When you hear the news that industrial action has been called, you wait for the inevitable scurry of complaints from customers while a company is busy organising it’s operations.
I kept hearing, and seeing, that First Solent had it’s next round of strikes coming from bus drivers at Hoeford.
I also kept hearing, and seeing, both the First Bus social media team and the local press saying “we know nothing” as rumours surfaced.
I was also contacted by bus drivers over the last fortnight saying a variety of things, both from the perspective that they do not want to strike, and from the perspective that nothing had been publicly advertised. The announcement finally came this morning.
The next round of strikes take place starting this weekend and it appears that First Solent have managed to offer a few more vehicle diagrams to run.
Strike Dates
- 11th & 12th January
- 18th & 19th January
- 25th & 26th January
Strike Timetable
Compared to the last round of strikes, there are more buses planned to run, no doubt you will find the spreadsheet more useful than a general synopsis.
Hilsea depot managed services 2 (Paulsgrove – Copner – Southsea), Star 7 & 8 (for Waterlooville, Wecock Farm and Clanfield), 22 (Highbury and Farlington), H1 Hoverbus and PR1 Tipner Park and Ride will operate as normal.
Saturdays
- Service 1 will operate between Gunwharf, Eastney and Southsea between 0900 and 1800 (This will not continue to/from Fareham as a service 3)
- Service 3 will operate between Fareham and Cosham only, every 20 minutes between 0630 and 2100
- Service 5 will operate Gosport – Lee – Stubbington – Fareham hourly between 0730 and 1830
- Service 9 will operate Gosport – Rowner – Fareham hourly between 0730 and 1830
- Services Eclipse E1 & E2 will each run half-hourly 0700 to 1800 (Four Buses an hour on the busway)
- No other Hoeford based services (X4, X5, 9A, 11, F1, F2, 20, 21) will run
Sundays
- Service 1 will not operate
- Service 3 will operate Every 30 minutes 0830-1830
- Service 5 will operate a normal Sunday timetable excpet the 1800 departures will not run
- Service 9 will run hourly 0900 to 1900
- Eclipse E1 & E2 will run every half hour (4 buses an hour on the common section) 0730 to 1830
- The X4 & X5 and 9A will not run
I am surprised that
…. the announcement has come so late for this weekends services. The announcement for the first round of strike action gave nearly two weeks notice. Today’s announcement can be found here.
Some of the comments that I referred to at the top were ones that suggested that First Solent were deliberately witholding the information from passengers to make the Union members look bad.
When I contacted the Unite The Union today, they very quickly came back with a reply of “New dates were submitted in the Christmas period” so I wonder if it was more likely an oversight than anything deliberate.