TrainspotterSW
Member
Is this to match the new delivery of buses?
And is the m1/m2 orange branding staying or being removed?
-
Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Go South Coast
- Thread starter Wessexbuses
- Start date
And is the m1/m2 orange branding staying or being removed?
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
It is probably one of the ones transfered to Swindon, they seem to do a daily run along the M4 as I often pass one on my commute to Bristol from Chippenham
Ah! That would seem logical then; I did think it was out of service but may have misread it!
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
E200 doing an all day stint on the Bluestar 1 today; I presume that isn’t a standard working - oddly there seems to be a journey back to Winchester missing in the middle of the day?
(Image shows a screenshot from Bustimes.org showing Bluestar 2747, HF65 CXX, on an all-day working on the service 1 today, 08/07).
Attachments
Last edited:
TrainspotterSW
Member
Is there a specific reason why there is no 15:50 18 to Broadstone and 15:40 18 to Bournemouth?
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Indeed as @James H states. For instance, the vehicle that could do the 15:50 is instead used for a 448 schools service
Bluestar have just published their latest timetable revision commencing Sunday 30th August on their website. Key changes include:
3: Sunday service reduced to 2-hourly, to interwork with new route 26. No longer serves Turnpike Way in Hedge End.
6: New half-hourly route between Southampton City Centre and Townhill Park via Woolston and Peartree Avenue.
7: Section of route between Aldermoor and Lordshill withdrawn.
10: Re-routed to run via Northam Bridge instead of Peartree Avenue
16: Extended to Aldermoor Turning Circle, providing a cross-city route between General Hospital, City Centre and Townhill Park. Frequency reduced to every 30 minutes.
21: Re-routed to run via Bedford Place and Wilton Avenue instead of Central Station.
26: New hourly route running between Southampton and Whiteley via Hedge End village and Botley.
More information here:
www.bluestarbus.co.uk
3: Sunday service reduced to 2-hourly, to interwork with new route 26. No longer serves Turnpike Way in Hedge End.
6: New half-hourly route between Southampton City Centre and Townhill Park via Woolston and Peartree Avenue.
7: Section of route between Aldermoor and Lordshill withdrawn.
10: Re-routed to run via Northam Bridge instead of Peartree Avenue
16: Extended to Aldermoor Turning Circle, providing a cross-city route between General Hospital, City Centre and Townhill Park. Frequency reduced to every 30 minutes.
21: Re-routed to run via Bedford Place and Wilton Avenue instead of Central Station.
26: New hourly route running between Southampton and Whiteley via Hedge End village and Botley.
More information here:
Timetable improvements from Sunday 30 August
NEW routes, strengthened connections, reliability updates and more...
www.bluestarbus.co.uk
Timetable improvements from Sunday 30 August
2 days ago Tue 28th Jul 2026
From Sunday 30 August, we will be making lots of timetable improvements including NEW routes, strengthened local and cross-city connections, reliability updates and more. You can find everything you need to know in the table below. All new timetables will be available to view soon.
We recommend you download the Bluestar appwhere you can plan your journey, find and buy the best value tickets and track buses in live time.
Route Improvements Timetables Bluestar 3
- Reliability improvements and some timing adjustments to coordinate with the NEW Bluestar 26 (see below for details).
- NEW evening journey leaving Southampton at 22:50.
- Buses will serve Charles Watts Way instead of Turnpike Way.
- Customers who usually use Turnpike Way, should now use the Bluestar 26 from Upper Northam Road or The Barleycorn.
Click here to view Bluestar 3 timetable pdf NEW Bluestar 6
- NEW route running daily between City Centre > Itchen Bridge > Peartree Avenue > Bitterne > Townhill Park
- Up to every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday.
- Up to every 60 minutes on Sundays including an evening service.
- Will provide a more frequent service for Peartree Avenue (currently every 60 minutes) which will no longer be served by the Bluestar 10. See below for details.
- Customers from Townhill Park now have a link to Woolston.
Coming soon... Bluestar 16 Aldermoor > General Hospital > St James' Road > Hill Lane > City Centre > Northam > Bitterne > Midanbury > Townhill Park
- Great news! This route will be extended after the City Centre to serve General Hospital and provide a new cross-city link.
- The new route is as follows:
- Frequency will reduce to every 30 minutes.
- Customers for Townhill Park will still have buses every 15 minutes with the introduction of the Bluestar 6.
Coming soon... Bluestar 7
- NEW evening journeys Monday to Saturday across the whole route (currently only between Sholing and City Centre).
