As expected Plymouth Citybus have also outlined their plans for next Tuesdays strike action on the Torpoint Ferry. I am pretty sure its the same set up as last time...
Replacement Services for Torpoint and the Rame Tuesday 14th October 2014.
As part of the general public sector day of industrial action taking place Tuesday 14th October 2014. We have been informed that the Torpoint chain ferry will be closed to all traffic except emergency vehicles from Midnight Monday until Midnight on Tuesday. This means that the Service 32/A which operates Plymouth to Torpoint via the chain ferry to Liskeard and the Rame Peninsula will not be able to do so. To adapt for this day of action, Plymouth Citybus has prepared a revised alternative timetable for the day. (timetable available to view on our web site)
Service 32 Plymouth side will generally operate unchanged but with all services terminating at the Plymouth side of the Torpoint Ferry. See replacement Service 31
Service 32/A will operate as far as is practically possible the existing timetable between Torpoint Ferry Torpoint side to Liskeard (32A) and Cremyll (32).
To replace the service connecting Torpoint and Plymouth a Service 31 will be in place. This replacement service is to operate hourly from the Torpoint Ferry Torpoint side to Plymouth City Centre via Antony, Trerulefoot Tideford Saltash to Plymouth Royal Parade. Our intention or plan is to operate serving all bus stops between Torpoint and Sheviock. Then we will operate a nonstop to St Budeaux Square to enable customers to change for services 21/A for Devonport. Then the service will operate nonstop to the City Centre. We are operating via Saltash New Road to Plymouth but this is only to take advantage of the bus priority for Pemros Road, the bus will not be stopping to board and alight passengers. Should the Torpoint Ferry Service be running and available for buses, then we will revert back to our normal timetabled service. For the updates on the day we strongly recommend following our Facebook page (link on our web site)
Please accept our sincere apologies for the travel disruption faced on the day. All other Plymouth Citybus local bus services will be operating normally.
Timetable
Recommended Reading
- ON THIS BUS: Scrummy Cake and Green Buses! There’s nothing better than seeing old transport infrastructure being used in a new way today. And what’s more, if it involves cake, so much more the better!
- STEVES BUS AND TRAIN PAGE: X1 E400 Steve's WiFi Comparison in Ipswich Last week in a blaze of erm, well, understatement the on board WiFi on the refurbished First fleet in Ipswich was switched on. And so as a frequent passenger as well as enthisiast I thought I'd spend the afternoon comapring the two versions available in Ipswich with Ipswich Buses having WiFi on a few of their buses too.
- TRANSPORT ILLUSTRATED: Exeter Bus & Coach Station 50th Anniversary Back in July the 50th Anniversary of the opening of Exeter's Paris Street Bus and Coach Station was marked by a gathering of vehicles on the lower level, several of which also gave rides round the city.
- NORWICH BUSES: BorderBus: BB07BUS enters service with cherished registration The short wheelbase Enviro200 was employed on the 146 service between Norwich and Southwold, which is usually operated by LWB Enviro200's now with route branding
- FOCUS TRANSPORT: ANOTHER LONDON ROUTE GOES OVER TO NEW ROUTEMASTER OPERATION Route 453 becomes the ninth in the capital to convert and the first to operate entirely with Euro VI New Routemaster buses – delivering even further emission reductions
- PUBLIC TRANSPORT EXPERIENCE: U's a Clever Boy, then? Part the Third Those of our readers who, like fbb, are entering their years of maturity/decrepitude, may be confused by the idea of a University at Falmouth and further befuddled by the addition of Exeter University to the publicity.
Yet again late for work thanks to two city buses hogging the same ferry. Which meant my 81 had to wait for the next ferry and before you all jump on me and say they are both services buses check the online timetable on the pcb site as the one going to Kingsand start point is Trevol Road which is in torpoint so on the ferry he should be out of service. So I will be contacting the ferry today to make them aware of this. Plus the strike day is going to be over bused as people will make alternative plans.
