Today's the Day...

Today, three of the south's key Go South Coast services are changing. I hope to photograph all of these changes in the next two weeks.

Firstly, BlueStar's route 18, which connects Millbrook to Thornhill is increasing to every 7 or 8 minutes - that is 8 buses an hour. The 18 is BlueStar's key Southampton City route, and competes against 6 an hour buses to Millbrook on First's 17/17A, and 9 buses to Thornhill an hour, against First's 9/9A/10/10A. They've also bought in four new DAF single deckers to operate the service, much like 563 (YG52CMF) illustrated to the left, in the new darker blue livery.

Route 56/56A connecting Lymington to Southampton also passes from Wilts & Dorset to BlueStar today, in the form of BlueStar 6. Initial sightings seem to suggest the route will feature Dart MPDs, Solos and DAF/Optare Spectras - 2 Dart MPDs along with 2 blue Solos and Blue Spectra 3162 are at Lymington for the service.

Finally, routes 5/6/95/96, connecting Salisbury to Swindon, will be route X5 from today. The route will operate half hourly from Salisbury to Durrington, extending hourly to Swindon, continuing to see Scania Omnicity double deckers as the primary type of bus allocated to the route. Interesting times ahead, and lots of new photo opportunities aroung the Go South Coast network.