It seems hard to believe that Mayflower Coach Station is already a year old, but the council with the help of PCTPG celebrated with a small get together at the Station with a very special visitor Plymouth City Transport 89 CJY299 a Leyland Titan PD1 from 1946
Thanks to Richard Smith we have a selection of photos from the day:
Note the special destination on this Parks National Express Elite 
The new coach station is now open, although predictably there have been a few teething problems
It has been open for less than a day, and already Plymouth's new £4million coach station has malfunctioned. As two coaches left the Mayflower Street facility at 10am on Thursday, the gate failed to open – and members of staff had to step in to push it open manually. But the problems did not end there, as once the coach got through the gate it caused traffic to build up in Mayflower Street, with an in-coming coach forced to reverse back on to the road in order to let the first vehicle out. One man, from Plymstock, said he was so fed up of queuing to get into the station in order to buy tickets that he gave up and went to the railway station instead.
Councillor Steve Rickets, cabinet member for transport said: "Unfortunately this morning the gates to the new coach station got stuck for a couple minutes. "The contractors are currently on site sorting out the problem and I'm pleased to say that no one's journey has been delayed.
"It's disappointing we had this issue on the first day but sometimes technology does fail us."
My friend Richard Smith has been down and taken a few photos. It does not seem ideal for photos! 
Hopefully any teething issues will be quickly sorted and things will settle down. I personally dont have a problem with the location of the site, but I do wish the canopies have been designed by someone who understands how wind and rain work and gone for something that actually provided shelter from the elements rather than just looks nice.
Catching up on the new chapter for coach travel in Plymouth with the final closure of Bretonside and the opening of the new Mayflower Coach Station:
Plymouth's new coach station was officially opened today with National Express and Stagecoach present as the main users of the new transport hub. The Plymouth City Transport Preservation Group were asked to have a presence and mark the event with a departure from Bretonside Bus & Coach Station and arrival at Mayflower Coach Station using preserved AEC Harrington, 100 VRL. Providing a contrast in customer comfort. A photo shoot was held with local dignitaries, operators and involved parties. Ralph Delbridge, Group Chairman said, it's important to maintain relationships with local Operators and to be asked to support this event and the new era of transportation in Plymouth is testament of the relationship. Our thanks to member Roger Thomas for bringing his superb vehicle for all to enjoy
Thanks to Jason Beverley for the photos. More information, new and photos from Bretonside and Mayflower to follow tomorrow…
There have been teething troubles!
There was an interesting little article in The Herald recently
Council bosses say there are no plans to put speed bumps in on a major city centre street.
The Herald reported last week how council chiefs are planning to put speed humps around the city's new coach station to keep things moving nice and slow. But town hall chiefs have moved to clear up any confusion over the bumps going in on Mayflower Street itself.
A spokeswoman said: "We'd like to reassure residents, shoppers and traders that there are no plans for speed bumps on Mayflower Street.
Read more at http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/no-speed-bumps-for-plymouth-city-centre-road-promises-council/story-29621049-detail/story.html#yiHJV10JlfA5ImBb.99
What the news item fails to point out is that it was The Herald who actually made the mistake that caused the confusion:
We’d like to reassure residents, shoppers and traders that there are no plans for speed humps on Mayflower Street. The public notice which appeared in the Herald last week and which the paper based their article on, referred to the access road around the new coach station site only. As this is a service road for deliveries and waste trucks, it does not have a name. In the notice, we called this Mayflower Street West Car Park and Coach Station access road and gave the rear of 78 and 80 Cornwall Street as additional information.
It appears an errant comma put in the Herald article has led to some confusion.
The Assistant Director of Street Services posted the public notice in The Herald, highlighting the proposal to put speed humps in Mayflower Street, West Car Park and "Coach Station access road" approximately between the rear of 78 and 80 Cornwall Street. The humps will be 250mm wide, three metres long and 68mm high.
Speed bumps on the access road around the new station makes a lot of sense. 
Plymouth’s new coach station will open on Thursday 8 September
Contractor SWH Civils is making good progress on the construction project off Mayflower Street which will replace the old 1950s coach station at Bretonside. SWH Civils has released the latest time lapse video from May and June to show how much progress has been made.
