I can’t believe it has been another month since I last posted. Actually yes I can. I am still spending at least of one of my days off work each week still racing around dealing with things I would rather not and time flies by. I think I have managed to take about 6 pictures of buses in the last 4 weeks and none of them very good!
There are some service changes coming up, some of which are attracting news attention as they are due to the withdrawal of Hampshire County Council (who never got back to me) funding in recent months.
Incidents with Bluestar
I think you will know me by now if you have been here long enough. I do see the incidents in the news but I try not to use these pages to comment on them too much, nor speculate either.
The videos that appeared of the crash in Bishopstoke looked pretty scary and I certainly would not have liked to have been upstairs during it. I hope that everyone involved is doing as well as they can, and I have not heard how the driver and student who received serious injuries are doing.
I would also think that it was only because of this, that the local paper then publicised the incident in Above Bar Street a few days back.
Stagecoach Fare Changes in July
Stagecoach are changing ticket prices this coming Monday 14th July (to be fair to them it was announced a few weeks ago) where in the whole most people will see an increase in the price of the DayRider and longer period tickets. Although the £3 National Bus Fare cap remains, I get the impression that the underlying single fares are also increasing.
In Hayling Island, the day and period tickets are being phased out and replaced by the South Hants area tickets, which are being frozen in price.
New Rider ticket prices can be found on this Stagecoach Bus download.
At the same time, a promotional £1 flat fare on Stagecoach Andover will come to an end.
Timetable Changes in July
You know, I do not know what is going on at either VOSA or their technical team, but the registrations for new and amended bus services seems a little… haphazard. I have had to go back to reading the periodic notices and proceedings as the various RSS feeds just don’t seem to publish properly any more. I am actually finding more information than I used to on company websites before the official publications!
First Solent have now restarted the Tipner Park and Ride PR3 service to Southsea Seafront, running on Satrudays, Sundays and Bank Holidays only. It appears that there will be no weekday service during the school summer holidays.
First in Wessex will also have their summer uplift, with school holiday timetables coming into effect on the weekend of the 27th July. As usual, the First Wessex site is littered with dead links and pages showing 403 errors, so if you are in the area pop down the seafront and hope for a timetable booklet.
Timetable Changes in August
Victorious
August is generally a quiet time for bus service changes. You get those at the end of July immediately before the summer holidays where the summer specials and open-top beach buses uplift. You get those at the start of September where the new school arrangements kick in.
National Express have a new limited stop coach service network being introduced for Victorious Festival though. It is just the one service on each of 22nd, 23rd and 24th, but from the combination of the VOSA registrations it will be:
- VC1: Poole – Bournemouth – Southampton – Fareham – Victorious
- VC2: (Nothing Found…. would make sense though?)
- VC3: Brighton – Worthing – Bognor Regis – Chichester – Emsworth – Havant – Victorious
- VC4: Petersfield – Waterlooville – Victorious
- VC5: Reading – Basingstoke – Winchester – Fareham – Emsworth – Havant – Victorious
Half the service appears on Traveline and half the service appears on VOSA. It might however, be one for the “rare service” connoisseur of the 25 / 925 farm workers service on Christmas Day fame. I also think that there is a typo in the VC5 and I am not sure National Express would divert it via Emsworth and Havant.
I also expect that you might need an actual Victorious ticket to book on these services.
As an aside, National Express also have a festival service registered for the End of the Road Festival near Blandford Forum so I wonder if this is a year for experimenting with a potential new sideline on a smaller scale to what they do for Glastonbury?
Xelabus are also running the X27 Victorious Festival service from Gunwharf Quays (or The Hard Interchange) to Clarence Pier, running every 15 minutes from 0930 to Midnight.
Funding Related Changes
I am also expecting some element of funding related service changes to be announced. It has already been in some of the local press (as well as the BBC) about the possible cessation of the First Solent 20 in Fareham.
I think that we will also see the 61 ending in Eastleigh at the end of August / start of September. Some of the Meon Valley Community Bus services are already cancelled according to VOSA.
I say give it a few weeks.
…. and can I just say
If you start searching Google for bus related things in Hampshire, I am quietly surprised that the Hampshire Bus Update now features in the Google Gemini AI summaries.
