It’s been another month with very little appearing to go on as companies along the south coast are preparing to ramp up for the summer season. I have been busy still (and now with more help from new ‘staff member’ Claude) trying to finesse those PDF timetables showing me service changes and working on getting the news aggregator just right.
I am also working on something specifically for a page on here, I won’t promise too much as it is easier to under-promise and over-deliver – just like Hampshire Bus Update – but it does involve even more help from Claude to write Python that I would never be able to learn properly… and my slowly growing home server rack.
First a few bits:
Award for Community First
Community First, a Hampshire transport charity, has been named a finalist for the MiDAS Organisation of the Year at the CT26 Awards, recognising excellence in minibus driver training.
The charity delivers nationally recognised MiDAS training across the county, supporting schools, colleges and voluntary groups, and is among a small number of UK centres licensed to train driver assessors. Community First also operate a few registered community bus services around parts of Hampshire.
Based at Leigh Park near Havant, its work helps ensure safe, reliable transport for vulnerable residents. Chief executive Tim Houghton praised staff dedication, with the nomination highlighting the organisation’s county-wide impact and commitment to high safety standards across Hampshire communities overall.
Electric Buses in the Region
Southern Vectis‘ StreetDeck Electroliners are now firmly out and about and touting for trade. They are usually found on the east side of the Island from what I can tell, although can pop-up anywhere. 1318 (HW26 FFK) is notable in it’s absence of nearly a month, although I do not know (or wish to speculate) why.
You may also remember that Southern Vectis announced more EV for the Island including three open-top electric buses for the Needles Breezer.
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Over in Aldershot, although slightly outside our usual patch, Stagecoach South are soon to start introducing their fleet Yutong U11DD electric fleet in Aldershot. Primarily for use on their former Gold service 1 between Aldershot and Camberley they have run into an issue through the MoD land between Aldershot and North Camp.
It appears that depending on who you listen to, either the Queens Avenue Bridge was, or was not reinforced some years ago. That means the new heavier electric vehicles may, or may not be able to use it’s current route in at least one direction.
Everyone who is up for local elections in May in the area, and some that are not, have thrown their thoughts on social media.
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Bluestar DID change the days of the H1 and H2
You may remember me saying a month ago that I thought this was a typo but it turns out Bluestar did change the H1 and H2 to run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
I know…
… and the service updates are not really updating
There will certainly be some service updates popping up in due course with the school summer holidays rapidly falling into sight.
First Wessex have indeed now announced their open top season for the 501, 502 and 503 … sorry I mean 11, 12 and 13
I probably missed so much!
Although while I was writing this my other screen was busy trying to fix BODS timetables falsely reporting services as new and withdrawn.