HAMPSHIRE bus company Bluestar is scrapping most its night services after this weekend.

Only one will be retained, the Uni-Link route U1N which will now extend its route to Eastleigh Bus Station rather than end at Parkway Station.

The U1N service will be hourly from 1am, 2am and 3am starting from Leisure World in Southampton, then picking up from West Quay, Civic Centre and London Road.

Services through the night will be scrapped to Winchester, Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh, Hythe and Langley, Thornhill, Lordshill and Calmore.

Nikki Honer, Eastleigh-based Bluestar's marketing manager, said that routes Bluestar 1, 2, 8, 9 and 18 will have timings enhanced, mainly to help enable buses to run on time due to changes in traffic congestion.

She added: “By monitoring suggestions from our customers, from recent on bus surveys and bus surgeries we are continuing to see passenger growth on many of our services so it's essential we react to the situation on the areas roads and allow more time for our buses to complete their journeys so we can keep to the published timetables,.

“Regrettably our Nightstar services, launched in 2004, have not experienced the passenger numbers required to sustain the services, and, will stop running after February 23, however we have managed to include some additional later journeys on our normal Friday and Saturday timetables so that customers can still enjoy a night on the town.”

It has been confirmed that no jobs will be lost from the workforce of 294 drivers, engineering and administration personnel due to the night service cuts.