Incoming Trathens Big and Bland!

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Just a quickie tonight but thanks to ‘Jamie’ I can give you a link to see the new Trathens 15m Plaxton Volvo coaches which are to replace the smart Neoplan Skyliners.   LSK870 is shown on Dave Francis’ National Express Photos Fotopic gallery National Express really couldn't have managed a more bland look if they tried!

Fancy a day out?

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"Smart day wear is appropriate. You are asked not to wear jeans or trainers”

The British Pullman is making a rare visit to Plymouth on the 25th April 2009. Departing 11:30.  Details - click the picture!

Amey goes for a Cantor or two

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"No bus or coach 09s today but this little 'un caught my eye” Elsewhere… It’s funny how people seem at best to have a grudging acceptance of their bus service Terry observes the Art of a Bus Station

©Terry Partridge: No bus or coach 09s today but this little 'un caught my eye With Amey now running the Highways Department for Plymouth City Council we are now seeing the new influence in their vehicle fleet with this new Mitsubishi Cantor truck being the first 09 registered truck caught on camera by Terry. Not sure how many there are of these - I have seen a few - but this may just be the same one several times!

Reflections on Brunel's Bridge.

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" this beautiful monument to British engineering ” Other Links Lantographers Bridges of Plymouth set TGP gets rusty Top 10 train trips in UK

©Lantographer (Flickr) Still Waters Run Deep. "Just a busy shot to show how good the water reflections were last night. Adjusted and cropped in Aperture 2.0" We are coming up to the 150th anniversary of IKB’s wonderful bridge across the Tamar. Over the coming months I hope to bring a selection of some of the fantastic photos that have been taken of this beautiful monument to British engineering. This great shot by Lantographer is one of the more unusual shots I have seen but it is just stunning. I also hope to revive the ‘Plymothian Bridges’ series later this year as I have neglected this area for too long.

Sunday Best: Citybus Recovery

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"It's hard to miss the Citybus wrecker ”   Elsewhere: TGP on canals TGP goes Quackers TGP looses his bottle Omnibuses: 1969 and all that The mouse has left the bus?

©Alredbus via Flickr Plymouth 166, a regular on these pages, needs some help to get it back home in this view taken in September 1991. It's hard to miss the Citybus wrecker in this colourful shot. Another superb shot! The recovery truck certainly stands out well - an impressive beast. It was always nice to see this fine truck out and about. For more great Atlantean shots visit Alredbus flickr stream here

How are we doing?

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"We believe our punctuality figure is truly representative of the experience our passengers face, but it is derived from a sampling process.”

The graph hasn't exactly come out as I had hoped but it is still good enough to show the figures that First Devon and Cornwall have been reporting each month for their punctuality and reliability. The main bars highlight the percentage of services running on time The ‘punctuality' score is an indication of how often buses run to time. The Traffic Commissioner (the bus industry's regulatory authority) considers the timekeeping of bus services is acceptable if they arrive at all points on a route no more than one minute early or five minutes late. This is also the standard we use (target 95%). The top red line shows the percentage of services actually ran (Reliability -target 100%) The ‘reliability' measure shows how many services were operated over a period of time. This figure is derived on our comprehensive knowledge of all cancellations, and is therefore a very accurate measure. Our aim is to run 100% of our scheduled services The gap is for January 2008 as no figures appear in their online archives for that period. I should point out that the periods do not match up exact calendar months.

Scene this yet?

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"certainly has potential to build up into something interesting”         Elsewhere… TGP is pointless Its not all Wright… What the Penguin likes Penguin Quotes

Devon bus scene is a nice new web site with a clean design which looks well made and certainly has potential to build up into something interesting. Its early days and there is not much there yet - but keep an eye on it!

