Google Maps and Google Earth

I mentioned a few days ago that Google have updated the views of Plymouth on Google Earth with much clearer hi res images than before. Well they have now migrated through to Google maps too!

So today we have a few images taken from Google Earth which show the two main bus garages in Plymouth...
Milehouse, home of Plymouth Citybus is seen above.

Below we see First Devon and Cornwalls The Ride.


This next image is from just up the road and is the spare parking area that FDC are / were using. It does seem odd that the few buses there are spread out across the site! note the yellow and purple buses to the left of the parking area. I am guessing that these were ex Thamesway Mercedes Varios

Stormseal

Stormseal have had a Plymouth Citybus Dart in all over wrap-around advertising livery for quite some time now. I have been sorting through the many thousands of photos I have waiting to be looked at and came across this LDV Convoy van in Stormseal livery. It is just one of the many local vehicles which can be found on my Flickr 'Local fleets' set.

Eggbeers Transport

The next in my occasional series on local haulage companies is Eggbeers Transport. Bsed in Newton Abbott they are regular visitors to Plymouth. The fleet of about twelve vehicles is actually now owned by M.Way and Sons who have already featured in this series. An older photo of another member of the Eggbeer fleet can be found here.

Two quick notes

Two little things I have noticed this week:

If you, like me, are a fan of Google Earth then you might like to take another look at Plymouth. This last week or so has seen an update and Plymouth is now in a much higher resolution and, more importantly, a lot more of the city is now available to view. Previously you couldnt view much of the North of the City (Derriford Hospital was out for example) but now you can get a much better idea of how Plymouth looks from the air. It is expected that Google Maps will catch up shortly - they still use the old images at the moment.

The second thing I noticed this week, of slightly less importance in the world of computing, but more important to me at least, is that this blog has now passed 10,000 visits (counting from 1st January 2006). November is going to be the busiest month yet standing at 1500 visits so far. When I look back and see than January 2006 saw 250 visits I realise how far things have come. The most satisfying thing for me is that I can see that most of the visits these days are people who come straight to the blog - ie are actually wanting to visit rather than finding it by accident.

As I said in my first post 31st March 2005:
Well, here it is, My first attempt at a blog. At this point I dont really have a clue what is going to appear here or how it is going to end up looking, but I will concentrate on what is happening with the transportation in and around Plymouth, England. I will try and post something every day if I can. This will either be something that has caught my attention that day or maybe just something of interest from my files.So sit back and relax, and wait - something interesting might just appear at some stage - you never know!
It seems I have managed to post at least a few interesting somethings along the way!

Western National VR

© Phil Doddridge - used with permission

1100 SFJ100R sits in the sun in Bretonside Bus Station.

Quick Note:

Sorry nothing much posted this weekend so far, My wife is in London so I am left in charge of my young son Zak (will be four at Christmas) so not had much time to myself! Hopefully next week I will get out and about a bit more - weather permitting anyway. Today we did manage a good trip out on Stagecoach Devon where I tested Zaks staying power on long distant bus travel to the limit - over 7 hours bus travelling time - and he lover every bit of it! A true bus spotter in the making!

Devon Fire Brigade

©eggmoss (Flickr Blog)

Found this wonderful photo of an old Devon Fire Brigade appliance which I believe was caught on camera somewhere on Dartmoor. As well as being a nice photo of an old appliance its a good photo to illustrate a recent news story...

Devon and Somerset's fire services are to merge in an effort to save more than £3 million - but unions fear it will mean a loss of local knowledge and accountability.The merger was made law by the Government 20th November as part of the biggest shake up of fire services in the South West for nearly 30 years. The combined Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority will hold a 'shadow' meeting on December 1, in preparation of the full switch over on April 1, 2007.

A more detailed article on the merger can be found here (PDF document)

Timetable success for local authorities

Reading a new post on the excellent Omnibuses Blog which congratulates his local operator Transdev Yellow Buses (Bournemouth) for having what Barry Doe considers to be one of the best operator produced timetable booklets in the country. As to who Barry Doe is I will quote Omnibuses:
"He’s the intrepid and penetrative consultant whose eagle eye for publicity, fares, standards and deals has embarrassed and sometimes even shamed and humiliated those he considers as offering poor service."
As part of his web site Barry Doe lists the top local authorities in the country when it comes to timetable provision - and guess what? It seems we are being very well served by the local authorities down here.
Devon County and Cornwall County Councils are both congratulated on their timetables. Both have very different approaches but both do their job very well.
Now when I first read through his run down I expected Cornwall and Devon to be there. I was not so sure about Plymouth. Well Plymouth is indeed there - along with Torbay Council too.
You can read his full verdict on each authority here.
Of course Barry Doe is only looking at printed material here, but we are now also served very well on the 'net as now Citybus have finally joined in the fun and have excellent timetables available on line for all their services. It must be said that their timetable section on their web site may not look as well put together as First Devon & Cornwall but if anything it is slightly easier to use and comes in very hand indeed.
Well done to all the local authorities
Now if Plymouth could just get the real time information system up and running across the City properly then it really will deserve all the praise!

