First Hampshire & Dorset (Wessex, Dorset & South Somerset)

Russel said:

I've only ever used the X51/53 routes a few times, always on a Wednesday strangely when they get snarled up in traffic heading into Bridport which has sort of soured by opinion of the roues, I'm not sure if this is a regular thing because of summer traffic or some other reason, but it added 30 minutes onto the journey easily from the Axminster direction, looking if anything can be done to avoid this, divert away from traffic hotspots etc would be more beneficial IMO.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately not as Chideock is a bottleneck on the A35, west of Bridport, especially in the summer. Going down the narrow road to/from Lyme Regis doesn't help either.

Definitely a bigger issue in the summer, and journey times are extended in the timetable to reflect this.

I can't imagine anything worse than doing Weymouth or Dorchester to Axminster! Especially doing school term where one bus comes into Bridport then goes to Colfox School before coming back into the town. That adds about 20 minutes, typically.

After Winterborne Abbas the bus now diverts to Martinstown, a change I was against. But in practice it regularly avoids the other traffic hotspot on the A35 between Poindbury and Winterborne Abbas. Several times the X51 has swept through as traffic tails back on the A35.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 May 2026 ==

Russel said:

I've only ever used the X51/53 routes a few times, always on a Wednesday strangely when they get snarled up in traffic heading into Bridport which has sort of soured by opinion of the roues, I'm not sure if this is a regular thing because of summer traffic or some other reason, but it added 30 minutes onto the journey easily from the Axminster direction, looking if anything can be done to avoid this, divert away from traffic hotspots etc would be more beneficial IMO.

Click to expand...

Wednesday is also market day in Bridport. Quieter than the Saturday market but in the height of summer can be very busy.

Personally I like doing long X53/51/54 runs, it's something to do when I'm off over winter and the views are always nice (well unless it's foggy!)

As has been said there is nothing that really can be done to avoid any traffic as there aren't any other ways the bus can go, fun at one point when both the coast road and A35 to Dorchester were closed for a bit, we just had to wait.

Sealink said:

Unfortunately not as Chideock is a bottleneck on the A35, west of Bridport, especially in the summer. Going down the narrow road to/from Lyme Regis doesn't help either.

Definitely a bigger issue in the summer, and journey times are extended in the timetable to reflect this.

I can't imagine anything worse than doing Weymouth or Dorchester to Axminster! Especially doing school term where one bus comes into Bridport then goes to Colfox School before coming back into the town. That adds about 20 minutes, typically.

After Winterborne Abbas the bus now diverts to Martinstown, a change I was against. But in practice it regularly avoids the other traffic hotspot on the A35 between Poindbury and Winterborne Abbas. Several times the X51 has swept through as traffic tails back on the A35.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 May 2026 ==



Wednesday is also market day in Bridport. Quieter than Saturday but in the height of summer can be very busy.

Click to expand...

Fair enough, I'm not local so didn't know options were so limited.

Shame as Axminster - West Bay is a really lovely route, but the traffic in the summer ruins it in a way, especially as a 30 minute delay into West Bay means you have 30 minutes less there to enjoy the area.

Russel said:

Fair enough, I'm not local so didn't know options were so limited.

Shame as Axminster - West Bay is a really lovely route, but the traffic in the summer ruins it in a way, especially as a 30 minute delay into West Bay means you have 30 minutes less there to enjoy the area.

Click to expand...

At least in the summer you have the X53 and the open top X50 so it's easier to take an earlier bus.

dgl said:

At least in the summer you have the X53 and the open top X50 so it's easier to take an earlier bus.

Click to expand...

X52 is the open top bus for West Bay. (Bridport - West Bay - Burton Bradstock etc. to Weymouth)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Jun 2026 ==


A list of issues with First so far...

First have done their "thing" again, in that if you want to know the bus times from Bridport to Weymouth you have to refer to three different timetables.
Despite the X52 and X53 following the same route... it would not be difficult to show them on one page. WATAG actually print a timetable (of course, First are digital only) which combines X51, X52, X53 and LB1 in one.
The bus stop publicity also shows the LB1 operating on Fridays and Saturdays at 0010. It's actually Saturday and Sunday at 0010.