At last they are here

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"After a long wait the London Tridents have finally started to arrive” Elsewhere… T878KLF in London T879KLF in London T879KLF in London T880KLF in London Make your own - Paper model to cut out and make of T878KLF Louis Flickr stream

©Louisandbuses. Flickr After a long wait the London Tridents have finally started to arrive in Plymouth. At least three are known to have arrived so far T878-80KLF which are in standard Barbie livery. I was looking for a few photos of the buses up in London and was really surprised to see that Louis has got one in Plymouth - well done!

Sunday Best: Skyliner on National Express

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"which look great even in the current dull National Express livery” Elsewhere… AEC Regents Flickr Christian Wolmar on National Express

©AecRegent “Having just left the bus station in Bristol, this coach is keeping left to go up the M32 and then the M4 to its destination at London Victoria. Taken from a pedestrian bridge over the road” OES628Y Bond Street. Bristol July 1986 (I assume not 1896!) Trathens have long been linked to the Neoplan Skyliners having introduced them on their London services way back in 1981. They still have a batch of them on National Express duties which look great even in the current dull National Express livery. The word is however that this will soon come to an end as they are about to be replaced by 15M long single deck coaches. No idea what these will be yet, but I cant see them being as impressively distinctive as the Skyliners. Shame. 15M of plain white coach with a few grey ‘stair rods’ at the back. Hardly eye catching is it?

A natural split?

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""There's almost nothing left on Armada Way apart from Dingles.” Elsewhere: What the penguin likes Cracking Granite Trouble for National Express?

Following on neatly from my ‘Quiet Sunday’ posting comes the suggestion that the City Centre should be split in two!  This is Plymouth : PLYMOUTH is likely to end up with TWO city centres polarised around Drake Circus mall and the West End's 'independent sector', top retail figures have suggested. It means new uses should be sought for the area in the middle around Armada Way, which is becoming a 'wasteland' as businesses close or move. Empty shops should be turned into housing or used as restaurants and cafes, it is suggested. "We will end up with two city centres," predicted Business Improvement District Ambassador Richard Brewster. "There's almost nothing left on Armada Way apart from Dingles. [archived] It is certainly an interesting debate which needs to be had but I cant see the are in between being used for housing somehow. They do need to find something to start to fill the gap between the two ends of the centre though. The large square is great when there are events and other attractions going on, but a on a wet day with nothing going on this area is a wasteland and a real pain in the neck as its really exposed to the wind and the rain going straight up through Armada Way. Maybe this could be the answer to replacing Bretonside? or bringing the buses off Royal Parade and into Armada Way closer into the City Centre? Plenty of reasons why not I guess but its a thought!

Citybus Changes the 34

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"in order to boost capacity following changes to First Devon & Cornwall Services 17 & 18.” Elsewhere… Celebrating Buses Magazine ftr coming to Bristol?

Plymouth Citybus in their usual fashion have given plenty of notice of forthcoming changes to their 34 service. The new timetable introduced on the 19th April 2009 is now available as a PDF here. Changes highlighted as: Monday to Fridays there is to be an additional Service 34 06:53 from Devonport to arrive at Derriford Hospital 07:15. There are also a number of other changes to the Service 34 both in the A.M & P.M peaks in order to boost capacity following changes to First Devon & Cornwall Services 17 & 18. On Saturdays there is to be an additional 06:34 Service from Milehouse to Derriford Hospital. There are also changes to the 07:10, 07:45, & 08:15 Service 34 from Royal Parade. These changes are to improve reliability in line with the changes made to the Monday to Friday timetable They also give advance warning of possible future changes: It is highly likely that due to ongoing parking issues in Duke Street that the Service 34 from June 2009 remaining morning services along with all evening and Sunday Services will be withdrawn from Mutton Cove.

Cornwall is on the up

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" the fact that fare paying passengers are also up by a decent amount is excellent news ”

BUS use in Cornwall rose by 19 per cent in the first nine months of 2008-09, compared with the previous year. Much of the increase is attributable to increased concessionary travel, which was up by 29 per cent. But the number of fare-paying passengers rose too, by 13 per cent. [Bus and Coach] The fact that numbers are up is to be expected with the new concessionary travel arrangements but the fact that fare paying passengers are also up by a decent amount is excellent news. Both Western Greyhound and First are reporting increases and both have invested in new vehicles for their networks.  Good news all round!