ReplyDeleteAnon 07:27 I am afraid it is typical Citybus, 1 rule for them, 1 rule for everyone else. They muscle in on First routes then make a mess of it for everyone. Take Tavi route for example, First ran 4 buses per hour for years, Citybus come along with the most unreliable service ever, 12 and now 42, First service is cut to 3 so everyone worse off, it;s typical Citybus
DeleteThe service to Kingsand in the morning is effectively a duplicate of the 06:20 from Royal Parade 32 to HMS Raleigh. Both arrive at Raleigh at 07:03. It is shown on the timetable as starting from Trevol Road as that's the point that these two services differ - the one to Raleigh finishes at Raleigh at 07:03 and returns to Plymouth. The school service to Kingsand is effectively a duplicate of the 'normal' service to Raleigh and then extends down to Kingsand, which would explain why there are two 32’s on the Ferry – as one of the two is the schoolday only extension to Kingsand.
DeleteOK, you want the in service 32 and 81 to use the priority lane. Fair enough.
DeleteHowever, if the OOS 32 uses the usual lane, at that time in the morning, it would get boarded before the 2 buses in the priority lane anyway!
And, there is no reason for there not being 3 buses on the ferry at one time except for the whim of the ferry staff, in fact there can be 4 buses on board at once if necessary. Maybe they are working to rule at the moment due to the dispute?
everyone's an expert on how to run a bus company! like to see them have a go at it!
ReplyDeleteI don't have a go at running a bus company, it's actually (in the case of this particular commenter) my day job. Thus when I observe poor forward planning on a service change,
DeleteI speak from direct experience of having planned and successfully introduced service changes that have delivered increases in turnover whilst containing costs without the need to re visit the change literally 4 weeks in with the attendant upheaval it creates to road staff in having their rota changed just weeks after it was changed before.
If I was a driver at Citybus I'd be pretty peeved at continually having my rota change because people are useless at their job.
One thing working in this industry does do is give you a greater understanding of how bus companies work and the rationale behind certain decisions.
The more well travelled amongst us not only considered Citybus' Blue Flash would not last in its original form but understood just why brand new circa 200k double deckers on a totally untried route was a disaster in the making. One way or another, you have to pay for these buses and you have to generate more than if you'd gone out and refurbished some older ones. And I don't mean non DDA compliant Dennis Darts that should be in a scrapyard which is what other large fleets are doing with these buses..
The only surprising thing is why Mr Stevens has not yet paid the price for stupid decisions, but then his track record of getting others to take the fall for him does seem to be alive and well.
I'm sorry but first reduced Tavi frequency before Citybus started and only started even trying once City bus started.
ReplyDeleteSlightly off topic, but the latest Ciyybus out in swoops is 204. Anyone whats in next?
ReplyDelete204 has been out for a while. 20, 24 and 27 have all had wheelchair ramps fitted too, but not repainted into swoops. So the R reg's with ramps are 16,17,20,21,22,23,24,25,27. 24 and 27 have also had their side destination display replaced. Before, it displayed just the route number, whereas DDA regs state the destination must also be present, not just the number. The T reg's will also have to be done, but the R Reg's are a priority given the money spent refurbing/repainting them and fitting ramps to; all to make them DDA compliant - it's just the side destination which wasn't, so if they weren't being replaced it would be pointless spending all this money on them.
DeleteLooks like 26 is next for a ramp then, to complete the batch. Will 20, 24, 26 and 27 eventually get painted? Do we know which one is being painted next? 57 would complete a batch too!
DeleteGood to see PCB making scrap DDA compliant. Clearly we're all missing a trick there in the Go Ahead philosophy for the area.
ReplyDeleteRe anon 11 Oct 13:53. Well said, I have been saying this for a while now, I have never come across a bus company anywhere that comes anywhere near Citybus for constant route and timetable changes. This is at best imcompetent as it shows they are not planning routes properly before implimenting them. It not only must be totally inconveneient to drivers but will totally cheese off customers. Where they have competing services from First, I think First will do well as thet seem to be able to impliment changes and not touch them again afterwards. You don't see First or any other company change timetables every 2 or 3 months it is pathetic.
ReplyDelete