Updated: At least we now have a timetable. First departure from Tipner is 0935, then every 30 minutes until 1935; returning from Southsea D Day Story museum 1005 until 2005.
Unfortunately, even though the service is only weekends until 22nd July; it appears Live Tracking might end up showing a 7 days a week service already. It certainly is for Friday 26th May.
I saw the announcement from Portsmouth City Council this week that the Southsea Park and Ride will once again be operating from the large Park and Ride site next to the M275. What I was not expecting though, was the announcement not to include the fact that First Solent will not be operating it.
Now, I am not really a fan of the local paper much anymore. The Portsmouth News is merely a shell of the newspaper that I read in the 1990’s. I would have hoped however that they would have copied the whole of the press release word for word, unless Portsmouth City Council missed out on including the name of the company running it:
Commercial manager Philip Blair said: ‘We are delighted to be operating the Southsea Park and Ride service on behalf of Portsmouth City Council. Travelling by bus is very much a green alternative to driving in by car, helping to reduce the number of vehicles and emissions in the city.’
Portsmouth News – Published 23rd May (retrieved 25th May)
Apparently, tickets for the Southsea PR3 and the existing First Solent PR1 will be inter-available and interchangeable as well. Actually I like that because the walk from Gunwharf to Clarence Pier is quite nice through the Old Portsmouth battlements.
So – The Xelabus registration
I missed the reference on the Portsmouth News as well, but it has appeared with the Traffic Commissioner.
Subsidised by Portsmouth City Council, the service will run:
- Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays from this weekend (27th May),
- daily from Saturday 22nd July and
- end on Sunday 3rd September.
One would imagine that for a high-profile, council supported and flagship service alongside First Solent’s PR1; that the now slightly older 72-plated Enviro400s. You know, the ones that were promised to customers for the X4 and then appeared everywhere but….
You would also imagine that, for a service starting in just 2 days time, that there would be a timetable displayed on either:
The Xelabus website,now appearedThe Portsmouth City Council Park & Ride micrositenow appeared- Either entities social media
- TravelineSW or Bus Times
Now, I know, I have been utterly lazy and not driven the long way to Tipner to see whether there is a timetable in the Park & Ride site. Considering the Traffic Commissioner registration was submitted on the 15th May, you would imagine 10 days would be enough to do something for this entirely self-contained service?
Park & Ride PR3
The service will run from the Tipner Park & Ride site to Portsmouth City Centre, Old Portsmouth and Clarence Pier on a Limited Stop basis from Saturday….. maybe.
Another question would then be; is this a hint as to what might happen with the other Portsmouth City services currently out to tender?
Your comment about the two E 400 deckers being on the X4 is something we had hoped to do but they were also bought for private hire work and to be honest this side of the business has expanded sygnificantly and the two new buses are very popular. We had really hoped they would be on the X4 but when customers request them we have to substitute other buses and this has been the case for quite some time.
Regards the Park and Ride in Portsmouth; we were awarded this only a week ago and had to send the registration away quickly to get approval. Timetables artwork for bus stops were sent to us to print and we then despatched a team to the city for displaying them on all stops. This has been carried out.
Thank you for bringing us all up to date Philip.
It took 10 days though, and not even a basic PDF embed on the Xelabus website? I notice that the live departures are showing the PR3 as running today though…. which apparently it isn’t?