28 August 2006

Where is the bus



This is the bus stop at the bottom of Keswick Crescent. It was taken at 11:07. I should not have been there at 11:07. The bus I am waiting for was due at 10:55. It actually came at 11:12. When there is only one bus an hour this is a long wait. It was a good job my plans were flexible. I was planning on taking advantage of Devon County Councils excellent network of Dartmoor services but at least one option was lost due to arriving in town so late. There was of course a Sunday Service today. Naturally yesterday was also a Sunday service. My young son and I caught buses yesterday - both on the 50A - both running nearly 15 mins late. It didnt help in that none of the bus stops around this part of the city have the 'realtime' displays. When (if) we get this then maybe it will help numb the pain of relying on the buses on a Sunday. We actually caught another 50A home from town this afternoon. It was due to leave at 16:05. At 16:05 the service dissappeared off the realtime display altogether and we feared the worst. It did arrive at 16:10 only 5 mins late. I can cope with that! It arrived at Keswick Crescent nearly 15 mins late. It was difficult to see where that extra 10 mins was lost as there were no real holdups anywhere. I can only assume that its a timetable issue in that the buses dont have enough time to cover the route?

Below is a picture of Plymouth Citybus serving the Plymouth Seafront. Well, I wish there was a bus in this picture. But there was no service to this area today. Sunday Service - which means no service. It was a pleasant day. A good day for a wander around the ever popular Barbican and Plymouth Hoe. It was actually really busy. I do find it amazing that there is no service down here on a Sunday.Plymouth proclaims to be proud of its maritime history. Just dont try to explore it on a Sunday or a Bank Holiday. Or if you do - bring your car.

Is there another City which seems to actively discourage tourism like Plymouth? There were plenty of coaches bringing tourists in to the Barbican today. Most of them would have had the pleasure of a visit to Bretonside Bus Station. Nice.



Plymouth-Seafront-01

I did mention the excellent Dartmoor network built up by Devon County Council. The Sunday Rover ticket now covers the whole Stagecoach Devon network, quite a few smaller operators, and most of First Devon & Cornwall services in Devon. This now gives more people of Devon full access to the Moors on Sundays than ever before. Apart from the people of Plymouth - unless you are lucky enough to live on a First route then you dont have full access - unless you pay Citybus to take you to somewhere where you can access the network. I was going to mention that the Dartmoor network must be great for pensioners with their free travel. Then I remembered that Plymouth Pensioners are not allowed to leave the City anyway. They are only allowed to visit places in Plymouth. Still - at least they can catch a bus to Plymouth Hoe or the excellent Barbican - unless its a Sunday obviously.

2 comments:

  1. Perhaps the 1605 disappeared off the real time indicator because there was a problem with the system (rather than a scheduling issue). Perhaps this problem caused the real time system to default to scheduled, which would account for the 1605 disappearing at 1605 when in fact it would otherwise count down 5 mins to actual arrival of 1610. If that makes sense.

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  2. I recall that the Barbican and West Hoe services operated every 20 mins in the early 1980s *daily* by open top double deck - even using a 1956 open top Titan. Mind you, I doubt whether it took many fares...

    See

    http://omnibuses.blogspot.com/2006/08/plymouth-revisited.html

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