Go Cornwall VOSA
Plymouth Citybus have registered some changes to their recently acquired Cornish services:
- PH0000135/161 - PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LTD, MILEHOUSE, MILEHOUSE ROAD, PLYMOUTH, PL3 4AA Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between Launceston, Westgate Street and Bude, The Strand given service number 576 effective from 08-Feb-2015. To amend Timetable.
- PH0000135/162 - PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LTD, MILEHOUSE, MILEHOUSE ROAD, PLYMOUTH, PL3 4AA Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between Plymouth, Royal Parade and Launceston, Westgate Street given service number 576 effective from 08-Feb-2015. To amend Route and Timetable.
- PH0000135/163 - PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LTD, MILEHOUSE, MILEHOUSE ROAD, PLYMOUTH, PL3 4AA Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between Liskeard, Barras Street and Polperro, Crumplehorn given service number 573 effective from 08-Feb-2015. To amend Route and Timetable.
- PH0000135/164 - PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LTD, MILEHOUSE, MILEHOUSE ROAD, PLYMOUTH, PL3 4AA Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between Plymouth, Royal Parade and West Looe given service number 572 effective from 08-Feb-2015. To amend Route and Timetable.
- PH0000135/165 - PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LTD, MILEHOUSE, MILEHOUSE ROAD, PLYMOUTH, PL3 4AA Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between Liskeard, Barras Street and Callington, New Road given service number 574 effective from 08-Feb-2015. To amend Timetable.
- PH0000135/166 - PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LTD, MILEHOUSE, MILEHOUSE ROAD, PLYMOUTH, PL3 4AA Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between Plymouth, Royal Parade and Liskeard, Ballas Street given service number 593 effective from 08-Feb-2015. To amend Route and Timetable.
I will wait for the full announcement from Plymouth Citybus to give the full run down of these changes but they seem to be fairly minor time tables changes presumably to improve running rather than anything more major. The other change being that all services now start from Royal Parade and no longer serve Bretonside Coach Station.
© Richard Smith
In The News
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We await details of the timetable changes for 8th February, but you might see a different cross linking of routes through Liskeard, to improve reliability and minimise the chances of missed connections.
ReplyDeleteYou can bet your bottom dollar that they are changing their timings on the 576 to get in front of Firsts 76 leaving Callington at five minutes to the hour.
DeleteFirst can't complain, that has always been their tactic when in competition with CityBus. They did this with the Ivybridge service and the Tavistock service just to name a few. So good on CityBus if they do the same.
DeleteWestern greyhound 576 always used to run in front of the 76, until first changed the times last year
DeleteWhy's it all on short-notice? What's the rush? Long-term roadworks somewhere? What happened to having to give 56 days notice?
ReplyDeletethe new Go Cornwall bus timetables are now up on the plymouth citybus website!
ReplyDeleteInterested to see a green Solo heading out of Callington this morning with '574 Tavistock' on the green display and a paper 79A sticker in the windscreen. WG never gave us Solos on this route and rarely showed the correct destination (or any destination at all(.
ReplyDeletethe solos are in the process of having the plymouth network blinds and go cornwall routes incl 79/79a put on, once we have the software to do it. and the displays will revert back to orange led not green to complement the red paintwork once they sprayed.
Delete208 has just been sprayed with go cornwall logos, and looks amazing! watch this space.
Tom Michaels & Michael Hudson
Plymouth Citybus Destination Blinds Team
does this mean 208 is red right now? I know they are going to be red but is it red now?
Deleteyes - 208 is red swooped - and yes it does look good
DeleteRepresentations from people in St. Dominick to both First and Citybus to restore a bus service through their village met with a refusal from both companies - who obviously think competing with each other is more important than serving passengers. St. Dominick had an horly service throughout the day not so long ago - now it has one bus to Plymouth in the morning at thrive-to-work time and two back in the early evening - plus, grotesquely, a full service until late in the evening on a Cornwall Council tender.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good argument for re-regulation of bus services.
Am I the only one a little surprised the opportunity has not been taken to drop the 500 addition to route numbers, given 500s are synonymous with Western Greyhound (or were)? Okay the (5)93 might look a little odd, but there are other 70s available, with the 70 and 71 previously serving Saltash too.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised as well but I suppose people still know the wg route numbers and know which bus they need. Maybe in a year or so once go Cornwall is more established (or not) they could change the numbers if and when they decide to review routes.
DeleteI agree with the latest comment - I guess that they will eventually renumber the routes - but the 76 and the 93 could cause problems!
ReplyDeleteI agree in principle with you there graham but if citybus did change it to 76 it wouldn't be much different to when first registered the 79 to tavy. I think what would help citybus along that route would be to go through St Dominick during the day like first use to. I know it adds 10mins to a journey or reinstall the x79 I think it was just so they start to gain more of the upper hand. I note on a daily basis due to the better looking buses of citybus more people are using them even though first run before them.
