Residents in a Cornish town are growing increasingly frustrated as a bus service they rely on for school and work is regularly late or cancelled. Stagecoach, which operates the number two bus service between Saltash and Plymouth, said it is "working hard" to improve its reliability.
One local, Amanda Richards, said her son, Thomas, relies on the number two bus service to get to Plymouth City College but there have been a number of occasions where the bus has not shown up. She said: "This situation is not only disruptive for my son but also for many other passengers and students.
"When Stagecoach are putting the timetables up online and then people go by that but they don't actually turn up, you wonder why. They want people to use public transport but the experience in Saltash has become quite frustrating and I know a lot of people are having similar issues with it."
Amanda said Thomas attends college three days a week and has issues with the number two bus service every time he has to go in. "He's literally just gone back to college and out of the three days he goes in, he has problems with the bus every day," she said. "He has to be in college at 8am and there's two buses he could catch in the mornings but they're just not showing up at all."
As a result, she is frequently left having to find alternative transport for Thomas which causes additional stress, particularly as she has another child who also needs to get to school at a certain time. "He's got to call me and sometimes I've got under half an hour to try and arrange something with his grandparents or just try and sort it myself and take him," Amanda said.
"It has an impact when he has to be in college at a certain time and I've got another child I have to get to school as well. He doesn't like to be late but when the bus doesn't turn up, I haven't got enough time to arrange for him to get a train and why should he have to get a train anyway when the buses should run."
Amanda added: "I'm also a single mum, so it's not like I can say I can book him a taxi because that costs as well. So, it's just all these little avenues to get him to college and it shouldn't be this hard to get him in. If they want people to use public transport, they either need to put more buses on or let people know that these buses are not going to come at certain times so people have more time to make other arrangements."
Another resident in Saltash also described the cancellation or lateness of the number two bus service as being "an absolute joke". He said: "Stagecoach Plymouth are an absolute disgrace at the moment for people and kids getting to school and work. It’s an absolute joke! Just yesterday (September 11) the first Two bus round Latchbrook is around 6:20am, it was gone 8am when the first bus arrived."
Another person said: "It's the same Plymouth to Saltash, honestly it's a joke. Complaint after complaint and they still don't do anything."
Someone else said: "I got to the stop at 8am and no buses were due until 8:30am. How are people supposed to get to work and school. It's a complete shambles."
A spokesperson for Stagecoach said the company is taking steps to improve reliability and minimise disruption wherever possible. They said: "We understand that recent disruption to Service Two between Saltash and Plymouth has been frustrating for students, families and commuters, particularly at the start of the academic year when demand is higher and traffic congestion is more noticeable.
"We are working hard to improve reliability over the coming weeks. Our teams are monitoring services closely and taking steps to minimise disruption wherever possible. We’d like to thank our customers for their patience and encourage anyone with specific concerns to get in touch with us directly so we can investigate and respond.”
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/residents-frustrated-bus-service-regularly-10495580
I have not seen anything similar on other routes so is it just local congestion that's causing this just on the number 2?
Increased vehicle requirements for new Stagecoach ops in Cornwall has resulted in vehicles from 1A and 2 being stripped. Operations have told allocators and controllers to drop ‘common corridors’ where needed while other vehicles are slowly arriving from elsewhere in group.
ReplyDeletePrime opportunity for city bus to increase in to saltash again now passengers are so annoyed with Stagecoach.
It's not so much congestion, but more dropped services due to no bus or no driver. Have a look on bus times on any random day on the 2, it looks like it needs 9 or ten buses to run the route, if you see any more than 4 or 5, it's a rarity
ReplyDeleteThis isn't unique to Saltash either , similar complaints are rolling in from Ivybridge and Tavistock too
The whole issue really isn't to do with congestion, but it is all to do with lost journeys. Honestly keep an eye on bus times and see how many 2's you can track , which should be at least 9 or 10 I think
Not all the buses track, the buses on loan do not track
DeleteYou can’t rely on bustimes for accuracy as none of the recent arrivals are showing as they’ve not been allocated to the opco on bustimes etc. At least 9 recent arrivals out on the road that aren’t showing on bustimes
DeleteIt is the same across the board. Loads of 1 and 1a missing in action over past week or so. I believe issues on the 80 too
ReplyDeleteIt's down to lack of resources as mathematics vast majority of research are now operating in Cornwall as part of Stagecoaches ill fated white elephant foray into Cornwall as part of a supposed bus war against PCB
ReplyDeleteThere is no bus war. Dont be stupid.
DeleteThe foray into Cornwall will be to get themselves into a position to bid for council tender in few years time
DeleteAs Anon 22/09 18:31 says… this move in to Cornwall is a stepping stone ahead of the TfC retender in 27/28 where Stagecoach will, without any doubt, pick up a substantial block of work from PCB.
DeleteThe college contracts they've just won are more lucrative than the bread and butter services to Saltash, Ivybridge and Tavistock so they just miss services out to these destinations as they have no competition to pick up these routes.
ReplyDeleteI heard it is to cover the contracts which they have which apparently take priority over normal services. there have even been svc 14's dropped on a Saturday causing huge disruption due to their low frequency.