The key features, the giant canopies that provide cover for passengers getting on and off coaches, are now up on the eastern end of the site. Through another contract SWH Build, also part of SWH Group, is converting the former Lloyds Bank building into a ticket office. Granite stones are being laid in what will become an outside waiting area and creating the chequered board look that will feature across the coach station.
Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Transport, Housing and Planning, Councillor Patrick Nicholson said: “It’s good to see this new coach station taking shape and the opening date means the end of the build is in sight.
“For a long time people have felt that Bretonside did not give the welcome a modern city should give visitors. This new coach station will change that. We hope it will also mean more people spend money in and around this part of the city centre. Moving the coach services out of Bretonside will allow a £42 million investment get underway, which is great news for the city centre and great news for Plymouth.
National Express service delivery director Kevin Gale said: “National Express is getting in gear to move into the new coach station and it’s fantastic to see it taking shape.
“This is a really exciting new development, not just for us as a business, but also for the city as a whole, and will provide our customers with a really modern and welcoming experience. We will continue to work closely with the council throughout the latter stages of the build and as we transition over to the new site.”
Over the summer the Council will work with National Express to make sure that passengers know where the new coach station will be.
Signs will be going up in Bretonside and around the city centre. Other coach operators are being made aware of changes to give people plenty of notice about new arrangements.
The new coach station will be operated by National Express which will operate direct daily services to towns and cities across the UK.
New arrangements are being made for tour operators and visitor coaches to be dropped off and picked up at the bottom of Royal Parade and on the Barbican as part of the Council’s plans to improve coach services for the city.
An area around the pavements at Derry’s Cross is being altered to provide two dedicated locations for coaches to drop off day visitors. There will also be a shelter built. Later in the year an area at the junction of Lambhay Hill and Commercial Road on the Barbican will be re-engineered to enable coaches to turn into it from Lambhay Hill to reduce the number of coaches driving along the narrow Southside Street.
The Council has been working with the trade representative body, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, to make sure both passengers and the coach companies are catered for.
Bretonside is Dead.
Construction work on its new site is stating up this week:
Work starts this week on the new coach station in Plymouth’s West End as the city centre gears up for a year of significant change.
SWH Civils, the appointed contractor, will be breaking ground at the site in Mayflower Street to herald the start of the project.
The new station replaces facilities for scheduled long distance coaches from Bretonside which will be transformed into a new leisure destination for Plymouth with the British Land development, which is due to start in the summer.
Kevin Gale, Service Delivery Director National Express UK Coach said: “We are delighted to see work start on this new facility which will be a much more welcoming and pleasant experience for passengers.
“We have worked closely with the Council and their contractors from the outset and throughout the development of the scheme to deliver the best possible outcome for our customers.
“Coach travel is an important part of the public transport offer and Plymouth is a key location for National Express. It’s great to see a city invest in facilities that will meet current demand and support a growing coach market.”
Council Leader Tudor Evans said: “This project will enable a £42 million investment to happen, that will not only vastly improve Plymouth’s Bretonside, but will also lead to more visitors, which in turn creates jobs for local people.
“We are working flat out to improve the city, create more opportunities for residents and make it more welcoming. This new coach station is a significant part of this plan.”
Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet member for Finance and Assets and city centre champion said: “Lots of incredibly exciting projects get underway this year which will keep pulling visitors into our city centre to spend their money, which is good for business and good for the city.
“First on the city centre to-do list is the new coach station. We’re getting more and more visitors coming to Britain’s Ocean City and we want to give them a better welcome when they arrive.”
The new coach station will have seven coach stands to serve National Express and Megabus. Features include real time passenger information systems, blue badge holder drop-off bay, customer help points, ticket machines, toilets, cycle stands, CCTV and ornamental lighting.
The old Lloyds Bank building in Armada Way will be transformed into an indoor ticket office and waiting room, with toilets, comfortable seating, ‘real time’ information screens, ticket office and a food and drink concession. There will also be a car park with blue badge holder bays and drop off and pick up taxi/private hire bays.
Audra Hampton, Landlady of the Newmarket Tavern, which overlooks the site said: “We are upbeat about it. We see the new coach station as a business opportunity and have plans to make the back of the pub more appealing.
