Safeguard squeezed as Guildford bus war escalates

摘要

Guildford's bus war intensified on 4 November with the launch of three new lettered routes by Arriva Southern Counties that replace its circular services 26/27. The A provides a direct link between the bus station and Royal Surrey Hospital, placing it in direct competition with long established local independent Safeguard's routes 4 and 5. The B also competes with Safeguard, on the route to Park Barn. Arriva served this route on a joint basis with Safeguard until 2010, when joint operation to Bellfields also ended, with each route becoming the exclusive province of one operator. While the A and B run every 10min, Arriva route C to Stoughton matches Stagecoach's route 2 frequency at every 15min with which it goes head to head. Safeguard's two circular routes run at 10min and 15min intervals, with clockwise service 5 running at the higher frequency until lunchtime, when anticlockwise route 4 becomes the more frequent. Together with other Stagecoach routes, this means that some corridors now have up to 24 buses per hour. There are 18 between the hospital and town centre for much of the day, although Arriva and Safeguard journey times of 10/11min are significantly faster than Stagecoach service 1, which runs via the university campuses and has 24min running time.