- To improve reliability, buses will no longer serve Lordshill and will terminate at Aldermoor. Customers who use this service between Milbrook and Lordshill will need to change at Coxford Road onto Bluestar 17 or 19/19a.
Click here to view Bluestar 7 timetable pdf NEW Nightstar N9
- Great news! The N9 will be introduced on Friday and Saturday nights providing two late journeys out of the City Centre.
- Journeys will leave from Giddy Bridge at 01:10 and 03:10, before resuming the normal route from Albion Place at 01:20 and 03:20.
- Buses will go to both Fawley and Langley.
- As well as serving the same stops as the 9, the N9 will additionally serve all stops on Waterloo Road, Millbrook Road West & Redbridge Road, as well as serving Totton and Marchwood.
Coming soon... Bluestar 10
- Re-routed to serve Northam Bridge rather than the Itchen Bridge.
- Customers for Peartree Avenue can catch the NEW Bluestar 6 which provides an improved frequency of up to every 30 minutes.
- General reliability improvements.
Click here to view Bluestar 10 timetable pdf Bluestar 13 &14
- General reliability improvements and timing adjustments.
Click here to view Bluestar 13 timetable pdf Bluestar 19 & 19a
- General reliability improvements.
Coming soon... Bluestar 21
- Route change to improve links between Hill Lane and the City Centre.
- Buses will leave the City Centre and go via Cenotaph, Bedford Place, Wilton Avenue and Milton Road to Hill Lane before resuming the current route to Shirley.
Click here to view Bluestar 21 timetable pdf Bluestar 24
- General reliability improvements.
Click here to view Bluestar 24 timetable pdf NEW Bluestar 26 Click here for more details...
- NEW route between Southampton and Whiteley via Bitterne, Hedge End and Botley.
- Funded by our partnership with Hampshire County Council and the Bus Service Improvement Plan.
- Up to every 60 minutes Monday to Saturday.
- Up to every 2 hours on Sundays.
Click here to view Bluestar 26 timetable pdf
Last edited:
markymark2000
On Moderation
Good to see Bluestar venturing further east.
341o2
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2011
- Messages
- 2,012
I does seem the New Forest Tour is on its last legs. 1824, 1825, 1826, and 1830 are now part of the reserve fleet, and no sign of a return to service, despite the following
1821 - New Forest Tour, in service Blue route
1823 - New Forest Tour Red, in service Red route
1827 - New Forest Tour Blue, broke down 23 July and now at the rear of Lymington garage yard, will there be any attempt to repair it, or has it come to the end of the road?
1828 - New Forest Tour Green, in service, but has broken down twice so far this year.
1829 - New Forest Tour Green, in service
1822, the Athletes bus was used on the Green route last year, but has spent most of this year on the Breezer routes, usually route 60.
1821 - New Forest Tour, in service Blue route
1823 - New Forest Tour Red, in service Red route
1827 - New Forest Tour Blue, broke down 23 July and now at the rear of Lymington garage yard, will there be any attempt to repair it, or has it come to the end of the road?
1828 - New Forest Tour Green, in service, but has broken down twice so far this year.
1829 - New Forest Tour Green, in service
1822, the Athletes bus was used on the Green route last year, but has spent most of this year on the Breezer routes, usually route 60.
Last edited:
Solent_Desiro
Member
- Joined
- 30 Dec 2013
- Messages
- 31
I think they need to get ordering some new open top double deckers or convert some old E400s
341o2
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2011
- Messages
- 2,012
If the New Forest Tour returns in 2027, that is 11 months away. There is the more pressing need of how to operate a full time service which runs 7 days a week with four 22 year old buses, whose reliability is already questionable for the next 44 days with no spare. The original plan was that 1821 would be the spare, but it appears 1827 has put paid to that plan.
While previous reports regarding the tour have been favourable, there are now negative reviews regarding the two hour wait between buses on the Blue and Red routes, which is limiting, and now the unreliability of the buses that are supposed to run.
While previous reports regarding the tour have been favourable, there are now negative reviews regarding the two hour wait between buses on the Blue and Red routes, which is limiting, and now the unreliability of the buses that are supposed to run.
Mark L
Member
The regular use of closed top buses on a service which is marketed as an open top tour, and for which a premium fare is charged, is something of a PR own goal. I do wonder whether a shorter but more frequent single route perhaps based on a slightly extended version of the green route might be the answer.
There seems a rather odd contrast here between Vectis’ operations, which for many years seem to have always reliably provided a decent fleet of well presented open toppers for the relevant services, and Morebus, who seem to be completely unable to find anything at all to support the clearly life expired rolling stock on some of theirs.
