I took a bit of time out today, to get out and use my bus pass. I never caught a bus from Gosport Bus Station when it was open. So I walked into town and arrived at the new interchange. As it happens there was an E2 bus waiting. As I boarded the bus, I did notice an official person in a yellow jacket, but didn’t really pay much attention to him. This minor piece of information is qquite important in a moment.
It was a normal trip up to Fareham, but I did think that there were fewer buses than normal when I arrived. I would normally get one of the X4 busses, which run almost directly to Portsmouth. I worked out that there was a bus due sometime in the next 5 minutes or so. When the bus didn’t arrive, I asked the inspector what was happening, only to be informed that the X service wasn’t running. The lack of buses was an accurate observation, as it turns out there was strike going on, with Unite the union for the local bus drivers.
The inspector told me that the only way of getting to Portsmouth would be to get a No. 3 and change to a 2, 7 or 8 at Corsham. I thought I might as well go for it, and boarded the waiting No. 3. At Corsham, I only had to wait for about two minutes for a No 2 to arrive. I must admit that I was a bit surprised that the other 8 – 10 passengers weren’t also walking towards the bus,, but thought no more of, beyond perhaps their stops weren’t on the No. 2 route.
It turns out that the No. 2 probably wasn’t the best bus to take. It went via Southsea, so was quite a long route, and certainly not direct. Not only that, but the traffic was dreadful in the city. I even thought that the bus may avoid the city centre completely, but then it took a right turn.
I didn’t really spend that much time in the city centre, A quick trip to the Hard saw me soon on the ferry, heading back to Gosport, and a casual stroll home that was good for two reasons, that I may talk about tomorrow.
Bills Posts 