A quiet Sunday

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"Armada Way itself is a rather bland square these days” As always click on the photos to go straight to the flickr page and explore from there for more great photos

©Argentum (More of his photos here on Flickr) Plymouth City Centre 1968 A superb shot of what the junction of Royal Parade and Armada Way used to look like. How different from today! Contrast this with a few years later and this superb shot from aecregent: Armada Way no longer joins onto Royal Parade in this shot. The two fine Atlanteans take their place on the extended bus stops. Of course now the bus stops have retreated back again and the underpass has gone and a new zebra crossing takes pride of place at this location. Armada Way itself is a rather bland square these days and now dominated by the large TV screen. The shot below looks back towards Royal Parade to where the above two photos were taken from.

Ferry big boat

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"Plymouth has now got Europe's most modern ferry at its disposal”

A NEW £100million ferry set to serve Plymouth for the next 25 years has docked in the city for the first time. Brittany Ferries has launched the Armorique, purpose-built for the popular Plymouth to Roscoff route, with bosses dubbing it "Europe's most modern ferry'. Offering passengers more space than ever before, Armorique includes a self-service restaurant, two-screen cinema, lounge and various gaming, bar and shopping areas. She can carry 1,500 passengers and 470 cars, while there is room for almost 800 guests in 248 cabins, and 120 crew members. This is Plymouth [Archive link]   More on this new ferry on the Brittany Ferries web site and on Wikipedia. There are also some superb photos and even more detail on this ferry on its own blog

A new blog on the block

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"I am a young transport enthusiast from the Plymouth area”

A new blog for the area, started recently by Tom Pearce, a young bus enthusiast from Plymouth. he certainly gets out and about a lot more than I do so if he keeps it up (and that not easy!) its worth a visit. LINK Good luck Tom!

Sunday Best: Citybus Atlanteans

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"This is still my favourite Citybus livery”

©AecRegent via Flickr Another great shot by AECRegent of a couple of East Lancs bodied Atlanteans of Plymouth Citybus. This is still my favourite Citybus livery although I know many didn't like it. The red skirt was an improvement on the original mainly black livery. As always, do pop over and have a good look through AecRegents other photos

Not so Super Express

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"good news for passengers that we are taking the steps necessary to improve their rail journeys.” Further reading: RailNews UK Christian Woolmar

HST Leaving Plymouth 21 April 2008 from ToRnAtlc07 You Tube. It seemed like a great good news story when the government proudly announced that a new fleet of high speed trains was being introduced initially on the East Coast main line but then on the Great Western main line “in the south-west of England”. The new trains will be cleaner, greener and generate less noise than those they will replace. Even more good news was the promise that “2500 jobs would be created “ and also “A further 10,000 jobs would be secured as a knock-on effect” the DfT said. Good news all round? eh no! For a start none of this is happening any time soon. The Great Western part is not planned to happen until 2015 and we all know how these big government projects slip in time anyway. It also seems clear that there is a lot of spin in the numbers of new jobs being ‘created’ with many suggesting that as few as 500 jobs might get created at most. Even the initial suggestion that the scheme is British led is clearly spin as its very much Japanese technology and design, just some assembly work in the UK - the inventor of the train! It also seems that trains themselves are no better than the old HSTs they are replacing. Described by the Department for Transport as Super Express trains, the new vehicles are in fact no faster than the 35-year old InterCity 125 – and have a top speed that is actually lower than the 140mph theoretical maximum of trains now on the east and west coast main lines. Some of the trains will be ‘Bi-mode’ The government argues that this will allow trains to keep running where the wires run out, but the small print suggests their performance will be worse than the trains they replace. A real step backwards! Government rail experts working alongside the rail industry have created a new specification for these trains that will offer more seats, more reliable services and reduced journey times.” An example being a promised cut of 15 minutes to the current 2 hours 2 minutes between Cardiff and London. Sounds impressive - but way back in 1977 the journey only took 1 hour 45 minutes! The government record on promised improvements is poor to say the least. Not just one, or two, but three consecutive secretaries of state for transport have promised us more carriages, yet the bulk of these have not even been ordered. And as a result of the Department for Transport's excessive micromanagement (they now have more control over the railways than in the days of British Rail) few of these carriages are due to arrive before the middle of the next decade. Of course even if the trains are a bit late, and maybe not a brilliant as made out, and maybe even if there are not the number of British jobs promised then at least there will be an improvement in the end? Well not for Plymouth at least! ”South West England” as far as the government is concerned stops at Bristol! Matthew Taylor, Truro and St Austell MP, says south west England will not benefit enough as the trains will only come as far as Bristol. I am sure I will be covering this story a lot over the coming months (and probably years) but in the meantime there is plenty of time to go out and enjoy the sight and sound of the wonderful HSTs pulling out of Plymouth Station. For a more detailed report of the story so far check out my extra page

