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The New Forest Tour 2026 timetables are online, basically the same as last year.
I note the return to service of 1822, the Athelets Bus, 1912 and 1913, the former Buster's Beach Buses, now 24 years old
The New Forest Tour 2026 timetables are online, basically the same as last year.
I note the return to service of 1822, the Athelets Bus, 1912 and 1913, the former Buster's Beach Buses, now 24 years old
Possibly. The ADL "seed" E400EV for Go-Ahead was also here for a while, as well as (briefly) a Yutong destined for First, in WESTbus green. The Activ8 service between Salisbury and Andover was used as a testing ground.
Yet they're still ordering diesels - 13 ADL E400MMC's are due for Poole (8) and Lymington (5).
Looks like one of the workings on the 86 does an out-and-back 11 working in the morning (dep Southampton 0754), according to bustimes.
This also means there is no incoming 86 during the peak hour between 0800 and 0900, which is quite surprising, though to be fair I don't know whether there was a 6 either. Surprised there wasn't demand for an inbound journey timed for people working in Southampton. I guess there's no other vehicle available to operate the 11 at that time, and they had to choose between no 6/86 into Southampton in the peak, or an hour's gap on the 11.
On the other hand it looks (from bustimes) like the vehicle (an Empress Road Enviro200) that does the 1155 on the 4 to Romsey may not do anything earlier in the day, surprised they don't make use of this vehicle during the morning peak.
As New Forest Breezer is presumably (?) a More sub-brand (the other Breezers are, anyway) we presumably have a situation where one out-and-back 11 to West Totton is effectively operated by More.
From a Morebus email. May be of interest to anyone planning an NFT trip this season
Explore the New Forest for less when you buy your tour tickets in advance. From 8 - 21 June, save 15% on one-day tour tickets using code NFTEM26 on our app. This offer is available for a limited time only, don't miss out!
Once purchased, tickets are valid for use on any one day throughout the season from 4th July - 13th September. So buy now, plan later
There seems to be a teething problem with Southern Vectis’ electrics. Three times so far I have been on buses that were stuck for several minutes because the driver was unable to release the brakes and I have seen a couple of others that I believe were failed for the same reason. Opening and shutting the doors, shutting down and restarting the systems, and various other tricks don’t seem to work. In two of the cases the last thing that the driver did was to lift and drop back the wheelchair ramp, though I can’t say if this was the solution.
Looks like one of the workings on the 86 does an out-and-back 11 working in the morning (dep Southampton 0754), according to bustimes.
This also means there is no incoming 86 during the peak hour between 0800 and 0900, which is quite surprising, though to be fair I don't know whether there was a 6 either. Surprised there wasn't demand for an inbound journey timed for people working in Southampton. I guess there's no other vehicle available to operate the 11 at that time, and they had to choose between no 6/86 into Southampton in the peak, or an hour's gap on the 11.
I was in Southampton today and I notice Go South Coast are one of those operators that do crazy interworking, where you can never tell if a bus running out of service and a different bus taking over is normal or an unplanned changeover. They don’t publish the block numbers in their data that get published onto BusTimes either.
Is there any other examples of the ‘wrong’ GSC brand operating a journey on another brand’ service around the edges of each brand’s area
I know for example Damory operate the X8 and part of the Jurassic Breezer but with vehicles in the More or Breezer livery. I believe some of the school and/or college runs such as Brockenhurst can have a mix of More, Salisbury Reds and Bluestar runs, due to being on the edge of all those three brands
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When did Salisbury Reds take over the whole operation on the X7/X7R, I recall there used to be one board run from Totton.
Also and this probably happened at the same time, there is now a journey on Bluestar 5 that starts all the way back in Salisbury, run by Salisbury Reds, which is the bus that then picks up the workings on the X7/X7R
I was in Southampton today and I notice Go South Coast are one of those operators that do crazy interworking, where you can never tell if a bus running out of service and a different bus taking over is normal or an unplanned changeover. They don’t publish the block numbers in their data that get published onto BusTimes either.
The New Forest Tour 2026 timetables are online, basically the same as last year.
I note the return to service of 1822, the Athelets Bus, 1912 and 1913, the former Buster's Beach Buses, now 24 years old
Talking about funny workings, the 38 service in Ringwood now seems to be run by Damory except for journeys around lunchtime which are still run by Morebus from Ringwood
The Red Route also now runs via Brockenhurst rather than avoiding it direct along the A35, and no longer does the double run to call in at the Wildlife Park.
