If Santa did not bring you a brand new teleporter today, then you might need a bus for the last day of Tier 2. Please remember – the Government are advising you to have as little contact as you can with others while new strains of the coronavirus spread rapidly around the UK.
Please make sure that by the end of Christmas Day, that you are ready for your new Tier.
Mostly – There are No Buses
This does not mean that there are no buses throughout the whole area today. GoAhead Group almost always run something, and their usual offerings are being run across Southampton, Bournemouth and Isle of Wight.
Bluestar
Southampton will have it’s usual two Christmas Day bus services, running to special timetables and special Fares.
Bluestar 1X operates every 2 hours between Southampton – Portswood – Eastleigh – Chandlers Ford – Otterbourne and Winchester.
Fares for this service are £4 Single / £6 Return (Children £1 less), but concessionary and season tickets are accepted.
Bluestar 18X operates it’s cross-city service hourly between Thornhill – City – Millbrook – General Hospital and Lordshill.
Fares for this service are £3 Single / £5 Return (Children £2 / £3.50) and again concessionary and season tickets accepted.
morebus
Across Bournemouth and Poole, morebus will be running their usual m1 and m2 special service. The fares will be £4 single / £6 return, with a £1 discount for children. Concessionary and season tickets are valid.
morebus m1 will extend past Castlepoint to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.
morebus m2 will extend beyond Southbourne to serve Christchurch
The combined sections of route will be every 30 minutes and east / north of Bournemouth they will be hourly.
Southern Vectis
What I like about the Isle of Wight is that they have always had a reasonably good Christmas Day bus service. This was started way back with the independent Southern Vectis, and it clearly is busy enough for GoAhead to keep it going. The services run from around 0800 to 2200 (or later for the longer distance runs) and this is something that even London does not replicate.
Transport for London runs NOTHING on Christmas Day!
The Full timetable set is available in a handy PDF download from the Island Buses website; but this is the quick synopsis:
- Service 1 (Newport – St Marys Hospital – Cowes) runs hourly
- Service 3 (Newport – Ventnor – Shanklin – Brading – Ryde) runs hourly
- Service 5 (Newport – East Cowes) runs 5 round trips
- Service 7 (Newport – Yarmouth – Totland) runs 5 round trips
- Service 9 (Newport – Wootton – Ryde) runs hourly
No Other Buses are Running
Stay safe this Christmas, look after yourselves first and others after, and we will be back to normal in the New Year.