08 April 2023

A Great Scenic Journey, if you can find it

We already know that Stagecoach open top service 122 has started for the new season.

It was registered to start from 2nd April

 Licence Route Start Point End Point Effective Notes
PH1020951.385 122 Babbacombe Devon Bay Hoburne Holiday Park 02-Apr-2023 To reintroduce seasonal Open Top service, operating daily on an hourly basis.
NOT mentioned by Stagecoach and no timetable on Traveline

It wasn't mentioned though in the otherwise excellent run down of the weekends changes on the Stagecoach web site

But never mind, once a registration like this pops up its on my to-do list and I keep an eye out of the timetable appearing on Traveline. No joy there – we are now a week later and still no mention of this service on Traveline.

Oh well, at least I can get it on Stagecoach web site by searching for the timetable there..

Web capture_8-4-2023_184017_www.stagecoachbus.com

Stagecoach really dont want you to find their timetable.

All was not totally lost though as I did come acrss a rather nice timetable here

https://www.englishriviera.co.uk/information/product-catch-all/golden-hop-122-open-top-bus-service-p2241633

which has link back to the Stagecoach site…

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/south-west/explore-torbay-by-open-top-bus

and finally a full timetable.

There is a page with the open top services – but unless you click through to the promos and offers pages you wont find it.

With all the good work with fully details explanations of all their service changes why spoil it by making it so hard to find this one!

There is however a fairly new web site which brings together some of the great scenic bus journeys available in the country called, appropriately https://www.greatscenicjourneys.co.uk/

This is a very nicely designed site to really show off selected routes, and we can click through to see the Devon collection

nice new web site. Devons list

and yes – the 122 is there!

and you can click through to another nicely laid out page for the 122 with a useful description of the route and there is a link to View Route and Timetable…which sadly links to a 122 route map only!

Actually – if you click the View Tickets and fares button next to it you do get the Stagecoach page with the full timetable. So why couldnt the timetable link go to that page instead?

I am a determined to get details and will spend far to much time searching the web for information. Will all potential passengers put in as much effort – and why should they have to?

Anyway, lets end on a positive with a nice little video of the route from last year

gr

10 comments:

  1. And worse still some closed-tops have also initially appeared Graham (despite only needing 2 of Torbay's 5 Golden Hop open-tops for the halved frequency)!

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  2. Is this not a major national operator or a one man band relying on emails from the public?

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  3. Was in Babbacombe today, the open toppers still showing 'every 30 minutes' in prominent lettering!

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  4. The Great Scenic Journeys website looks very nice and it's a great idea, but unfortunately if the Cornwall routes are anything to go by it's rather inaccurate. The Lizard was withdrawn at the beginning of April and the Atlantic Coaster doesn't start until the end of May. Obviously there's a reliance on operators keeping the information updated and in this case First isn't even capable of keeping its own Adventures by Bus website updated much of the time.

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  5. Been talking to a driver from Stagecoach Northampton depot and he says all the Gold buses on the Paignton to Plymouth service are coming to Northampton this month

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    Replies
    1. wow, thats a bit of a shock and a downgrade for us if it does happen!

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    2. If this happens, it would be most interesting to see what replaces them! Would be peculiar using standard local livery stock on a route branded ‘Gold’ rather than having a service number!

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    3. They said this about the supposed "new buses" for the 12, so which is it. Either Torbay isn't getting new deckers or it's losing it's Gold spec deckers I can't see both happening.

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    4. Probably wise to wait and see. Northampton was already in the list of places to share in the 200 deckers ordered at the end of last year but as numbers were not released we don't know to what extent. Stagecoach Devon (lke other fleets) has had no new buses for 4 years. The YN63 Golds are nearly nearly ten years old and as someone said the other day the Falcons are 7 years old or more. There is a lot of catching up to do but bear in mind that there will presumably be cascades available from the forthcoming replacement of the fleets in Oxford and Stockport etc. Maybe SD will benefit from some of those, albeit second-hand rather than new.....

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  6. Perhaps there replacing the gold buses with a new fleet

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