South East Hampshire BRT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Wright StreetLite on the BRT route at Bridgemary, Gosport in June 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Owner | Hampshire County Council | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Area served | Fareham, Bridgemary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | Gosport, United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transit type | Guided busway and Bus rapid transit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of lines | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of stations | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website | www | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Began operation | 22 April 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operator(s) | First Hampshire & Dorset | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
System length | 2 miles (3.4 km) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The South East Hampshire Bus Rapid Transit (also known as the Eclipse Busway) is a 3.4-kilometre (2.1 mi) unguided busway between Gosport and Fareham in the county of Hampshire, the road itself is called Henry Cort Way and is named after an ironware producer. The busway scheme is sponsored by Hampshire County Council using the route of the former Fareham to Gosport Line to reduce congestion on the parallel A32 between the towns. [1]
The busway follows the route of the disused railway from Redlands Lane to Rowner Road. It has 18 stops on the line with three connections in the middle of the line, being Palmerston Drive, Wych Lane and Tichborne Way. It runs under four bridges and passes through three towns. The maximum speed on the road is 40 mph (64 km/h) for all vehicles and has a restricted time between 05:45 and 23:15 where outside those times the busway is closed.
In 1998 Hampshire County Council and Portsmouth City Council proposed a Light Rail System to link Fareham and Portsmouth via Gosport. [2] Funding of £170m was approved in 2001 but withdrawn in 2004, a decision that was confirmed in 2006. [3] Following this decision, a cheaper, shorter BRT scheme was proposed which led to the creation of the South East Hampshire Bus Rapid Transit.
The route opened on 22 April 2012 with services provided by First Hampshire & Dorset with some of its routes being diverted to use the busway. One of its routes was rebranded to the "Eclipse" bus brand with custom interior specification on its own network of routes that uses the BRT. The "Eclipse" was later given Tap-on Tap-off technology which is compatible with contactless payment card methods. [4]
In 2017, the Hampshire County Council announced plans to extend the busway further south. £1.4m was secured in partnership with Portsmouth City Council in March 2019 and later the same year, planning permission was granted to start work. The proposed extension would continue on from Tichborne Way and Hutfield Link to Rowner Road (B3334) in Gosport, following the old disused railway. A ramp would be made to link the busway to the Rowner Road bridge. [5] Several public consultations on the extension were held in Gosport in May 2018 [6] and in July 2019 [7] in different venues.
The route extension was completed by December 2021 and the busway was extended from 2.8 km to 3.4 km with the new exit point being Rowner Road. Once the extension is complete, the busway operator would be expected to create a route to Daedalus, Hampshire and renew its fleet with new high specification, low emission buses. [5]
Two existing bus routes were replaced by the new Eclipse Bus Rapid Transit network and one was modified to use part of it. All routes are commercially operated by First Hampshire and Dorset.
The creation of the Eclipse routes E1 and E2 came as services 86, 82 and at peak times service X88 were diverted to use part of the busway between Wych Lane and Redlands Lane. [8]
Both of these routes run a 10-minute frequency, or a 5-minute frequency combined between peak times. When the busway is closed during morning and evening times, both routes use the A32 instead until before continuing on its normal route off the busway. [9]
On 18 November 2012 service 88 was replaced by the new 9/9A, which was modified to use the busway. This route isn't part of the Eclipse network, hence it doesn't have the custom specification buses put onto the E1/E2 routes.
Both services operate between Fareham Bus Station and Gosport Bus Station, via Woodcot, Bridgemary, Rowner, Privett and Alverstoke. They enter the busway at Redlands Lane and exit at Wych Lane in Woodcot. The routes split to serve different areas in Rowner, and re-join at Howe Road.
Both of these services run at a 40-minute frequency, or a 20-minute frequency combined between peak times. When the busway is closed during morning and evening times, both routes use the A32 instead before continuing on its normal route off the busway. [10]
Fareham is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufacturer of bricks, used to build the Royal Albert Hall, and grower of strawberries and other seasonal fruits. In 2011 it had a population of 42,210.
Gosport is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a population of 81,952. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite the city of Portsmouth, to which it is linked by the Gosport Ferry.