DeleteRe Anon 2321
ReplyDeleteCan you really justify your last statement "..due to the better looking buses of citybus more people are using them even though first run before them."?
Are passengers really that fickle that they would let a previous bus (First) pass them by, so that a better looking bus will turn up later for their journey ? Sorry, it seems to me to be stretching credibility a bit too far. If you had said that passengers have no brand loyalty and will catch the first bus that comes along, I would have agreed with you. Equally, if one is cheaper, they will catch it. But 'looks', I don't think so.
Hi petras what I meant was that the buses used by citybus are a bit better maintained with the seating and being a bit cleaner. I couldn't say about prices as I haven't used the 576 so couldn't say wether they were cheaper or not. But citybus do have more passengers per bus than first do on a daily basis
Deletemy friend David Jory has took a photo of the new red go cornwall bus! and its like my model i made!
ReplyDeleteFirst ran the 79 to Tavistock long before D.A.C Coaches or Greyhound/Citybus were on the scene.
ReplyDeleteThere are more people on the 576 because they come from Bude/Launceston. It has nothing to do with the bus.
St Dominick hasn't had an hourly bus service for almost a decade. Going through has never been profitable for any company, hence they have only ever gone through when the service is subsidised by the Council. The vast majority of bus users in St Dominick are O.A.P's, therefore not providing a profit. Cornwall Council stuffed the residents of St Dominick. Whilst I wish they would go through as I have family living in the village. If residents don't use a service, what do they think will happen?
How did Cornwall suddenly become profitable? With costs going through the roof and OAP/Disabled Passes meaning reduced ticket sales? Where have CityBus been for the past 25 years? Buying Greyhound is a vanity project. A deluded idea that they'll put First (the biggest transport company on the planet) out of business. Not going to happen.
No, buying Greyhound is their get out of jail free card for failing to meet targets.......... it's useful cover if you have a dog operation (excuse the pun) to sort out and divert your time from your core business. A vanity project is a little wide of the mark but Go Ahead is a growing business. Citybus have tried to leave the urban area on more than one occasion.
DeleteWhen will the rest of Greyhound follow into new hands? The core rump of the business has an income and can be usefully added to Go Ahead's PCB operation with the head office overhead stripped out, which could become profitable.
500 route numbers - I would expect possibly a formal launch of Go Cornwall when they have time to paint the buses, review the usage and thus rework the summer timetables with new route numbers (inc 32A) and then design and print some publicity. How about the spring bank holiday with the new MP / Minister of Transport / ...
ReplyDeleteOn the new timetables I note that 2 first journeys will start from Milehouse and two new last journeys finish at Plymouth although what leaves for Bude returns from West Looe! I presume this automatically returns buses to Milehouse for checking and servicing - what goes out comes back a few days later, may be. However is it 2 or 3 buses a day from Plymouth? Are there balancing out of service runs or a Launceston - Liskeard dead journey in the evening? And why is the first southbound 576 now starting at Launceston and not Callington - demand? or buses outstation in Launceston? Sunday 576 has live positioning runs from Callington. This is all practical operations stuff and nothing really changing. (RPW)
When we took over the Liskeard depot it quickly became apparent that some of the timetabled journeys were simply unrealistic, and unacheivable making services unreliable. This was most obvious on the 576 route. We rode the buses and talked to staff and customers and from this we have constructed what we believe will be more realistic timetables which come into effect on the 8th February. To obtain short notice registration for these changes we are grateful for the support of CCC and PCC who recognised the issues we faced and who were keen to assist with measures that would see benefits for customers. Since these minor changes were planned we have been out and about with Chatterbus talking to customer who in the main are supportive of our efforts to restore reliability to the services. They have been full of praise for our drivers and also appreciate the move to low floor buses away from the step entrance buses they were used to. We were given some really useful suggestions when out with Chatterbus and we are currently working up some revised timetables to bring in the requested changes. As for dropping the 5 from the route numbers we felt that this was not the time to make that change, (some customers are still coming to terms with different coloured buses), however there is potential for this at any future service revision and to a certain extent it would make sense. 208 has been painted red with swoops and the next Solo to be repainted will be starting in the bodyshop shortly. Anon 30th January is correct in that we have taken this chance to move some of the bus workings around to achieve run backs for engineers to service buses and this has led to some additional journeys to and from Plymouth. I hope this will clarify some of the speculation. Thanks for your interest. Incidentally regarding St Dominick, they have a taxi bus service operating on a dial a ride basis provided by CCC. I doubt any operator would divert a main road service through there for the few customers it would generate when the majority of passengers on the Plymouth to Launceston route require the most direct service possible. There might be scope for a smaller operator to provide an off peak shuttle service to and from Callington using an off peak school bus but I suspect like all local authorities, CCC have no money left to fund any additional services.
ReplyDelete