So thank-you for everyone that has read, or commented on posts over the years, you are obviously making a difference on all the trash I write.
I share your pain re the VOSA service these days. It is so behind can no longer be relied on for prior notice for timetable changes. My area (Devon and Cornwall) has been quiet for ages and now suddenly has 32 new notices, almost all for changes that have already happened. Graham Plymothian Transit
1) Yes, there are only two types of Notices on the Traffic Commissioner’s website: retrospective or very retrospective – the latter relating to the “at short notice” changes. So much for the 6-week notice period!! If you complain to the TC, you get an automated reply saying someone will respond to your query within xx working days, and when you complain that you got no reply you get the same automated message … etc ad infinitum.
2) Did you spot that the NatEx 035 no longer includes a daily run to/from Swanage and Wareham? Perhaps they’re concentrating their resources at running Bournemouth newcomer FlixBus off the road.
3) First in Weymouth did not produce a timetable booklet this summer. Instead they produced a nice-places-to-go leaflet with QR codes if you want to see timetables.
First trying to save more cash-forgetting that a lot of elderly passengers may not own a smartphone.
Bluestar will launch 3 more night bus services: N2, N17, N18.
The N2 and the N18 will be run by the same bus (2 buses to make it hourly)
The N17 will also be run with 2 buses and won’t link with other bus services.
The N2 will only run between Bargate and Swaythling and will do like a circular.
The N18 eastbound will run a bit weirdly, as it will only run Millbrook – City Centre, to then accommodate the N2, and once back it’ll do the City Centre – Thornhill.
The N17 will be extended to Nursling Industrial Estate (IMO they should have extended to Totton).
There will be more updates to other routes, as they claim they are “expanding”.
I was expecting to see something ready for September as I am already working on the Stagecoach changes.
Will be interesting to see how the Night bus services tie in with the U1N
If bustimes.org is correct it seems that the new night routes start in the early hours of 1st September there seems to be some sort of timetables showing on there for the N2, N17 and N18.
Rumour has it:
– as Bluestar keep saying they are expanding, and thanks to the BSIP, we will see an increase on some routes: almost confirmed is the 1 – it’ll go to every TEN minutes (is there so much demand?)
– I do expect more routes to increase in frequencies, let’s wait for further official information…
It would be nice to see Routes like the 3 increase there frequency, just one bus an hour is inadequate for Hedge End with no evening service and only 2 hourly service on Sundays.
If I am reading it right it is every 10 mins 9am-2pm weekdays then every 12 mins until just after 5pm, Saturdays it seems to be every 10 mins for most of the day. Cannot see any changes to the N1.
Also looks like the 21 is having a snip though instead of hourly 9-2 it is now every 65 mins and looks like one journey less.
Thanks, I have just seen it and it is interesting how (I reckon) the N18 and N2 tie up.
I will wait a bit longer for any other changes.
The changes are ALREADY LIVE on bustimes.org
You just have to change the date manually to 01-09-2025
Saw changes to Bluestar 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24…
There must be more…
As I keep being reminded, if it is only appearing in one place it could be subject to change.
I know – I try to argue but it gets grinding.
There is no reason for any new article yet, the data will be released eventually.
You know, there are leakers that just search deep in the available data and then they can just assume stuff will happen.
Additional info: morebus in the BCP area have substantial changes to services in mid September and end of May, while bluestar in Southampton have substantial changes to services in September and February each year.
And we all have preferences to the ideal service levels for each route, but at the end of the day, the companies are here to make profit or they go out of business.
Again; let’s wait until all data is available and an official announcement from GSC regarding morebus and bluestar.
To be fair, whether we wait for Go South Coast to post or not is a moot point if the information is available and reliable.
Most bus operators have changes in May/July and Septemeber though to account for seasonal changes.
The odd thing about this is that for Bluestar 1 Councillor Nick Adams-King (HCC) posted about the end of August changes for Bluestar 1 a couple of weeks ago which confirms about the 10 minute frequency and times of them, bustimes.org shows a 10 minute frequency in the times that the Councillor has mentioned but nothing yet from Bluestar about this change.