton uses it to announce that the City Red operation is closing down. Many of you will have seen me commenting on social media and various forums over the day yesterday, between tasks and after stopping to laugh at some of the ideas being touted. It has happened though.

The first I heard of the impending announcement was this internal memo to staff which was passed to me from someone within the industry. After I retweeted it (purely a coincidence, I know) I spotted the Daily Echo and Paul Clifton from the BBC were also talking about it, and it was clear this was no spoof. Then it started appearing across their own channels.

The text in the image is pretty clear. After operation on Saturday 18 February, First City Red ceases. Southampton Mini Link had almost beaten them with their competing route.

Although it was clear that the merger of brands into First South West would cause some elements of re-organisation; I am surprised at a wholesale withdrawal. Yes, duplicating the group ‘head office’ functions at Taunton and Southampton would have to change but not at the expense of the whole operation.

The investment in the Streetdeck deckers for the Three, the new logo, the changes to the 2a and the 9 / 13; these must have been signed off prior to the decision being made. So I am wondering just how recently after the move to First South West in October this was actually made?

The network seemed to lack the care and love that a bus operator should give at times. What was once a network full of council funded work supporting a small commercial backbone dwindled over the years. Who remembers back in the day when First took over Southampton City Bus and there was buses up past The Dell, the 4 out to Totton via a meandering route and connections which are now only direct on Christmas Day?

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Maybe (and I keep banging on about this like it is relevant) the balance was lost between keeping supported marginal routes open, against providing leather seats, free wi-fi and at seat charging. A Leyland National can get a new paint job and still be low cost.

So What Now?

Here is the “good news” if you can call it that – personally I can’t, which we will get on to – and that is that with so much notice there is already a plan. Go South Coast’s Bluestar operation are already planning to step in to the breach and cover some of the network which will be left without a service.

The announcement says things like bus users can still get to where they need to go and covered by a very similar level of service. To me, this is a very vague and woolly statement as it doe not mean that they will actually take on services in the network pattern that people are used to or indeed as direct as they are now. That does not surprise me though, as although Bluestar were possibly expecting this, there would have been no point wasting lots of time making substantial planning for a possible event.

GoAhead already have local experience of rescuing a towns network though. The recent closure of local independent Yellow Buses and merger of the network into morebus was allegedly done in less than 48 hours. Personally, I think they already had been given a heads up, but that is just an opinion.

Not Fantasy Bus Booking Manager 2023

There are so many “I think they will do this” type threads already appearing in the usual places though. Some of them I have had to have a laugh at, showing that people sometimes don’t think their comments though – even I do that sometimes.

The X4 and X5 are run by Solent so will stay as they are, but may be Curtailed to Tesco/Lawford (sp)

http://sotonbus.blogspot.com/2022/11/christmas-round-up.html?showComment=1669741832177#c2628282183262249739

First Solent will almost certainly still run a service into Southampton in some way. Maybe there will be a few tweaks to the X4 and X5 if the team at Hoeford can show that the direct nature of the Solent Rangers is now hindered by the lack of a supporting local network.

Unless Bluestar decide to have an assault on the lucrative West Fareham to Southampton connection though, I don’t think a huge amount will change from the First Solent perspective. With the 28 being extended to Botley in January, maybe that will itself see a more rapid development towards Hedge End or Southampton via Bitterne (how very 78) but I don’t think we should expect that.

Bluestar though, going by the morebus example in the summer, will probably not be in the huge rush to create a whole new network than some of the more enthusiastic commentators are suggesting. I was trying to think back to the last 4 or 5 months. The only significant change that could be attributable to the Yellow Buses ‘takeover’ was the re-routing of the X6 in Bearwood (and the subsequent frequency improvements in the service) and I am not even sure that was directly related… was it?

Sorry – I forget the former Yellow Buses 1 no longer goes to Poole via Westbourne.

Anyway – I think the heated discussion about new routes, replacement routes and who will run replacements for the City Red 9 and City Red 13 (which are not Bluestar’s decision anyway unless they want to run it entirely commercial) are something for the first week of January…. because the 56 day-notification period for Bluestar would mean they should be registering new services on Christmas Eve……

For all we know, maybe Xelabus will make a heroic return to bus service operation and find that council supported services are once again more lucrative than cruise ship shuttles!

Merry Christmas.

I am sorry….

…. that First Southampton staff are facing a possible upheaval in the New Year though. It is commendable that First have given them 3 months notice of the closure whereas they could have technically waited until Christmas Eve and said “We close in 56 days.”

For the driving and maintenance staff, I sincerely believe that the ones who are worth their weight in gold will be the quickly offered a job with Bluestar, in the same way that morebus hired hundreds of Yellow Buses staff in a matter of days. If Bluestar are as keen to take on some of the City Red network they are definitely going to need more operational staff.

Of course, the likes of the Social Media staff are already outsourced to “First Twitter Central” up north, so I hope that everyone moves on to roles that they are good at and will not be left without a future.

There are interesting times in the coming weeks though.