It has been a long ten days for me and each time I went to write a few updates something always got in the way! So much of this news you will probably already have heard by now, forgive the lateness of my reply.
Firstly you will not have noticed but the website has moved hosting provider. The previous provider was slowly going downhill since being sold about 12 months ago, even things like my being able to pay for the service became difficult and they struggled to honour grandfathered payments…. add into that the fact that I could see the website keep going down for two or three minutes, multiple times a week….
So everything has been moved. I am still ironing out things in the background, but you should not see any change in service!
Stagecoach Fares Increase
From today ( 1 June ) there will be new fares for both single and period tickets.
In the case of single tickets, they are all increasing with fares under £3 increasing by up to 20p. While Stagecoach are still taking part in the Government price cap, the fares most are paying will be going up, but that will only be a paper exercise until the fare cap is no more.
Some smaller bus operators have been pulling out of the fare cap, but one that I know of in the Hampshire and Dorset area.
Period tickets will also go up. Rather than list them all individually I will post a screenshot of the Stagecoach South image published on their website.
Do not forget that if you buy day riders in the Stagecoach App, Flexi 5 is essentially buy 4 and get 1 free.
Diversions in Portsmouth
I do not usually comment on short term roadworks changes, however the ones flagged for Portsmouth are quite extensive and go on for some time.
From Wednesday 10th June to Sunday 26th July Lake Road will be closed due to ongoing road works.
First Solent have diverted services 3 and 7 via Mile End Road and Kingston Crescent.
I can not see anything on the Stagecoach South website, however services 19 and 23 are likely to also be affected. Commonsense (at least in my mind) would be 23 via Mile End Road and 19 via Arundel Street; but that is just a guess.