William Prance Road

A quieter day with just 4 new notices through this time:

Stagecoach Devon Ltd

Licence	Route	Start Point	End Point	Effective	Notes
PH1020951.249	1 1A 1S X1	Plymouth	Tavistock	14-Apr-2024	Service 1 / 1S / X1   Intermediate running times are revised on all days of operation to improve reliability and punctuality.  Following working in partnership with Plymouth City Council, there will be a small change to the route of Service 1A.  In Derriford buses will serve William Prance Road and Brest Road, as opposed to operating directly via Tavistock Road, which will provide improved access to local amenities in the area.   Journeys towards Sherford will exit Derriford Hospital via Derriford Road, Derriford Roundabout and Brest Road to avoid ongoing congestion issues on Morlaix Drive.
PH1020951.136	21C, 21A, 21, 815, 821, 921	Ilfracombe or Barnstaple	Appledore or Westward Ho!	14-Apr-2024	Service 21/21A (Ilfracombe to Westward Ho! / Appledore via Barnstaple and Bideford) The timetable for Service 21/21A will be enhanced for the Summer 2024 season until Saturday 31 August 2024, with the frequency of buses Monday to Saturday daytime to Westward Ho! and Appledore increased from hourly to every 30 minutes. There are no changes to the frequency of buses during the evening or on Sunday and Public Holidays. On Monday to Fridays an additional journey will operate at 0825 from Barnstaple to Westward Ho! There are some minor changes to departure times during the early and later parts of the day, to better match passenger demand. As a result of the withdrawal of Service 921, the 1420 Schooldays journey from Ilfracombe to Westward Ho! will additionally serve Pilton Community College. Service 21C (Barnstaple to Croyde Bay / Georgeham via Braunton) To coincide with the start of the summer 2024 season, selected journeys on Service 21C will be operated by open top double decker vehicles. There are no changes to the route or timetable.
PH1020951.051	157 257 357	Exmouth	Sidmouth/Budleigh Salterton	14-Apr-2024	Timing changes are introduced Monday to Sunday to improve reliability and punctuality. On Sunday and Public Holidays Service 157 will terminate at Rolle Street in Exmouth. On Monday to Saturdays the 0628 journey from Exmouth to Budleigh and the 1845 to East Budleigh along with the Saturday journey at 0710 from Exmouth to East Budleigh and the 0740 and 1847 from Exmouth to East Budleigh will be withdrawn. The 0635 Monday to Saturday journey from Exmouth to Sidmouth will be re-timed to depart 5 minutes earlier at 0630.

DJ Watts Torbay Minibuses

Licence	Route	Start Point	End Point	Effective	Notes
PH1117103.003	62	Torquay Strand, Harbourside	Torquay Strand, Harbourside	02-Apr-2024	Vary route, stopping places and timetable.

Full timetables etc are available on my route pages for the Stagecoach services. DJ Watts 62 will appear in due course I am sure.

The slight rerouting of Stagecoach 1A at Derriford is explained by Plymouth City Council

A new bus link between the city centre and William Prance Road in Derriford will start next month.

Stagecoach South West’s 1A service will operate via William Prance Road from Monday 15 April, providing passengers with much closer access to the Royal Eye Infirmary. The route change has been made thanks to developer contributions via the Council. It will run every 20 minutes from Monday to Saturday (excluding bank holidays).

The service 1 will continue to operate via Tavistock Road.

Councillor Mark Coker, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport, said: “Patients visiting the new Royal Eye Infirmary have expressed difficulty in getting there by bus so we are delighted to be able to fund this route change. One of the nine passenger priorities in our Bus Service Improvement Plan is to provide new and extended routes to key areas and locations, which is exactly what the service to the eye infirmary achieves.”

Councillor Kevin Sproston, our Bus Champion, added "The need for a bus link to the Royal Eye Infirmary has been raised by residents and Plymouth’s Enhanced Partnership Forum – the group set up to provide opportunities for discussing issues affecting Plymouth’s bus network. It’s great to be able to respond to this passenger need.

“We are providing financial support for an initial period of a year to allow the route to become established and I’d encourage passengers to use the service as much as possible to help maintain this link to the Royal Eye Infirmary in the long term.”

The 1A service operates from stop A20 on Royal Parade. See the Stagecoach website for the the new service timetable.

This is just the latest attempt to serve this estate. I do wonder though how long it will last as these roads see a lot of traffic congestion in the morning and evening rush hours due to traffic in and out of Derriford. In fact this same batch of timetable changes see slight rerouting for a couple of other timetables (52 etc) specifically to avoid the congestion here in the afternoons coming out of Derriford. It will be interesting to see how this affects the 1A