22 August 2014

Terminated

Its funny how things seem to go round in cycles. We have seen it in Plymouth where at various times the fortunes of Plymouth Citybus and Western National / First seem to have swapped around. We are seeing it in Cornwall too. It does not seem that long ago that we were wondering how long First would remain in Cornwall as everything seemed to be going towards Western Greyhound who were busy filling in all the gaps left by the gradual withdrawal by First. WG could do no wrong then. Sadly it now seems to be the other way round.

Council terminates Western Greyhound s Callington Tavistock bus route contract   Cornish Guardian

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3 comments:

  1. This article gives the impression that the service is not currently running now that WG has been terminated - surely that's not really the case, is it?

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  2. It's well known that WGL never wanted this bus route anyway so it's no suprise really

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  3. It will be interesting to see who takes the service on. I thought that WG were running the 574 commercially and only the 575 was subsidised - but I may have been wrong. I thought, anyway, that Cornwall Council will now subsidise only services run with low-floor buses - and WG are using Varios at the moment. Whoever takes it on will be free from the need to run to times and frequency tied down by going through from Callington to Pensilva and Liskeard - which may allow for something a bit nearer D.A.C.’s service with a mix of fast through buses and slower ones taking the scenic route. I doubt, though, if we will get back to Gunnislake having a half-hourly service - which is a pity as DAC had built up quite respectable passenger numbers, to the extent that they were putting on larger buses than Varios.

    I imagine the contenders will be First, Citybus and Jackett’s. Both First and Citybus could well see the scope for connections to their Tavistock - Plymouth services with through tickets on offer. I hear reports of Jackett’s Bere Alston service suffering from breakdowns - but I am sure they could put in a competitive tender by using older vehicles running from the same operating base somewhere in the Callington area which they use for the Bere Alston service. First would have an advantage in having a base in Tavistock, whereas Citybus would have some dead mileage.

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