Tamar Valley Line ECT

Rail campaigners are considering running a pilot project to provide new services on the Tamar Valley line and the Looe branch line.The ECT Group, which runs community railways in Dartmoor and Yorkshire, is considering forming a new rail operator - Devon and Cornwall Railways - to run trains on the lines.
"We propose development of new commercial activities to increase income and attract more passengers, including premium services such as 'wine and dine' trains, special events such as steam weekends and Santa Specials, and by investing in better facilities at stations such as visitor centres, cafes and bars, gift shops, picnic areas and complementary cycle and walking routes."
Sounds interesting - lets wait and see if anything comes of this bold idea

Western National VRTs

© Phil Doddridge - used with permission

1085 HTC726N was always recognisable in this unusual livery! If I recall correctly it came from Durbins, Bristol and Western National just added the standard blue front. One of my favorites!

Plymouths Atlanteans Part 8

© Dave Godley 1988 - used with permission.
Who could forget when 162 was Lawsons train?

The last batch of East Lancs bodied Atlanteans were 10 single doored buses.
This is the last in this small series of Plymouth Atlanteans for now. Thanks again to Dave Godley for allowing me to use them. As already promised I am posting a small series of Western National VRT pictures over the next few weeks.

Handside

Handside operate a small but very smart fleet of bright orange tippers which seem to be kept very busy! If you spend more than half an hour down at Marsh Mills you are bound to see one or two of their mostly DAF fleet. MX06FVW is one of the newest members of the fleet.

A full set of photos can be found here

Plymouths Atlanteans Part 7

© Dave Godley - used with permission.

April 1988 and we see Atlantean ATK152W in the wonderfully unusual black white and red livery. Much criticised at the time it was soon softened by the addition of the red skirt which did improve matters, and in my own humble opinion was the best livery carried. It was certainly better than the awful grey skirt livery which soon followed. Note the Western National Hoppa in the background.

Land Train

Taxifast have announced that their planned new 'Land Train' wont now be lpg powered, or at least they have lost their planned supplier and the alternative is to send the 'train' on a low loader to a supply elsewhere in Plymouth every couple of days!
The £197,000 automatic vehicle has, however, got the latest technology, following a £30,000 revamp.It's equipped with 18 CCTV cameras, and 14 DVD screens, which will show news and entertainment.The three carriages can seat 58 people, and their doors open automatically.It is only allowed to drive around the city centre at 3mph, but has a top speed of 14mph.
The Taxifast landtrain could be carrying passengers around Plymouth city centre by the end of the month after police and the city council backed the project.Private hire mogul John Preece must now apply to the Department for Transport for a 'vehicle special order', but is confident this is 'a rubber stamp'. Now the council and police have decided to support Mr Preece's bid to the Government, subject to 24 conditions being met.These include restricting the landtrain to a maximum speed of 3mph within the pedestrianised area, insisting passengers are seated and that it can only run during daylight.

VR farewell

Well, yesterday I informed you all that the Western National VR Farewell running day was to be the 25th September when of course I really meant 25th NOVEMBER!
Well it now seems that the event has been put back a couple of weeks and is now planned for Saturday 9th December!

More details when known.

Other news: Plymouth Citybus have now repainted Dart 102 K102SFJ out of the old dull orange livery it carried for Plymouth College of Further Education. It now carries the new standard red white and black livery.

Just out of interest the Plymouth College of Further Education main Kings Road campus used to be the site of a rather splended railway Station. Devonport Kings Road Station opening in 1876 and finally closing in 1971. A very good potted history can be found on Plymouth Data.

Western National VR Good Bye

It has been confirmed that First Devon and Cornwall be holding the official Bristol VR Farewell Running Day down in Penzance on Saturday 25th NOVEMBER. I will post more details here as they get confirmed but one bus that is almost certain to be there is this one - OTA290G, seen above in the unlikely surroundings of the Plymouth Citybus Depot at Milehouse.

Although it is looking like I will be unable to attend I will I am sure be able to post a few photos from the event here, as even though its not Plymouth - the Bristol VR was as big a part of the Plymouth transport scene as the Atlantean was.

I will also be starting a small series of Bristol VR photos over the years, many of them from Phil Doddridge as a tribute to these fine machines. So with thanks to Phil I will start with OTA290G whilst in prep at the old Laira Depot.

© Phil Doddridge - used with permission.

As you would expect with such a fine bus there are plenty of photos out there on the net of OTA290G try this page for the ones on Fotopic for a start!

Trident in Plymouth

© Nick Rice - used with permission

I just had to post this photo of Nicks as its such a great shot!
The three Tridents that have migrated from Cornwall are now hard at work based in Plymouth where they often appear on the X80 Torbay service. Just like the Airbus Olympians before them they can also appear on just about any service in Plymouth. Seen here sitting outside Plymouth Railway Station on the 6 service.