Here is what the WATAG published Saturday timetable looks like... you will notice the first bus on Saturday to Dorchester doesn't get there till after 10am, and Weymouth at 9.29am



X51 services have Weymouth on the destination blind with a tiny scrolling "via Martinstown... via Dorchester". This has led some people thinking they are getting the Weymouth bus via the coast road...

Sealink said:

X52 is the open top bus for West Bay. (Bridport - West Bay - Burton Bradstock etc. to Weymouth)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Jun 2026 ==

First have done their "thing" again, in that if you want to know the bus times from Bridport to Weymouth you have to refer to three different timetables.
Despite the X52 and X53 following the same route...

X51 services have Weymouth on the destination blind with a tiny scrolling "via Martinstown... via Dorchester". This has led some people thinking they are getting the Weymouth bus via the coast road...

Click to expand...

So these people have turned up for their bus an hour early and not noticed the via destination... I think that might be the least of their worries!

TheGrandWazoo said:

So these people have turned up for their bus an hour early and not noticed the via destination... I think that might be the least of their worries!

Click to expand...

Not quite.
Mondays to Fridays an X51 with "WEYMOUTH (scrolling... via Martinstown... via Dorchester) is at 9.29am, the X52 via the coast is 9.32am - when it's on time.
This pattern is repeated throughout the day.
Locals know the difference, tourists don't. A simple solution would be to change the X51 to "DORCHESTER.. then Weymouth" which First said they would do, they haven't.

Sealink said:

Not quite.
Mondays to Fridays an X51 with "WEYMOUTH (scrolling... via Martinstown... via Dorchester) is at 9.29am, the X52 via the coast is 9.32am - when it's on time.
This pattern is repeated throughout the day.
Locals know the difference, tourists don't. A simple solution would be to change the X51 to "DORCHESTER.. then Weymouth" which First said they would do, they haven't.

Click to expand...

Apologies - I thought you were talking about the X51 and X53. You meant the X52 - that does make sense.

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, I couldn't find a First Hampshire (Solent) one.
A new service X3 is to be introduced from 27th July 2026 between Fareham and Southsea, South Parade Pier, to supplement services X4 and X5 between Fareham and Gunwharf/The Hard and service 3 between Gunwharf/The Hard and Southsea, South Parade Pier. The service will run every 30 minutes (daytime) and every 60 minutes (evenings) on Mondays to Saturdays.
Extra information: Services 1 & 3 will reduce in daytime frequency on Mondays to Fridays from every 10 minutes (currently) to every 12 minutes from the same date.

So our new late night bus between Bridport and Lyme Regis is hitting hurdles already - namely the closure from 8pm every Friday of the A35 to build a new roundabout at Miles Cross.
First have helpfully put a poster up at the Bridport Bus Station, but no one has told their journey planner.
I have emailed First repeatedly about this as it is going to be a regular occurance over many summer Fridays.

Sorry for the very image based post - I just don't understand how they can't get the basics right.



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Jul 2026 ==

And once again, the road is closed tonight (10 July) and First have not updated their journey planners.

Another total failure last night.
First have a tiny poster at Bridport Bus Station advising no buses after 8pm.
Meanwhile, their own app, and the RTI display showed normal departures.
In addition, the 1945 service arrived and was cancelled, the driver telling me "It's cancelled... it's on the poster." I pointed out that the poster said 8pm and his reply was "Well it's cancelled as I can't get back".

The RTI was also a mess when they had roadworks meaning the centre of Dorchester was effectively closed and buses were serving Poundbury only, taking the bypass to get there.
There were a decent amount of people wondering why the bus didn't turn up and I ended up getting the train back to Weymouth.

Edit:
Noticed today that the bus terminating audio message has changed from "Thanks for travelling with First South" to "Thanks for travelling with First Wessex" so the Wessex brand must be staying for promotional purposes at least.

Edited again:
Noticed that the RTI screens can now show how full a bus is, alternating between the destination and busyness.
The screen I can see at the moment has the next bus showing as "Bus fairly busy" and the one after showing as "Bus quiet".