“We will be the first sign of life for people getting on and off the coaches early in the morning and want to open up for breakfast. It could be a massive opportunity.”
Lorraine Ventor of Mex Locos, 134 Cornwall Street, which sells burritos and tacos, added: “We hope having the new coach station here will be good for business. We need more people to visit this part of town and hope that people want to come down and pop in for a bite of a burrito before they go on a long trip!”
Jon Walton, City Centre Manager said: “We appreciate there will be some disruption, but with the prospect of a further 200,000 people arriving right in the heart of the West End, once the scheme is open, we believe it will be worth it.
More people in this part of the city centre should lead to more trade for its shops. With the new landscaping around the scheme, it is also going to look a whole lot better!”
SWH Civils has been in touch with businesses around the site to discuss logistics about access and bin collections. They will also be opening a site office at 107 to 109 Mayflower Street, so that people can see the plans in detail and talk to the contractors.
Adrian Perry, Project Manager at SWH Civils added: “It is a city centre site and we are keen to minimise inconvenience and disruption to our neighbours – both business and residents – while we carry out the work.”
Signs have been displayed at Western Approach and Mayflower Street giving drivers notice that access will be restricted.
The first phase of the project involves removing the remaining elements of the old multi -storey car park with the rubble being reused as fill material in the new scheme – reducing vehicle movements to and from site and minimising the need for importing quarried stone. Once the old concrete walls have been removed, new walls for the coach station will be built and an upgraded drainage system.
The coach station area will then be filled to create a level area that forms the footprint for the new coach station and car park.
I am planning on doing a few Bretonside Photos Specials over the coming weeks (once all the current new bus deliveries settle down!). If you have any interesting phtos you would like to share of anything particuarly unusal you have caught on camera there, then please feel free to send them in! (full credit copyright noted naturally).
Our first glimpse of the new Park & Ride livery as brand new 26034 was caught on delivery by Dave Growns…
© Dave Growns
I think I will wait on the final product before I rusah to judgement - and see what it looks like on the new double deckers.
Plymouth's vision to create a welcoming entrance to Britain's Ocean City is taking a significant step forward with plans for a new coach hub and a new leisure development in the city centre. Millions of pounds could be pumped into both the West End and the eastern part of the city centre, as part of a major investment package proposed by British Land, the owner of Drake Circus and the UK's largest listed retail landlord. The Council’s Cabinet is today being briefed on the project and shown the proposals to transform the tired site at Bretonside bus station with a leisure scheme valued at £42 million.
City Centre Development - A Brand New Coach Station!
'Drake Circus Leisure' includes a 12-screen cinema complex, 13 restaurants as well as parking for over 400 cars. The development will see extensive improvements to public areas with features, installations seating and planting. The scheme would transform the link from the city centre to the Barbican and the Waterfront, making it far more attractive and easier for visitors and shoppers to move from one to the other.
As part of the proposals a new multi-million pound coach hub is envisaged on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Mayflower West car park, in the city's West End. There will also be public parking for cars.
The agreement will means that both Bretonside and the West End of Plymouth will see investment worth millions of pounds, which in turn will generate a new level of interest in both areas. It will also create almost 350 operational jobs and around 260 construction 267 jobs. Councillor Tudor Evans said: "This is a company with a proven record of delivering in Plymouth and for Plymouth and while it is early days, this looks an incredibly exciting prospect." "Our city centre supports over 14,000 jobs and 14 per cent of the work force, but we need to need to mix things up a bit, bring more business and a wider offer into the city centre – which in turn brings in more people to shop, eat and enjoy what we have here."Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet member for finance said: "For a long time we have recognised that Bretonside has long passed its sell-by date. We also want to keep shoppers coming into the West End. These two schemes have the potential to address both of these."
The Council's cabinet members were also given an outline of how the new-look coach hub might look. The terminal would be a hub for intercity coach services with bays for long-distance coach services, waiting room, booking office, toilets and significant improvements to the look and feel of the streets around the site as well as more parking. Locating the bus hub in the West End could lead to an extra 200,000 people visiting this part of the city centre.