Gosport is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Caroline Dinenage of the Conservative Party. The constituency is anchored by the town and borough of Gosport.
The A32 is a road in Hampshire, southern England, that links Gosport and Alton. Starting at Gosport, facing Portsmouth, it travels north via Fareham, Wickham, Droxford, before joining the A31 road near Alton. The road is 29.2 miles (47.0 km) long from the seafront at Gosport to the roundabout with the A31 near Alton, and has entirely non-primary status.
First Hampshire & Dorset is a bus operator providing services in the counties of Hampshire and Dorset. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
Hants & Dorset Motor Services Ltd was a stage carriage bus service operator in southern England between 1920 and 1983.
Alverstoke is a village in the borough of Gosport, on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It stretches east–west from Fort Blockhouse, Haslar to Browndown Battery, and is centred 0.5 miles (0.80 km) east of the shore of Stokes Bay and near the head of a creek which extends a mile westward from Portsmouth Harbour.
The Meon Valley Railway was a cross-country railway in Hampshire, England, that ran for 22 miles (36 km) between Alton and Fareham, closely following the course of the River Meon. At its northern (Alton) end, it joined with the Alton Line from London. It was conceived as an additional main line to the area around Gosport, and it was opened in 1903. It never fulfilled its planned potential, and remained a local line through sparsely populated agricultural areas, and it closed to passenger services in 1955; some local goods services continued until total closure in 1968.
Privett was an intermediate railway station on the Meon Valley line, which ran from Alton to Fareham in Hampshire, England, during the first half of the 20th century. Named after the hamlet of Privett, the station was located over half a mile away from its namesake and was built in largely uninhabited countryside.
The Gosport and Cosham lines were a collection of railway lines in southern Hampshire. Most of the lines are now closed but some elements are still in use, forming part of the West Coastway line. The lines originally linked to the main London to Southampton line via the Eastleigh–Fareham line and subsequently with a line from Southampton via Bursledon, both of which are still in use.
Buses in Portsmouth are a form of public transport in the city of Portsmouth, England. Motor bus services in Portsmouth began in 1919, and were expanded in the 1930s following the closure of the Portsmouth Corporation Transport tram network. Trolleybuses were also operated between 1934 and 1963. Until 1988 the majority of services were provided by Portsmouth Corporation Transport, a municipal bus company owned by Portsmouth City Council. Other services into the city were operated by Southdown Motor Services, latterly as a subsidiary of the National Bus Company.
Solent Arena was an indoor arena, in Fareham, Hampshire. It was located alongside River Wallington by the M27 motorway.
The Provincial Tramways Company was a holding company for horse tramway companies in various regional towns of England. It was floated in July 1872 by means of a prospectus inviting public subscription for shares in the new company. The published prospectus lists the towns where it was proposed to operate horse tramways as Plymouth. Cardiff, Dundee. Portsmouth. Southampton and Tynemouth. Initially those in Plymouth and Cardiff were constructed and in operation as reported to the half yearly meeting of the company in 1873.
The Portsmouth Street Tramways Company operated horse tramways in Portsmouth, England. It was started under the terms of a Provisional Order of 1874 and was a wholly owned subsidiary company of The Provincial Tramways Company.
Durham–Scarborough bus rapid transit (DSBRT) is a future bus rapid transit corridor proposed by Metrolinx for the eastern part of the Greater Toronto Area in Southern Ontario, Canada. The 36-kilometre (22 mi) bus corridor will run from downtown Oshawa to Scarborough Town Centre in Toronto, mainly along Durham Region Highway 2 in Durham Region and Ellesmere Road in the Scarborough district of Toronto. Dedicated bus lanes will be used where feasible. Buses of the Toronto Transit Commission, Durham Region Transit and GO Transit would use the busway. Metrolinx has indicated that the BRT could be easily converted to LRT in the future if required.
South Hampshire is the term used to refer to the conurbation formed by the city of Portsmouth, city of Southampton and the non-metropolitan boroughs between them. As a result of the area's high population density, it has a developed public transport network. However, due to the area being controlled by different Authorities, most notably Southampton City Council, Portsmouth City Council and Hampshire County Council, there is little coordination of the system.