I realise that there is a big advantage in the entire open topper fleet being convertibles, but that doesn’t outweigh the obvious disadvantages of vehicles being utterly knackered and increasingly unreliable, which clearly is deeply unhelpful whether they’re running with roofs on or off. It cannot possibly be that difficult to source half a dozen or so open toppers from somewhere - there is in fact an auction upcoming of a now defunct London tour operator which might provide some ideally suited Omnicity or E400s! Alternatively, Vectis rebuilt a fire damaged Omnicity of their own as an open topper, maybe they’ve still got the drawings tucked away somewhere!
I like the Vykings, they’re increasingly epic survivors given the state that they’re in, but their general appearance along with their fragility is not a good advertisement for something like The New Forest Tour, which really ought to be running with decent, recent vehicles. I think it’d be reasonable to suggest that there can’t be many other open topper fleets in the country running around in such a state. Really rather baffling that an operation the size of Go Ahead cannot come up with something, from somewhere, to support what should be a lucrative tourist service.
Last edited:
Mark L
Member
The Isle of Wight operations benefit from a much longer season which makes it easier to justify dedicated buses. The NFT only runs for a few weeks and uses buses that are, in closed top form, employed on college contracts (either directly or indirectly) for the bulk of the year.There seems a rather odd contrast here between Vectis’ operations, which for many years seem to have always reliably provided a decent fleet of well presented open toppers for the relevant services, and Morebus, who seem to be completely unable to find anything at all to support the clearly life expired rolling stock on some of theirs.
I realise that there is a big advantage in the entire open topper fleet being convertibles, but that doesn’t outweigh the obvious disadvantages of vehicles being utterly knackered and increasingly unreliable, which clearly is deeply unhelpful whether they’re running with roofs on or off. It cannot possibly be that difficult to source half a dozen or so open toppers from somewhere - there is in fact an auction upcoming of a now defunct London tour operator which might provide some ideally suited Omnicity or E400s! Alternatively, Vectis rebuilt a fire damaged Omnicity of their own as an open topper, maybe they’ve still got the drawings tucked away somewhere!
I like the Vykings, they’re increasingly epic survivors given the state that they’re in, but their general appearance along with their fragility is not a good advertisement for something like The New Forest Tour, which really ought to be running with decent, recent vehicles. I think it’d be reasonable to suggest that there can’t be many other open topper fleets in the country running around in such a state. Really rather baffling that an operation the size of Go Ahead cannot come up with something, from somewhere, to support what should be a lucrative tourist service.
There will be some slightly newer open top vehicles freed up from the Vectis fleet next year when the Needles Breezer gets its new EVs. Maybe they’ll find a home on the big island.
OptareOlympus
Member
1825, 1826, 1830 all withdrawn for scrap. None of the 18xx will operate in closed top form again.
There are still no manufacturers offering or able to manufacturer convertible buses. There is an acute shortage of depot space across GCS so storing converted seasonal half tops isn't an option.
There are still no manufacturers offering or able to manufacturer convertible buses. There is an acute shortage of depot space across GCS so storing converted seasonal half tops isn't an option.
341o2
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2011
- Messages
- 2,012
The New fForest is a major visitor attraction, estimated that 15m visit it each year, a few years ago, the New Forest Tour was being hailed as a success, it is claimed that last year it resulted in nearly 23,000 fewer car journeys. The season could be expanded to include over Easter and Whitsun.
The NFT tour buses were used for more than college contracts. However, the situation at Lymington is that the 153x Bluestars have stayed despite the new Breezers. Previously, the New Forest Show shuttle buses produced a variety of buses , this year, was almost exclusively the aforementioned Bluestars
Somewhat ironic with all the investment in the new Breezers (which are certainly an improvement) for passengers to arrive by these, and then encounter the New Forest Tour in its current state.
The Ampress bridge has been quoted as a problem, but this doesn't affect the Red Route.
The Blue and Red routes are operated by Morebus, the Green by Bluestar.
I also wonder how long the two former Yellow Buses (1912/3) will last.
Last edited:
OptareOlympus
Member
All of the morebus open top routes are planned and scheduled around Bournemouth University and Brockenhurst College commitments. For eg, the summer uplift on the 50 is operated by Bournemouth depot using 17xx outstationed from Swanage, crewed by drivers from the Bournemouth Uni rota whilst the Uni services drop down to vacation timetables. The Jurassic Breezer 30 as another example, is a marginal cost route which with the exception of the 6 week school holiday, runs using vehicles from am/pm Purbeck School contracts.
