Following an increase in bored teenagers, First Solent have taken the decision to remove all Eclipse services on routes E1 and E2 from the Fareham to Gosport busway. This will apply 24 hours a day until at least Monday 8th September, and I know that some buses were doing it before the planned 20:00 start on Monday 1st September based on complaints I received as text messages.
(That is not a complaint about the drivers doing the diversion, but that First should have updated the start time)
A number of buses have been subject to attacks from bricks and stones thrown by people who can only be assumed to be local thugs with nothing better to do. You would like to think that once the schools go back this week that things will quieten down; you also hope that First Solent have managed to get at least a few faces on the dashcam system.
The Diversion
The following diversions will be in place:
From Fareham:
Buses will run as normal to the Palmerston Drive BRT bus stop. They will then go via the A32 (back towards Fareham) to the Old Gosport Road roundabout, then head south along the A32 to Fort Brockhurst (as per a service 11)
All stops on the A32 will be served, presumably including the Earls Road and Alders Road ones on the dual carriageway section.
From Gosport:
Buses will run from Fort Brockhurst via the A32, turn left under the Newgate Lane flyover and join Henry Cort Way at the Palmerston Drive BRT stop. Again all stops will be served.
Service 9 & 9a are not affected:
The buses turn off at the Wych Lane BRT stop and head into Bridgemary. For those wondering why the Eclipse does not do the same; the junction of the A32 and Wych Lane has turn restrictions which means that from Fareham the bus would still have to turn left and head all the way back up towards Fareham to turn around.
I suppose buses could use Hoeford bus depot to turn around in service, but that would probably cause traffic chaos with the number of buses turning in and out of the depot access road.
The Thugs
I can only hope that the families of the people doing this are inconvenienced by the diversion of the Eclipse services. With the police underfunded and understaffed I don’t think there would be any solution that they could effectively patrol in order to maintain the safety of the buses, drivers and passengers.
Hopefully if things improve, First Solent will update their news item found here.
Just simply ban the routes permanently, it’ll only happen again, and again, and again so it’s about time these estates with their stupid thick no grassing rule were taught a very hard lesson. Personally I’d evict you from your home if you committed any crime and you would be made homeless forever, never allowed to shelter anywhere, that’s proper justice and you’d soon see the crime rate drop!
Surely the people attacking a buses and cycles only road are those who are opposed to public transport and active travel schemes, since they consider them to be a “waste of taxpayers money”. So withdrawing the bus routes would punish entirely the wrong people, since these perpetrators would not be travelling by bus anyway.