The proposal also includes an 'innovation centre' in one of the empty buildings overlooking the site which could get a new lease of life as a centre for start-ups firms run by graduates. It is a joint venture between the Council and Plymouth University to transform Taylor Maxwell House with facilities for fledgling businesses in a central location. This builds on an already successful partnership between the Council and the university at Plymouth Science Park in supporting start-ups and accelerating businesses with growth ambitions. Professor Julian Beer, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Regional Enterprise), said: "The new innovation centre will offer a pathway into the city's economy and marketplace for talented graduates and young entrepreneurs, and will work in tandem with our Formation Zone incubation spaces here on campus, the Science Park, and the GAIN network. "From our experience of running the hugely successful Innovation Centres in Cornwall, such creative ecosystems offer a great opportunity for businesses to work together and develop joint pitches and expertise."
Councillor Lowry said: "City centres evolve and must constantly change in order to thrive. These are exciting times for Plymouth and its retailers and I hope they are encouraged by the new levels of interest from significant investors who believe in Plymouth. We are working really hard as a city to attract inward investment and are meeting a lot of interested parties – this is just the start."
Councillor Mark Coker, Cabinet member for Transport added: "Visitors and passengers who come to Plymouth need a good impression from the moment they disembark. This new bus hub will help us achieve this."
A Plan for Plymouth City Centre was presented at the Cabinet and gave details of how the Council and partners are delivering initiatives and actions, investing significantly in the city centre with projects that are truly transformational.
Plymouth's historic past and rich cultural offer is enjoying a £73 million investment from city partners including the Council, Plymouth University and Plymouth College of Art and Design.
North Hill is attracting new visitors enjoying arts and cultural events in new state of the art facilities thanks to a £36 million investment in the Levinsky's faculty of arts (including Peninsula Arts gallery), the University's new £7 million performing arts building and the College of Art’s new £8 million creative workspaces.
Also in the pipeline is Plymouth's History Centre. It's a £24 million project to transform the existing museum into a cutting-edge interactive visitor attraction.
Doug Fletcher, Chair of the City Centre Company said: "I am delighted to see the City Council prioritising the City Centre given its importance to Plymouth. The Plan for the City Centre is to be welcomed and in particular it is pleasing that the West End is being prioritised with a new coach station and Council premises becoming major new anchors and driving vital footfall."
Other measures include:
- Council to move some staff to premises in New George Street later this year
- 340 city centre businesses including shops and cafes could be eligible for business relief
- New signs for visitors
- £7 million regeneration scheme for Plymouth Theatre Royal – including transforming the area around it, creating clean, open spaces
- The historic Derry’s Clock gets pride of place in a new-look piazza
- Improvements to Frankfort Gate, including repairs, maintenance work and clearer space and seating
- New play area for city centre
- Investing in shopper and visitor facilities – the Armada Way toilets have won accolades in the Loo of the Year award two years in a row
- The entire city centre will be a giant WIFI hotspot. Shoppers and visitors will be able to access the internet on their smart phone, laptops or tablets for free on the go
For more information visit our Plan for the City Centre page.
So, what do people think of the new Mayflower Coach Station?
I have seen plenty of comments that it is too small, but is this such a big issue? There are hardly any bus services using Bretonside these days. This coach station seems to be purely for long distance coach services in which case it seems big enough to me. Its hard to tell from the flythrough but it seems that there might be room for a few coaches to layover at the opposite end to the main bus stop shelter.
They clearly will need to find somewhere else for visiting coaches to park though. Those of us who remember the 'good old days' when Bretonside was worth a visit will recall it bursting at the seems full of visiting coaches. These days are long gone and today you are more likely to find it full of lorries than coaches. (The council will need to find somewhere else for these too!)The one big issue which I can see as a potential problem is the access to the station from Mayflower Street. It seems a bit tight! They will have to lose the on street parking there as otherwise it wont work. Space is already tight so having large coaches (14M) pulling in and out can only make it worse. If they keep the road clear then hopefully this will work.
We know that finding a new coach station for the City Centre is going to be a compromise as there are not a lot of large empty spaces sitting around waiting for development.
The location seems a good one if they get the access right. I do like the look of what is going in at Bretonside too as that is an area which desperately needs sorting out. As the gateway to Plymouth for many visitors, Bretonside has been a disgrace for too many years now.
I do like the slightly retro look they have gone for the main entrance too! (They will make it high enough to accept double deckers wont they?)
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