Introductions

admin

Hi Everyone,
I'm Vijay - frustrated resident & lifelong local. I'm your admin & I can see we've had a couple of signups, feel free to introduce yourself here!

Chickpea97

admin

Hi I'm Rachael (but I thought my username could be my cat's name haha)!

I have lived in Southampton for the last tenish years, I work in community health. Many of the service users I see are isolated due to poor transport options which continue to be cut to the bone. Looking forward to see where this goes. Thanks for making this effort.

Francis

Hi I'm Francis
Looking forward to getting great transport across the city (and region)

admin

Francis Great to see you! Welcome to the forum & thanks for helping us build a community!

Mike

Hi I’m Mike, local resident and fan of most of what I see the council doing recently. Would like more info and to help where useful

admin

Mike Hi Mike, welcome to SoConnect! Thanks for signing up. You can see what the council is doing/planning here: https://transport.southampton.gov.uk/

I'm not affiliated with them in any way, but I agree - I have liked a lot of recent development too. The problems the city has are a bit of a lack of courage by the council in certain areas (like in the Portswood project being so watered down & then not even finishing it's trial) & lack of funding (hopefully changing with devolution on the horizon). But the overall approach is pretty sensible, if a bit slow.

SamG

Hi, I'm Sam, local resident and believer that the city can be a better place to live.

admin

SamG Hi Sam! Hello & thanks for joining SoConnect! Nice to have you here, please don't hesitate to start a thread on how you'd like to see Southampton improve!

tomvvardle

Hi, I work as a campaigner and I have been involved in a few bus campaigns recently. I'm admittedly not a massive transport buff but happy to offer a hand. I think that the Enhanced Partnership could definitely be much more democratic, and we could even push for franchising.

admin

tomvvardle Hi Tom, thanks for joining up! I totally agree that franchising is the future - hopefully the upcoming devolution deal will help with that; it seems to be mostly Mayoral authorities that have been going down the franchising route. So, I think it could be on the table.

Francis

@"admin"# @tomvvardle completely disagree with franchising. If we are going to write all the specs and take the revenue risk we should bring them into public ownership. Franchising has seen the big groups get lots of well paying safe contracts and the independents lose routes

admin

Francis Fun fact, even TfL uses franchising! It's used widely & not what people often think it is:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bus-services-act-2017-bus-franchising-creation/setting-up-a-bus-franchising-scheme

admin

Chickpea97 Hi Rachel! Thanks for posting! And I love your cat's name

Francis

admin yes TfL buses are all franchised. How many small operators are there?
How many small operators left in Manchester?

Coxswain

Hi I'm Coxswain
lived in the city for the last 5 years

admin

Coxswain Hi Coxswain! Thanks for signing up!

Squiff

Hey all, I'm Chris. I'm a university student who has still got a couple years in Southampton lined up. I cycle a ton and would love to see transport expanded here 🙂

admin

Squiff Hi Chris! Thanks for signing up - hopefully you'll be in Southampton more than a couple of years if the city can ever live up to our potential!

Coxswain

Squiff
what would you like to see?