ReplyDeleteIt took me just over an hour to do a lap of Saltash due to grid lock about 10 days back. Late back to my break, missed the start of the second half of my duty. Bus in the wrong place, next driver then delayed. Knock on after knock on. People are going through Saltash to avoid the Carmel-tunnel roadwork queues and blocking the place up.
ReplyDeleteProblems have risen from new workloads but not enough buses and drivers. Recently each day over the last couple weeks, buses have arrived on loan (not all of them track) to help with the shortage, some of which need inspections and mots prior to service so hasnt helped. Slowly getting sorted.
ReplyDeleteWith all this , I have to say, I hope it can be sorted out for everyone. Not only the passengers , but also let's not forget and think about the poor drivers involved.
ReplyDeleteWith all this going on the poor driver who is on the one that does turn up , will no doubt be getting it right in the neck from the frustrated passengers all shift , which cannot be a pleasant experience
Monday morning every car working had a bus allocated
ReplyDeleteThat has to be good news for all
DeleteA lot of the problem is the size if vehicle too. There seems to be a shortage of double deckers now they've taken on Cornwall school contracts. I saw an Optare Solo on the 80 to Paignton and have often seen them on the 2 to Saltash, even at peak time, which means everyone is crammed on like sardines.
ReplyDeleteThe same issue in Exeter, the E bus yto Exwick all seem to be Solos and they're too small for the volume of passengers. They also don't turn up a lot of the time, meaning I missed my train to Birmingham and was late for me meeting. It's not acceptable.
Solos are appearing more regularly on long distance routes since all the deckers left. The open topper often runs a full day on the 57 to Exmouth too, which is fine in summer but in winter???
DeleteI use Citybus now way more reliable
ReplyDeleteLucrative contracts. Franchising in the South West is the only answer
ReplyDeleteHope i am not speaking too soon but seem to be less cancellations on the 1/1a this week than last few so hopefully going in right direction! Too many single deckers though so hopefully they can source some DD from somewhere soon. Maybe Torbay once electric fleet up and running
ReplyDeleteIts slowly getting sorted. People jumping on the band wagon of "we demand service" bla bla bla doesnt help, and if they used their noggin in the 1st place, people would realise within transport, issues around vehicle availability, staff etc all play a part. Solutions dont happen overnight at the click of a finger
DeleteWell said, I entirely agree. So glad to see it slowly improving for everyone, drivers will be glad of it from getting less of it in the neck from passengers, and of course the passengers will be happier too. Good to see all round.
DeleteThere were 7 new ADL Enviro 400EVs parked up at Stagecoach's Exeter depot on Monday 22/9/25. No sign of any work being done to install chargers there for the Volvo BZLs expected for Exeter.
ReplyDeleteUnless the plans have changed, the ADL Enviro400 EVs are for Torquay or Barnstaple and are only being stored at Matford (Exeter).
DeleteAll delivered so far to Plymouth and Exeter are for torquay. Once torquay is sorted, then it will be barnstaple and exeter
DeleteOdd really, as DCC issued a press release on 21 March saying that installation work had started at Matford in preparation for the Volvos arriving in the summer. Obviously something has gone very awry. Had that happened, then I guess they wouldn't have had the same issues with vehicle shortages and having to get hold of as many second-hand transfers.
DeleteHear some old solo sounds like a old banger
ReplyDeleteWasent the remainder of the 109** e400 from West scotland ment to be coming down aswell at some point
ReplyDeleteI dont think so now unless plans change
Delete4 arrived yesterday 10922/3/4/8
DeleteVehicles have been downgraded on interurban routes out of Exeter too. 57 to Exmouth used to be fairly consistently double deck, albeit no longer the Gold vehicles we had a few years ago. But over the last couple of weeks we've had a weird mixture of E200s, E300s, and (strangest of all) a daily appearance by 15665 which is an open topper! Great when the weather is fine, but limited capacity on a wet day.
ReplyDeleteStagecoach Companies all over the country are bad at the moment dirty rundown buses on the road breakdowns buses not turning up, drivers striking because of bad workking conditions . The government needs to step in and Nationalize it all. Franchising doesn't work already the Bee network in Manchester the drivers are Striking, Nationalize the bus industry and get better bus services
ReplyDeleteNationalising the industry wont just make things better! Drivers will still go out on strike if they feel the need to. doesn't matter who onw the operators.
DeleteOwnership of the industry is almost irrelevant in preventing strike action; indeed if that is what you want, the ideal is for it all to be run by small, independent and non-unionised operators. Maybe that's what the architects of privatisation and deregulation in the 1980s thought that was what they were going to get ....
DeleteThe nature of public transport operation, with shift working and most of the day working solo, rather than as part of a team, means that Free Collective Bargaining still plays an important role in industrial relations and hence why union membership is still strong in the transport industry.
Stagecoach have some of the cleanest well presented buses of any company, so jot sure where your comment comes from. Nationalising will just make everything worse, as nationalising has also made rail so much worse already...look hiw bax SWR have been since nationalisation.
DeleteYeah I travelled lots with transport for Wales (public owned) and can tell you without a doubt First Great Western are streets ahead on service including reliability
DeleteManchester Bee network is far less reliable since franchising. SWR trains is even worse since nationalisation which I didn’t think was even possible.
DeleteNot sure whether all the anon posts are all from the same person but assuming they are then they clearly have an agenda based on zero facts and blatantly incorrect statements.
Delete