Last edited:
It is. And a great use of number too! Coincidence or not, the 26 was historically allocated to the long-standing route between Southampton and Fareham via Botley, which lasted in its complete form until 2005.
I've always thought it's quite impressive how Morebus juggles vehicles and drivers to make all this happen. It's a nifty deployment of resources which ekes as much as possible out of the assets, to the benefit of the passenger
DaveHarries
Established Member
Indeed, and good to see reuse of a historical number too. I wonder, should this prove successful, whether they might extend it info Fareham in the future.
Given the size of Hedge End I admit surprise that the level of service has remained at hourly and I often wonder if thought has ever been given to somehow increasing the frequency of City Centre - Hedge End buses to every 30 minutes during the day: I can think of a couple of ways it might be possible to do that: I don't know if I should elaborate on those on here or not but I will if anyone asks.
Dave
Southampton - Hedge End Village is being increased to half-hourly with the introduction of the 26, which will run hourly Monday to Saturday in conjunction with the 3. The 26 won’t serve the Sainsbury’s/M&S however, instead running direct towards the village centre along Upper Northam Road.
Dwarfer1979
Member
For many years it had 3 buses an hour (via 2 different routeings using 3 different numbers as the 2 via the same routeing went to different places after Hedge End). When Solent Blue Line introduced the Bluestar brand the network was simplified and enhanced (I think SBL got up to 4 an hour between 2 routeings, 3 on the main road, but it was quickly back down to 3). The issue with Hedge End has always been it is very difficult to serve all of it in a manner that didn't inconvenience half the residents with an unattractive/uncompetitive journey time to Southampton and/or more resources than likely medium term demand could sustain (that initial introduction of an enhanced original Bluestar 3 was an attempt at doing this and it still didn't serve the newer housing estates to the north of the town which were served with the leftover indirect low frequency service and a First route that didn't serve Hedge End Town Centre at the time) and that problem has if anything got more acute as housing has sprung up on the peripherals.
DaveHarries
Established Member
Sorry - I wasn't clear enough. I meant have a 3 & 3A (for example) to combine for a half-hourly service along the routing of Service 3 through Hedge End all the way around Hedge End's south side (Bursledon Road, Heath House Lane, etc.) as far as Tripps End Caravan Park, then 3 to Eastleigh and 3A to Hedge End Station.
Dave
Morebus timetables for beyond the September change date are now in bustimes.org if you manipulate the URLs
Only change I've found so far is further cuts to the U2 between Talbot Campus and Poole, which loses most of its evening services (having dropped from 2bph to 1bph earlier in the year)
Only change I've found so far is further cuts to the U2 between Talbot Campus and Poole, which loses most of its evening services (having dropped from 2bph to 1bph earlier in the year)
341o2
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2011
- Messages
- 2,012
An update on the New Forest Tour is that 1827 was removed from Lymington earlier this week, I assume it has now also been withdrawn.
1821 worked the Blue route until 4th August when it also broke down, it is currently inside Lymington garage, presumably being repaired.
One of the new Breezer buses then worked the Blue route, Brezer1832 is now on loan to Lymington. At least it is blue and open top.
The New Forest roads are becoming increasingly congested, making it difficult to provide a punctual service.
1821 worked the Blue route until 4th August when it also broke down, it is currently inside Lymington garage, presumably being repaired.
One of the new Breezer buses then worked the Blue route, Brezer1832 is now on loan to Lymington. At least it is blue and open top.
The New Forest roads are becoming increasingly congested, making it difficult to provide a punctual service.
TrainspotterSW
Member
- The 86 (86S) will be shortened to Ferndown and replaced by the 468 to probably separate it from the NFB 86
- The 46 is replaced by the 746 and goes to Strouden Ibberston Road instead of Throop Church
It does seem rather an odd time to start taking chunks out of the open topper fleet! Is it safe to assume that the pair of ex Yellow Bus B7s are safe for the time being?
Continuing the theme, it seems that an old warhorse has been brought out of retirement lately, bustimes.org is showing Volvo B7 / Wright Eclipse 2208, HF54 HFX, working a couple of trips on the M2 today amongst other routes, and it seems it was also out on Tuesday and on July 31st - is there now a vehicle shortage?
Attached image is a screenshot from bustimes.org showing workings for today, Friday August 7th, for 2208, HF54 HFX.
Attachments
Last edited:
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Depends if it's suffered a major unit failure and it's beyond economic repair, if indeed it has been removed for disposal?
Further digging reveals the U3 (Southbourne - Talbot Campus) is also having its term-time evening service removed, and will finish three hours earlier than in the last academic year.