Great Reasons

First Devon recently published this nice little graphic to remind passengers why they are better than the competition...

Its nice to see First pushing their services again. It really does look like they care again.
Meanwhile Plymouth Citybus  have confirmed that they do not accept the Ride Cornwall Ticket which is a real shame. I would like to take my son to Liskeard on the 32 for a day trip. I am sure he would be happy for the 2 hour journey on the way out but we would have to come back on the train as its a lot quicker. This might be quite an expensive option though, especially with the compulsory pub lunch for two!

Plymothian Bus Services: 81

Plymothian Bus Services: 32

Megabus

"Stagecoach do mention Plymouth as one of the places its likely to appear from time to time so you never know, we might just see these impressive machines sitting at the bottom of Royal Parade."
Well that was from my blog post back in November 2012 when I looked at the new Plaxton Elite i for Megabus.

Well its been a bit of a wait but here we see Stagecoach 54207 taking two coach spaces at Bretonside, captured on camera by Richard Smith a few days ago.

©Richard Smith

By coincidence Megabus are in the local news with this story on This is Plymouth yesterday:

A BUS company has launched an investigation after Plymouth-bound passengers were left standing in the snow in the early hours of the morning. Travellers making their way to the city from London are livid after they say they were ordered off the coach and left in the "bitter cold" for 45 minutes.Operator Megabus is now offering all those on board the 11.45pm service from London Victoria a full refund. "We were chucked off the bus at Bristol at 3am, for what seemed like no reason, and made to wait in the snow and bitter cold for 45 minutes." A Megabus spokesman said the company was "very concerned" about the complaint. "Upon arrival at Bristol for a passenger drop-off the driver noticed some damage to the vehicle," he said. "As a result, passengers were taken to a third party operator where they were transferred on to a different coach. "The second coach stopped for a scheduled driver changeover at Bridgewater. "Passengers should have been kept informed of developments throughout the journey and we are investigating why this does not appear to have happened. We would like to apologise for the disruption.

Full story This is Plymouth

This is the kind of ‘non story’ that the local media love so much. Clearly something went wrong. A complaint was made and the company apologised and offered full refunds. Simples.

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Plymothian Transit Recommends

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• A brand new, express bus service linking Aztec West and Emersons Green running around the northern fringe of Bristol began on Wednesday 2 January. Public Transport Experience
• As of today, Yellow Buses gets “more” benefit for its £30,000 contribution towards Poole bus station. For that’s the cumulative sum it pays More from Wilts & Dorset in departure charges in any one year for the 1B/1C. Omnibuses

Do drivers always know best?

Well I am back in Plymouth after a very successful course up in the big city of London. I would like to say it was a very relaxed trip with all the transport links working brilliantly. I would like too - but it wasn't all plain sailing. In fact to be fair most of it was excellent with the train journies both running exactly to time, with plenty of room and no problems whatsoever. The buses in London were brilliant with a great value day ticket for £3.50 and buses seemingly all running full all through the night. Even my few trips on the Tube were great with no problems at all. Sadly the one bit that let me down was right here in Plymouth.
I had arranged to catch the 14:03 service 86 from Derriford Hospital as it stopped at Plymouth Station. This would give me plenty of time to get some lunch etc. before getting on the train. At 14:06 service 7 came in and sat at the bus stop for a few mins. Right behind it was the 86, just a few mins late. I stood behind the 7 and waved at the driver expecting him to pull in behind the 7. Sadly he decided I didn't need to catch his bus, and just pointed at the 7 and drove straight past. It was clear that he expected me to catch that one and not bother him. I was rather angry at this to say the least and had a good moan at the other driver who at least was still sat there. She tried to excuse the driver by saying that they both went the same way anyway so it wasn't a problem, until I pointed out that she didn't go the the station - then she understood why I was angry. I did catch my train on time, but only after a 15 minute dash down from North Hill leaving me no time for a wander around the station shops. Not a good start to the trip!

I will be sending in a complaint as it did make me very angry and was totally needless as the driver of the 86 was only a few mins down and could have stopped quite easily - I would have been the only passenger getting on and I had a pass so no need for the driver to stop and count out cash and issue a ticket or anything.

Like I said, everything else that First ran for me over the days went brilliantly and I will be posting a few photos during the week when I get chance to process them.

In the meantime here is another one of aecregents excellent photos he has posted on Flickr. If this one had turned out on the 7 I probably wouldn't be complaining about having to catch it!