26 August 2016

A Ticket to Ride - If you can find it

I mentioned yesterday about not being able to get the Ride Cornwall ticket on a Citybus. So I spent some time on line trying to get information…

So lets start with Plymouth Citybus clicking through on Tickets > Day Tickets > Other Tickets

PCBTickets

As you can see the Ride Cornwall ticket is mentioned but there is no link to any additional info on how to get it.

OK so lets go to Cornwall County Council, it is there ticket so that's surely the place to go?

Click through to Transport & Streets and onto Public Transport then Transport Ticketing which appears promising

Transport - ticketing - Cornwall Council

 

“The Ride Cornwall ticket is a one-day rover ticket that gives the holder a day's unlimited travel on all rail and most bus services within Cornwall and between Cornwall and Plymouth, after 9am Monday-Friday and at any time on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays” Excellent

So lets click the First Group Ride Cornwall link we are invited to click

Cornwall - First UK Bus

OK so it goes to the First Kernow homepage but there is a tickets link on the top of the page. however after a lot of clicking around I can only get details of the daily First ticket at £12 only valid on First Kernow services. So thats a blank

OK so back to Cornwall County to give them another go this time on the old and rather ugly Public Transport in Cornwall page

pubtrans

The first thing which made me laugh was that this website was designed… badly I think, but then if it works I will let them off.

so lets to go Bus Tickets on the left hand column

ticcx

The promising line here is For full details pick up a Ride Cornwall Leaflet or click here so lets see what we get

Great Western Railway - the new name of First Great Western

So its the full GWR web site. I cant see any clear link to the Ride Cornwall ticket though. I tried all the link and after a while found a page for Rangers and Rovers ( I am still not sure how I got there though) I completed the box (after waiting a while for the page to load)

Capture

We finally get something useful

pages

There are some great value tickets hidden here which I for one knew nothing about but for now we will stick to Ride Cornwall so lets try the More Info link

we finally get some details with a nice long page - the highlights being

Capture

So if I cant get it on a Citybus then it looks like a trip to the Railway Station first - If I do this again then I will set out a little earlier next time.

One note though - there was a line at the top of this page Updated Information applicable from 03/09/2016

which reveals

Capture 

A rather large increase in price from £10 to £13 another thing which Cornwall County Council have kept quiet!

Why is it so difficult to find information? Is it really that hard for councils to promote their own tickets? Is it really that hard for bus operators to promote such tickets?

4 comments:

  1. Many thanks for researching this Ride Cornwall ticket. I was wondering if this ticket can be purchased on Plymouth City buses 5 and 5A for travel between Elburton and Saltash after 9am Monday to Friday and anytime at weekends. Also would the same apply for the equivalent Stagecoach 2 and 2A services? I ask as a journey into Cornwall could be made from Elburton/Staddiscombe and Plymstock, by interchanging with other bus and rail services at Saltash, which could be better value using this ticket than rebooking in Plymouth City Centre? It is a shame about the forthcoming 30% price increase though, as you say seems a big price rise for this ticket.

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  2. At least Citybus actually acknowledge the existence of Ride Cornwall, unlike First Kernow.

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  3. You can buy them at any train station. I work in Redruth every Saturday and travel down on the train from Plymouth, which is handy as I can use the same ticket on the bus at Redruth to take me to work in Pool. It's £10 or if you have a Devon & Cornwall Railcard, it's £8.30. Well worth getting! The train station is the best place to get your ticket in my experience.

    Dave.

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  4. Possibly worth noting that you can buy any ranger/rover ticket, including Ride Cornwall, from a railway station in advance - so if you know you're going for a day out on Saturday and you're near a station on (say) Wednesday, buy the ticket then.
    (Just remember to double check the date shown on the ticket is the date you'll be travelling.!)

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