A New Philosophy for Route Changes?

Omnibuses blog entry on Wednesday 10th November suggested that with First appointing a new boss- Tim O'Toole, some of the widespread cuts of last year may be reversed as First attempt to ride out the recession by adopting further well designed services, targetting the needs of the customer without more cuts. In this blog entry, I'll explore what this means for First Hampshire...

There is some evidence around Hampshire suggesting a more outside-the-box philosophy of route changes. Take route 26, pictured right - which is the combination of two routes, and also opens up a long since disappeared link between Fareham and Hamble. Or the new route 28 - the combination of 4 previous routes (route 27, 28, 76 and 78) which opens up new links to Fareham Community Hospital, not previously served by route 78. Or finally, moving further afield, route X43 introduced between Weymouth and Swanage over the summer. A brand new route opening up new links, that was very popular supposed to be returning next summer. Although these are common sense solutions, and hopefully will be successful, one wonders if such solutions or routes would have been introduced a few years ago.

Despite the other recent cuts of two summers ago, which saw route 34 halved, route 78 and 96 cut, and a variety of other changes, there does seem to be an optimism around the county which could result in developed routes, new links, or maybe even routes or frequencies being reintroduced. One such example of a future potential change could include a new link serving Cherque Farm estate in Gosport. This could involve a diversion of route 87A, or a reintroduction of the half hourly route 34 frequency which terminated at Lee on Solent. Or, more adventurously, a doubling of route 72's frequency with one half diverting via the new estate.

I don't wish to speculate further to whether any changes will be made, or whether the new boss will change anything locally here in Hampshire. All we can say is that we will have to wait and see what happens in the future.