Happy Havant Happenings 1

Positive Paulsgrove Progress

Stagecoach have made significant changes to their network between Havant and Leigh Park and therefore between Portsmouth and Havant. At the same time a more local service in Portsmouth itself has received a major upgrade.

fbb refers to route 18.

This is not the historic route 18, part of the 17/18 circulars from The Hard (i.e. Harbour Station, formerly known as Dockyard. These were familiar to trolleybus watchers ...

... as the routes to Eastney, later becoming bus services.

The Eastney 17/18 ended in 2012.

The route 18 in today's blog refers to buses between Southsea (South Parade Pier), Cosham, Queen Alexandra Hospital ...

... and the Paulsgrove Estate at Alloway Avenue.

With a major First Bus (successor to the Corporation) reorganisation, the main routes to Paulsgrove were 2 and 3 ...

... with 3 continuing to Fareham. Both these ran via the main shopping centre at Portsmouth.

In times past the shopping at Souithsea was of near equal status and importance to that at Portsmouth, but that elevated role has declined over the years such that First's service from Southsea to Paulsgrove became tendered by Portsmouth Council. 

This was the new route 18.

It was presented, as ever, with route 17 which ran to Tipner (as above) at one stage or ...

... Copnor for a change! fbb has no idea in what order the two different 17s appeared. The difference is academic as our topic is the 18.

But for the first months of 2023 this service ran every 30 minutes Monday to Friday ...

... and every hour on Saturday and Sunday.

It might not have been called a big-profit service!

During 2024 there was a re-tendering exercise by the city council and First lost most of its tendered city services to Stagecoach.

Stagecoach ran the 18 with exactly the same frequencies as the outgoing First,  but changed the terminus to "Almondsbury Road"  ...

... a stop which for countless generations had been called Hillsley Road!

fbb does not have interim detailed timetables, but a press release from Stagecoach reported significant growth.

And there's more.

Earlier this year, the Saturday and Sunday frequency was upped to every 30. Of course this was not a huge commercial gamble by Stagecoach; it was a government grant (i.e. from our taxes) that paid for it.

But it is now 2025 and another bag of pennies has been thrown at the 18.

Firstly it is diverted from South Parade Pier to Clarence Pier ...

... allowing connections to be made with the Hovercraft to the Isle of Wight.

The Monday to Saturday headway is now every 20 minutes as shown in this extract ...

... with Sunday at every 30.

Here is how Stagecoach have publicised he change.

There is no doubt that this is a real improvement for the 18, once in the doldrums with First.

The key question, however, is, "Will this improvement remain in place when the BSIP subsidy runs out?"

 Next Havant blog : Wednesday 9th April 

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 The Easter Jigsaw 

Figs!

Does this jigsaw piece fit?

The next day, as they were coming back from Bethany, Jesus was hungry. He saw in the distance a fig tree covered with leaves, so he went to see if he could find any figs on it. But when he came to it, he found only leaves, because it was not the right time for figs. Jesus said to the fig tree, “No one shall ever eat figs from you again!”

Hardly "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild"! How could Jesus curse an innocent inanimate fig tree?

But it was an important jigsaw piece and still is today.

Jesus is warning the people that those who reject him, who do not "bear good fruit" will be "cursed", will be those who, one day, suffer God's punishment.

Many don't like that thought today - and many didn't back then.

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Riding The Mustange 5

 Food Glorious Food

The two sons sent copious pictures of their meals which looked, well, unusual. But they seemed to trough them down very happily.

fbb is not sure whether the above was breakfast, lunch, dinner ot a bedtime snack! 

Ribs?

Morro The Mound!

Their last drive was from San Francisco to Morro Bay and then on to Los Angeles.

What interested fbb was that Morro Bay was a small settlement of 10,000 souls (Seaton is just over 8,500), quite a change from everywhere else they had rested their weary heads and paused the non-weary Mustang.

"Morro" is the Spanish for "small rounded hill" and there was one ...

... just offshore in days past but now linked by a causeway created when a proper harbour was built.

It is the plug of a long-extinct volcano and looks quite weird on the richly endowed California coast.

You can walk to the Morro and round its base; but climbing is forbidden on safety grounds and to protect wildlife.

Beach Glorious Beach

A few miles before Morro Bay, the sons stopped at "a beach" where the sunshine and deep blue sea was a marked contrast with the snow of Tahoe. The beach came complete with lavish public conveniences ...

...which leaked.

The sandy bay was vast (like everything else in America) and almost completely deserted ...

... apart from two men behaving badly! Here No 1 son followed a tradition frequently experienced since young boyhood.

He got his feet wet.

Trolley Glorious Trolley?

But, back at Morro Bay they sent a photograph of a bus stop.

There was adequate bus stop information ...

... but no buses. It was "out of season". fbb became excited when he saw the flag which announced that it was a "Trolley".

"Trolley" is a tram in the States, but the picture on the flag did not look like any tram fbb has ever encountered. And there were no rails and no overhead wires.

It's a bus, innit?

It (they?) is built to look like an old-fashioned tram.

But trolleys were there none. It was twirly - summer season only.

There are no useful videos on-line of the "Trolley" in normal service, but there is a three minute clip of the bus on a Christmas tour.

Well ....

The company also operates a more traditional town service for which fbb could not find a full timetable. Departure times (presumably every hour) appear on the excellent route map, showing a complex north ...

... to south route.

A list of stops is provided and buses will divert for up to three quarters of a mile on demand.

Vehicles used are the US equivalent of midi buses.

This is where the sons stayed, even more Columboesque than Tahoe.

Glorious Lacka Litta

The next pit stop was Santa Monica ...

... c/w seaside entertainments.

The one thing fbb noticed was how clean and tidy these places were; but then there was a rather strong warning.

... but it seems to work!

The City Of Angels Sadness

fbb has written about LA extensively in relatively recent blogs so will pass on this visit. 

There was a sad but meaningful reason for this particular end to their road trop.

It was in LA that No 2 son died.

It was simple but emotional visit to the scene and to the hospital which tried to resuscitate him.

 Next Havant Happening blog : Tues 8 April 

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 The Easter Jigsaw 

All four Gospels tell of "Palm" Sunday (Palm leaves above) but only John tells us that the branches strewn in front of Jesus were from palm trees. Although palms were not particularly prolific in Jerusalem (Jericho was "The City Of Palms") it is highly likely that the leaves would be collected especially for this sort of event.

Throughout written history, even before the Bible came into being, the gift of a palm leaf was a mark of respect for a well deserved victory. Palm leaves were awarded at sports events in ancient Greece and Rome and, even today, the "Palme D'Or" is the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

So Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as a victorious leader?

Victorious? Five days later he was crucified for treason against Rome.

Some victory!

Palm Sunday is on Sunday 13th April.

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