Sunday 26 February 2012

Eclipse Update

More details are becoming clear about Eclipse - the new Fareham-Gosport bus way. As we pass the 56-day notification requirement to change, introduce or cancel routes, the routes are now known. First Hants & Dorset have said they will confirm the routes very soon, both on the unofficial FHD enthusiasts forum and their facebook page.

All information is from recent VOSA releases, with some guesses and estimates thrown in. Therefore, the details of the information are not confirmed, but just what I see as likely.

There will to be two Eclipse premier routes - the E1 and the E2. These routes will operate daily. These routes appear to be roughly Fareham bus station - Fareham rail station - BRT - then one to Bridgemary, Elson and Gosport, and the other to Ann's Hill and Gosport. It has not been confirmed which one is which yet or the frequencies of the routes. The 82 and 86 have been cut altogether - which further backs this point that the E1 and E2 will become a new version of these old routes.

The third primary route to operate on BRT will be the a version of route 88. As posted here, the council documents claimed the peak service via Rowner and Stokes Bay would operate via BRT. This route appears to be newly numbered the X88, as the VOSA registration is for the 88/X88. There has not been an X88 previous to now.

VOSA confirm the 83 and the 85 remain. The 83 sees a change though - it will operate half-hourly during the Mon-Sat daytime, and be extended from Fareham bus station beyond to the rail station and West End. VOSA confirms the 83 is replacing the 31 town service circular route, as the 31 is cancelled.

Furthermore, the 85 will operate at every 20 minutes Mon-Sat and half-hourly on Sundays. VOSA has confirmed this alteration. We do not have the details of (a) the route, although I presume it will be along the A32, or (b) the bus type - Eclipse Volvos or First Darts.

No news on how the changes affect the 33, 36 or 87 yet, but these routes could easily not change at all. I'll bring you the official press release from First as an when it happens. Before I end, I just want to emphasise that, unless I've stated the information is from VOSA, I have filled in the gaps by estimating, so to speak.

We will be having a late running Sunday's Lost Scenes this week.

1 comment:

  1. I was scouring the most recent N&P's and completely missed them; good spot.

    I think the maps that were produced always tended to head towards the BRT1 and BRT2 routes replacing the 82 and 86; it was just a question if there would be any remnants of them remaining in the peaks (IE for workers at Fleetlands and the industrial estate at the end of Wych Lane)

    The 83 being extended to West End of course is a throwback to the old Provincial where the 1, 2 and 3 did this before First took over.

    The 85 surely can not route via the A32 though as there still needs to be a presence along the current 85/86 route and I suspect it will just be a timetable change to reflect it replacing part of the 86 losses. Nobes Avenue and loop around to Wych Lane always seems to have custom; surely evidence enough being the G1 special that First ran while Wych Lane was closed.

    The effects on the 33 and 36 I think will be unlikely. If anything there might be a plan to combine them into a single loop as both are HCC contracted if I remember correctly; and with the 87A being cut back to Lee on Solent recently; running a Fareham - Newgate Lane - Lee - Stubbington - Newgate Lane - Fareham circle is a possibility. I assume that there are registration changes logged for these?

    Similarly with the 87, I suspect this will now miss out Redlands Lane and run fast to Fareham if there is a change registered for this.

    This month will certainly be interesting.

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