Desperate to sell

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"Good local transport links”

In the current economic climate you have got to really push hard to sell your property but doesn't this make it look like the railway station just down the road is connected to the national transport system? Perhaps they would be better pointing out how close they were to the local bus stop! (Its not just this property - all of them are like this on this site) Sorry for being a bit ‘quiet’ at the moment - had a minor op during the week and am still feeling rather sore - so blogging not been my top priority this week. This afternoon was my first time out of the house since Tuesday!

Another horrible accident

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" Once again our thoughts are with the driver and his family ”

At 0522 GMT, a coach crashed into a tree after skidding on ice on the A40 at Puesdown, south east of Cheltenham. It was carrying 29 Royal Marines from 42 Commando in Plymouth to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, from where they were due to fly to Afghanistan. The 39-year-old civilian driver, who was cut free after nearly two hours, is thought to have serious head injuries. BBC News The coach and driver come from Plymouth based Target Travel. If you watch the video on the BBC page (link above) you can clearly see how the driver took the brunt of the impact. He is lucky to be alive. Once again our thoughts are with the driver and his family at this awful time. Lets hope he makes a full recovery.

Communications

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"We must be doing something right. Question is can we keep it up? ”

Omnibuses 2.0 is one of the daily must read sites as far as I am concerned as it often covers the areas that the usual enthusiast sites don't. This latest post is no exception, and although it covers the South Coast specifically, it does raise some general points about customer communication. All very interesting of course but its actually a couple of the comments that make it interesting from a Plymothian Transit point of view. Look for the comments from someone ‘big’ in Plymouth Citybus. Informative as usual! LINK

Village fete

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"For a small fee you can chuck wet sponges at Citybus managers”

www.citybusvillagefete.co.uk Advance warning of an event planned for August. Citybus Driver of the Year and the preserved buses from the PCTPG are the highlights for me, but I am sure many Citybus drivers will be only too happy to part with their cash to throw wet sponges at the bosses!

Read all about it - if you live in Bristol

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"You cant help but miss the splash of colour”

©Ian The Rev (Ians Flickr Photostream) Leyland Lynx LX2R11C15Z4R Royal Parade, Plymouth 17th July 1990 2000  Recently transferred from Bristol. As much as I miss the old local liveries there is a good case to be made for having one single national fleet livery. It was always very clear that First Western National was receiving hand-me-downs from other fleets. The Leyland Lynx’s were operating in full Bristol livery for quite some time. They did brighten the place up somewhat, but they were clearly placed into service in a hurry, as they didn't even bother to remove the Bristol adverts. Not a good impression at all. Things are done in a much more professional manner these days. I don't suppose many passengers would notice if their bus had just arrived from up country. Still, you cant help but miss the splash of colour!