Plymothian Transit in June

"a quick look back over what has been an incredibly busy month”

After my health issues and hospital admission in May, followed by my computer monitor giving up the ghost, May was not a good month for Plymothian Transit, but I had higher expectations for June. As we start July I will take a quick look back over what has been an incredibly busy month… Weds 3rd June A million ways to say goodbye The month starts with a bang as the City Council announce it is to spend nearly a million pounds to value Plymouth Citybus. Thurs 4th June Omni City Bus A new demonstrator arrives at Milehouse. Will Citybus be buying any of these I wonder? Friday 5th June Taxi for Citybus?   Taxifast owner J Preece says he wants to buy Citybus Saturday 6th June Evolution Photo essay looking at one bus and its subtle changes in livery Sunday 7th June Sunday Best Tally Ho Monday 8th June Cutbacks The second big story of the month kicks off. A quick run down of the forthcoming cutbacks after Plymouth City Council retender all of its supported services. This post was also cross posted on the Evening Heralds iHerald site and appeared there the day before the Herald itself reported on the cutbacks, where apparently my map from the post was used in print! Tuesday 9th June Special Visitor Another demonstrator arrives at Milehouse, although this one is brand new, unregistered and not used in service. Nice though!   Wednesday 10th June Solos Targeted We find out what Target Travel are buying for their new services starting in July Thursday 11th June Cutbacks 4. Cutbacks 6. Cutbacks 7D First of a series looking at individual routes that are changing in July. Thursday 11th June Council Conspiracy or Cock up? The political battle for Citybus continues Friday 12th June Cutbacks 10 226 Friday 12th June Besmirching Citybus?  Saturday 13th June Cutbacks 12 19 20 Monday 15th June Cutbacks 13 14 16B Monday 15th June Bish Bash Bosh Bit of an incident on the bus this afternoon. Tuesday 16th June Cutbacks 18  Thursday 18th June Cutbacks 39 Thursday 18th June Kay in Kay out Vehicle comings and goings for Citybus and First   Friday 19th June Cutbacks 60 Friday 19th June Weymouth this weekend Sunday 21st June Sunday Best Citybus National Sunday 21st June Cutbacks 227 Monday 22nd June July Five Full recap of all the changes happening on the 5th July Monday 22nd July Topless in Plymouth Photos of Open Top Atlanteans Tuesday 23rd June Justified and Explained? Opinion on the cutbacks and Citybus Sale from myself and others. The City Council justify their moves. Tuesday 23rd June a Citybus for Sale Former Citybus Mercedes N275PDV is up for sale on eBay. (It went for £3100!) Thursday 25th June Dennis that never Dominated A Dennis Demonstrator in Plymouth, way back in 1978. Friday 26th June Scrubbers at Bretonside The cleaners have been in at the Bus Station Sunday 28th June Sunday Best Devon General VRT Monday 29th June Targeting Derriford A closer look at the new service 60 starting 5th July Tuesday 30th June First National Express? We end the month with a look at First approaching National Express. A story which has already moved on, as will be noted later today! Well that was a very busy month. I couldn't deliver a post every day like the excellent Omnibuses2.0 blog, but then our blogs are very different animals! Many of the posts this month have taken a couple of hours to put together, the maps in particular being very labour intensive, but great fun to produce. Omnibuses with its excellent daily snippets continues to be essential reading for me along with many others. Looking back at my stats for the month, saw June getting just over 3000 hits, back up after a few lower months, the highest since September 2008. June the 8th saw a peak of just under 150 visitors for the day, no doubt due to the attention in The Herald. Just under half of all visitors came direct to the site and of the 25% who came via search engine the vast majority were clearly looking for us! Other searches that found their way to us include “Most expensive Bus” (and several variations of this!) “Liberal Democrats save Plymouth Citybus(!)” and my favourite for the month “viewing area for trueform timetable cases” Other stuff The biggest project for the month was of course mapping all the new routes. The other main project is the ongoing Citybus Sale Timeline   We are now on Facebook and I am also on Twitter where you can follow me if you want. Nothing much there yet though! So what can we expect in July? The Citybus sale will continue to dominate the news locally. The changes on the 5th July will catch a lot of people out, they always do! Vehicle news - Expect to see Target Travel put out a few extra Solos on the road next week. First seem to be getting in a few extra Leyland Olympians from Bristol. Who knows what else? As for me, I am still off work awaiting the full results from my recent tests. It does seem like good news though so we are hopeful of a return to work later in July - that's the target anyway! Thanks again to all who visit the site and for those who supply updates and information. Thanks also to the many people who allow me to use their photos on the site. There are many more I can use to come!