The changes to Arriva and other operators in Bucks from the end of the month can now be seen here:
https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-transport/bus-passes-and-travel/changes-to-bus-services/. It doesn't look great for Arriva in Aylesbury - losing the 9 as remarked on above, and also facing serious competition from Redline on the Aylesbury-Oxford route, with their X20 now running with the same daytime frequency as Arriva's 280, though without Arriva's Thame shorts, and with times that at least look coordinated. Wycombe's looking a bit better, with various frequency increases and the renumbering of the town network. Can't quite see the point in it myself, and splitting the 32 and 33 also seems an odd choice.
High Wycombe:
Aylesbury:
Interurbans:
Lots of interesting changes here, some good, some bad.
In Aylesbury Arriva look to be giving up on their last local route, the 9. At present this runs every 20 minutes each way round the circuit to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, a key traffic objective, with 3 buses. Now they are just giving up on it. Red Rose will run during the week and there are plenty of inter-urban services passing it, but this is such a come down from when Arriva and predecessors ran most of Aylesbury. Yesterday they seemed to have virtually given up on it already with (usual caveats about BusTimes) only one bus of three running for much of the day and the last two circuits each way missing.
Minor changes to the 280/X8, still mainly every 15 minutes between Thame and Oxford. But there are strange gaps, no arrival in Oxford 15.44 to 16.30, then gaps in departures from Oxford 16.00-16.35, 17.05-17.35, 17.45-18.15, peak gaps of 30 minutes or maore, not much changed from now. No wonder Redline sense an opportunity with their increased X20, every 30 minutes during the day but extra evening peak journeys out of Oxford.
Minor changes to the 300/X30 from Aylesbury, still every 20 minutes via Naphill during the day while some peak journeys operate direct. This leaves big gaps, at present the first High Wycombe arrival from Naphill after 08.00 is at 08.51, with the new timetable it will be 9.00. Surely this is a key time period with town centre workers arriving? I don't understand why they run any journeys via the X30 when Redline's 130 covers this, I would have thought they should stick to the Naphill route.
Many changes in Wycombe, mostly for the better.
The 30 to Downley becomes the 10 and increases from every 30 minutes (mostly run off the 800/850) to every 20 minutes (probably stand alone)
The 31 to Penn becomes the 11 and is increased between the peaks from every 60 minutes to every 30 minutes. I guess this might now run off the 800/850.
The 32 is split into the 2 and the 12, the 2 to Booker and the 12 to Micklefield, both legs increased from every 20 minutes to every 15. As both services appears to arrive and depart the bus station at the same time I suspect they continue to work together, but the allocation will go from 5 buses (6 in peaks) to 7 all day.
The 33 is split into the 3 and the 13, the 3 to Castlefield staying every 15 minutes while the 13 to Totteridge is reduced from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes. At present this route uses 4 buses, it looks like the 3 and 13 could each be standalone using 2 buses each. This is no change to resources but a worse service to Totteridge, presumably in the cause of reliability.
The 35, 36 and 37 to Bourne End and Maidenhead are renumbered 5, 6 and 7 but no significant change, still 5 buses out during the day. These routes are generally where the double deckers are concentrated, at least during the day, we'll see if this continues.
The 48 is renumbered to the 4, but no real change.
On the 800/850 to Reading there is an improvement with the evening service on the 800 now running through to Reading. I wonder if this is commercial or if there is some support. Also, at long last, they have realised that the 850 takes quite a bit longer to get into Reading than the 800 and now buses will switch routes at Reading, so an 800 in will be an 850 out. This should improve reliability of the 850, but will initially confuse passengers leaving Reading as the times are largely swapped. Confusingly most times are 5 minutes earlier than now, so some people will miss the bus for a while! Also there are some bigger gaps in the service, at present there are departures from Henley to Wycombe at 07.30, 07.45 and 08.00, all fairly well used. Now 07.15, 07.45, 08.25, the last will be too late for Marlow schoolchildren so the 07.45 will be
very busy. I'd put money on a duplicate or extra journey by the end of September...
It does generally seem positive around High Wycombe, with the Carousel 1/1A/1B to Amersham becoming every 15 minutes instead of every 20 minutes too - although like most of the Arriva changes this is only going back to how it used to be. Is any of this funded by Bucks' small amount of BSIP money I wonder?