Salisbury changes and tickets

Saturday 4th February sees some changes to timetables and routes in and around Salisbury. Salisbury Reds have kindly provided a summary here.

New timetables are not yet on their website, nor are they on Traveline with less than two weeks to go. We do hope they will appear soon. now on both Salisbury Reds' and Traveline's websites.

Routes affected are PR7, PR9, PR15, X7, X7R, 2, 25, 26, 26A, 28, 37, 84, 87 and 88.

Staying in Salisbury, with Activ8, the route to Andover which is jointly operated by Salisbury Reds and Stagecoach. See the timetable here, but if you need to know which company runs which journey, use the timetable on Traveline. Why might you need to know that? Fares can differ between Salisbury Reds and Stagecoach. On Stagecoach you can look up any fare using their journey planner, while Salisbury Reds only list some sample single/return fares on their website.

For a single journey between Salisbury and Andover, Stagecoach charge £5.50, while Salisbury Reds are 10p cheaper. For a day return however, aim to get a Stagecoach bus as they charge £6.40, while Salisbury Reds want £7.50 for the return trip.

After 7pm, Stagecoach becomes even more of a bargain with a flat fare of £2.50 called NightRider Gold. Until now, it's only been valid on Stagecoach journeys, but Salisbury Reds now not only accept the ticket, but they will sell it too. They claim to be selling it for £2, but I think they're just not aware of the most recent price rise at Stagecoach - still great value nonetheless.

Another ticket you might not know about is the multi-operator Wiltshire Day Rover at £8.50. It's valid on all buses in Wiltshire, regardless of operator, plus on selected routes out of the county including Salisbury Reds X7/X7R all the way to Southampton, First 265 to Bath and routes to Swindon, Cirencester and Oxford. On Activ8 it's only valid between Salisbury and Faberstown near Ludgershall, but it still opens up some really good value days out.