Park and Ride More Photos!

© Brian George - used with permission.

Thanks to Brian I am able to bring a few more photos of the new Park and Ride Enviro seen at the NEC show. I think the people of Plymouth are in for a treat. I am sure the luxury of these buses will suprise a lot of people. Lets just hope that the buses prove reliable in service!

Upper saloon looking towards the rear

Leather seats and sockets for headphones with volume and channel select buttons.

Route information screens

Upper deck looking forward

Lower deck

New Park and Ride buses for Plymouth

© Omnibuses

Thanks to the Omnibus blog for sending me these two shots of the new Park and Ride buses for Plymouth! I think they will make quite an impression on the streets of Plymouth. Below we have an interior shot which shows the leather seating. Very nice!

Plymouth Argyle

© Glyn Williams - Used with permission

This very smart MAN / Noge Catalan is the current team coach for Plymouth Argyle Footbal Club. It is supplied by Target Travel.

It also allows me to link to another photograph of a very different coach:

H324HVT is a Mercedes minibus operated by Western National a good while back. The connection is that this was a previous team coach used and owned by Plymouth Argyle. If I remember correctly back when Western National was privatised and partially owned by John Preece they got the Argyle contract for the team coach - and had a new DAF coach in full Argyle livery. There was also a Bristol VR in Argyle colours. This was back in the days when there was a very strong expansion of Western National.
This particular photo is by Phil Doddridge who has kindly given me permission to post his photos on this blog, so expect to see many more photos taken around this exciting period of Western National's history over the coming weeks.

Ferry Bus

© Phil Pullen

Phil sent this photo of S764RNE on TamarLink duties on board the Torpoint Ferry. The pink livery certainly makes it stand out and it nicely compliments the Tridents in the same livery.

Its all a far cry from what used to run on these services....

As part of my mission to point out other internet sites of interest:

A quick potted history of LFJ844W Click Here

Other Photos of LFJ844W include
Terry Partridge March 2003
Terry Partridge assorted Torpoint VRTs
Shaun C photos from December 2005

Plymouths Atlanteans Part 6

© Dave Godley - used with permission.

VJY137V Leyland Atlantean with East Lancs bodywork pictured in October 1987 in Plymco Superstores livery. At one stage Citybus had buses in special liveries for Tesco and Plymco and Western National had buses liveried up for Asda. The Tesco and Asda contracts still run by Citybus but just using any double deckers from the fleet.

Tridents in Plymouth

Back in July when this bus was photographed on Royal Parade on its way up to Plymouth Hoe for the bus rally we had no idea that it would soon end up in service in Plymouth!

It has been known that these were destined to join us for a few months now - but I can now confirm that they are now here and today one was on Park and Ride duties while another was on the X80 service. Thanks to Nick Rice for that report.

The situation with the other Tridents that were on their way to Plymouth - ex Bath Park and Ride buses is not quite so simple. A couple of them did indeed arraive and are now hard at work in Plymouth bus others have ended up in York - I will leave it to someone else to explain:

I have moved these Tridents to York to remove the last Olympians fromdaily service earlier than would otherwise have been the case(Febraury 2007). The Tridents will then go to Devon and Cornwall tojoin their stablemates in a series of moves via Cymru to ultimatelyreplace some M-reg Scania/Berkhof vehicles on Green Line services atBerkshire.This is therefore a temporary expedient. Had it been for longer Iwould have moved the Tridents into Bristol and displaced some B7double-deckers which would have been more at home in York under theirVolvo contract maintenance regime.Leon Daniels Commercial Director UK Bus (First Group)

Western Greyhound

I was going to tell you all what has happened to Western Greyhound recently - but I will leave it to Mark Howarth MD of WGL as posted to the South West Bus Group:

I am pleased to say that Western Greyhound won the Operating Excellence award (small fleets ie up to 250 vehicles) at the prestigious awards ceremnony in London today. We have won the award for the second year in a row which is the first time that an operator has won it twice in a row. Runners up were Ipswich Buses, Stagecoach in Cambridge and Yorkshire Coastliner.
Stagecoach West Scotland won the award for the larger fleets, also for the second time in a row!! Stagecoach Devon, Stagecoach in Fife and Arriva Midlands were runners up.
Cheers
Mark

Plymouths Atlanteans Part 5

© Dave Godley - Used with permisssion.
Taken April 1987 Bretonside Bus Station featuring OCO114S STK127T STK129T and imposter A757VAF!

A really nice photo of three Plymouth Citybus Atlanteans. After these S and T registrations the next Atlanteans all featured East Lancs bodywork. Although I remember the East Lancs ones as looking more modern when I first saw them as new buses, I do feel the Park Royal/ Roe design looks a lot better now!