I was in Southampton today and I notice Go South Coast are one of those operators that do crazy interworking, where you can never tell if a bus running out of service and a different bus taking over is normal or an unplanned changeover. They don’t publish the block numbers in their data that get published onto BusTimes either.
If you observe the buses over several days and/or look at Bustimes for several days and/or analyse the BODS data you start noticing which interworkings are planned, though. The only problem with analysing the BODS data to derive the workings is they seem to change them very frequently, once per school term, and the school holiday workings are entirely different. Even Mondays differ from Tues-Fri. At one point they also changed at the half-terms too, so six times a year, but it seems to have stabilised a little of late.
It's not like the old days (e.g. Badgerline circa 1993/94 or Alder Valley mid-late 80s) when the bus companies might just make one or two changes a year, e.g. Sep and Jan, and the school holiday workings were the same as the schoolday workings with schoolday-only journeys deleted. This makes automating the process of deriving the workings more tricky than it could be.
Also the Totton side do carry the block numbers on the actual vehicle (T01, etc) which helps to identify whether a given interworking is planned or not. The Empress Road side, and prior to that, Eastleigh, previously did also, but seem to have given up.
In a nutshell the Totton side does do quite a bit of unpredictable interworking. In many cases the 11 and 12 interwork with each other, but there are a good number of exceptions. The 9 is self-contained more often than not, but again there are exceptions. The 8 often interworks with the 4 but it's not entirely predictable while the 4 interworks with a whole selection of other routes and many journeys go into and out of service. I think a lot of it is to ensure double-deckers end up in the right place for school/college workings. Either way it makes the operation interesting!
The Empress Road side is a bit more predictable on the whole. Many routes are self-contained but the 10, 13, and 14 interwork with each other, one pattern is 10-14-13-10-repeat and the other alternates between the 13 and 14 (the 10 is hourly and the other two are half-hourly). Occasionally there is a (scheduled) swap between these routes and the 20, and the Empress Road side does a number of 4s too. There are also some interesting workings around the time the 21 stops for the day between 2-3pm: IIRC both 21 vehicles then go onto 10/13/14 circuits, displacing another vehicle in each case. One of these was formerly a decker which went on to do a school/college service, though I think currently all midday 10/13/14 workings are single-deckers so not sure what happens now.
Don't think this is especially atypical though. Badgerline at Bath around 1993/94 and Alder Valley at Guildford in the mid-late 80s, both pre- and post-privatisation, also interworked extensively.
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When did Salisbury Reds take over the whole operation on the X7/X7R, I recall there used to be one board run from Totton.
Also and this probably happened at the same time, there is now a journey on Bluestar 5 that starts all the way back in Salisbury, run by Salisbury Reds, which is the bus that then picks up the workings on the X7/X7R
What I do know is that on Saturdays in late 2024 one of the three X7/X7R workings was Bluestar operated. It included the 1610 off Southampton, the vehicle for which came off other Bluestar routes (and the incoming X7 at the same time correspondingly also going onto other routes). The 1610 was also IIRC, and unusually for the X7(R), single-decker operated.
I think one of the Mon-Fri workings was at one point too, perhaps a little earlier than that though not totally sure.
It's an explanation which I find hard to take seriously especially as high back bus seats are nowhere near as tall as proper coach seats. The high(er) back version, Isri Civic V3, is only around 15cm taller than the top of the grab handle on the low back version (Civic V2), yet has a much greater feel of quality.
At the moment we have a number of buses from the mainland helping out for the Isle of Wight Festival. One is Wilts & Dorset 1019, which is listed as being in Wilts & Dorset heritage livery, but it looks to me more like Silver Star of Porton Down. Am I mistaken?
More basic than standard for just about any operator these days!
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It's an explanation which I find hard to take seriously especially as high back bus seats are nowhere near as tall as proper coach seats. The high(er) back version, Isri Civic V3, is only around 15cm taller than the top of the grab handle on the low back version (Civic V2), yet has a much greater feel of quality.
At the moment we have a number of buses from the mainland helping out for the Isle of Wight Festival. One is Wilts & Dorset 1019, which is listed as being in Wilts & Dorset heritage livery, but it looks to me more like Silver Star of Porton Down. Am I mistaken?
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I do like a spot of heritage traction!
www.morebus.co.uk
