morebus changes in May

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Along with everyone else, Go South Coast are using May 2024 to start their summer bus service uplift across Hampshire and Dorset. The Breezers are continuing to Breeze and the lids are coming off the convertible open tops, so lets look at what the late May Bank Holiday weekend will bring.

Firstly a reminder, there are some glorious open top bus services that are running across our coastal towns each year. The bus fare cap is still £2 per single journey, so make the use of it while you can, and while the bus companies are still making use of the offer.

Monday 3rd June

I also want to highlight that there are a substantial number of changes listed for registered school bus services that take effect on Monday 3rd June when the schools return from their half-term break. I tend to not focus on dedicated schools services, along with the fact that I make a point not to go out of my way to photograph them. If you use school buses run by morebus or Southern Vectis, then check for any changes.

The main reason why I am highlighting this is because there is a route and variation change to morebus X1. This might be simply because Go South Coast are moving the 775 school bus registration onto it, but I am watching for more details.

Morebus on Sunday 25th May

There are a number of changes that are lodged to take effect at the end of May. These are broadly similar to the summer changes that have taken place in previous years.

Breezer Timetable Changes

• Jurassic Breezer 30 restarts for the summer season between Swanage and Weymouth.
  The two buses that start and end their day at the Weymouth end extend to Dorchester once again; with the other two from Swanage it forms a largely hourly-ish service with a gap at lunchtime.
  
• Jurassic Breezer 31 between Wool, Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove started running earlier this year with a weekend service which started at the end of March.
  From 25th May, the “Dorset School Holiday” weekday service resumes (ie Half Term and the summer break) with a largely hourly service between 0950 and 1900
  
  If you are relying on the combination of the train and bus to get to Durdle Door, please remember to check your train times for engineering work.
  
• Campsite Connect 35 for the holiday camps around Waltham Forest resumes with it’s four trips a day (3 on school days) to / from Wareham and Swanage.
  
• The long way to Swanage, avoiding the Sandbanks Ferry with Purbeck Breezer 40 regains it’s later running services up to 2300
  
• The half-hourly daytime service on Purbeck Breezer 50 re-appears as expected and the late night trips until 2140 (from Bournemouth Rail Station) and 2205 (from Swanage) give you a beautiful view through the Studland Nature Reserve.
  
• The short trips on Harbour Breezer 60 also return between Poole and Sandbanks Ferry as well as the additional event trips from Rockley Park. The summer service diverts away from Canford Cliffs in the summer season as well, replaced by….
  
• Beach Breezer 70 which extends it winter local service along the cliff top and resumes running between Rockley Park, Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch and the Hoburne Holiday Park.

I did do a few largely open top trips last summer, there were lots of open-tops on parade during May when I took A Trip to Bournemouth as well as further along the coast to Weymouth in August.

Other services

There are a number of changes which also affect the timetables of BCP ‘local’ bus routes. There are very minor changes by a few minuters, presumably just tweaks to adjust for traffic changes in the warmer weather to the following services, without any significant change to frequency:

• Services 1a, 1b & 1c for Christchurch, Burton and Somerford
• The Upper Parkstone 7’s
• Service 18 for Canford Heath and Broadstone
• Service 20 between Poole, Bournemouth and Castlepoint
• Uddens Industrial Estate Shuttle FE1

There are also:

• The afternoon school trip on Lychett Matravers service 10 will run 15 minutes earlier
• Rossmore and Alderney Service 16: The first services that start from Branksome towards Poole are extended back to start Bournemouth
• Service’s 12 & 22 will now use stop F at Castlepoint instead of stop C
• An earlier Ringwood to Salisbury on Sundays X3. This then starts the 0922 Ringwood to Bournemouth from Salisbury at 0840
• Blandford Forum’s X8 service shows a timetable and route variation on it’s registration. I think that it might simply be a single stop somewhere in Blandford Forum itself, and a variation on school days.