William Prance Road

A quieter day with just 4 new notices through this time:

Stagecoach Devon Ltd

Licence	Route	Start Point	End Point	Effective	Notes
PH1020951.249	1 1A 1S X1	Plymouth	Tavistock	14-Apr-2024	Service 1 / 1S / X1   Intermediate running times are revised on all days of operation to improve reliability and punctuality.  Following working in partnership with Plymouth City Council, there will be a small change to the route of Service 1A.  In Derriford buses will serve William Prance Road and Brest Road, as opposed to operating directly via Tavistock Road, which will provide improved access to local amenities in the area.   Journeys towards Sherford will exit Derriford Hospital via Derriford Road, Derriford Roundabout and Brest Road to avoid ongoing congestion issues on Morlaix Drive.
PH1020951.136	21C, 21A, 21, 815, 821, 921	Ilfracombe or Barnstaple	Appledore or Westward Ho!	14-Apr-2024	Service 21/21A (Ilfracombe to Westward Ho! / Appledore via Barnstaple and Bideford) The timetable for Service 21/21A will be enhanced for the Summer 2024 season until Saturday 31 August 2024, with the frequency of buses Monday to Saturday daytime to Westward Ho! and Appledore increased from hourly to every 30 minutes. There are no changes to the frequency of buses during the evening or on Sunday and Public Holidays. On Monday to Fridays an additional journey will operate at 0825 from Barnstaple to Westward Ho! There are some minor changes to departure times during the early and later parts of the day, to better match passenger demand. As a result of the withdrawal of Service 921, the 1420 Schooldays journey from Ilfracombe to Westward Ho! will additionally serve Pilton Community College. Service 21C (Barnstaple to Croyde Bay / Georgeham via Braunton) To coincide with the start of the summer 2024 season, selected journeys on Service 21C will be operated by open top double decker vehicles. There are no changes to the route or timetable.
PH1020951.051	157 257 357	Exmouth	Sidmouth/Budleigh Salterton	14-Apr-2024	Timing changes are introduced Monday to Sunday to improve reliability and punctuality. On Sunday and Public Holidays Service 157 will terminate at Rolle Street in Exmouth. On Monday to Saturdays the 0628 journey from Exmouth to Budleigh and the 1845 to East Budleigh along with the Saturday journey at 0710 from Exmouth to East Budleigh and the 0740 and 1847 from Exmouth to East Budleigh will be withdrawn. The 0635 Monday to Saturday journey from Exmouth to Sidmouth will be re-timed to depart 5 minutes earlier at 0630.

DJ Watts Torbay Minibuses

Licence	Route	Start Point	End Point	Effective	Notes
PH1117103.003	62	Torquay Strand, Harbourside	Torquay Strand, Harbourside	02-Apr-2024	Vary route, stopping places and timetable.

Full timetables etc are available on my route pages for the Stagecoach services. DJ Watts 62 will appear in due course I am sure.

The slight rerouting of Stagecoach 1A at Derriford is explained by Plymouth City Council

A new bus link between the city centre and William Prance Road in Derriford will start next month.

Stagecoach South West’s 1A service will operate via William Prance Road from Monday 15 April, providing passengers with much closer access to the Royal Eye Infirmary. The route change has been made thanks to developer contributions via the Council. It will run every 20 minutes from Monday to Saturday (excluding bank holidays).

The service 1 will continue to operate via Tavistock Road.

Councillor Mark Coker, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport, said: “Patients visiting the new Royal Eye Infirmary have expressed difficulty in getting there by bus so we are delighted to be able to fund this route change. One of the nine passenger priorities in our Bus Service Improvement Plan is to provide new and extended routes to key areas and locations, which is exactly what the service to the eye infirmary achieves.”

Councillor Kevin Sproston, our Bus Champion, added "The need for a bus link to the Royal Eye Infirmary has been raised by residents and Plymouth’s Enhanced Partnership Forum – the group set up to provide opportunities for discussing issues affecting Plymouth’s bus network. It’s great to be able to respond to this passenger need.

“We are providing financial support for an initial period of a year to allow the route to become established and I’d encourage passengers to use the service as much as possible to help maintain this link to the Royal Eye Infirmary in the long term.”

The 1A service operates from stop A20 on Royal Parade. See the Stagecoach website for the the new service timetable.

This is just the latest attempt to serve this estate. I do wonder though how long it will last as these roads see a lot of traffic congestion in the morning and evening rush hours due to traffic in and out of Derriford. In fact this same batch of timetable changes see slight rerouting for a couple of other timetables (52 etc) specifically to avoid the congestion here in the afternoons coming out of Derriford. It will be interesting to see how this affects the 1A

Plymouth Citybus try Seaton, again

Plymouth Citybus have announced their service changes for 1st April.

We are making changes to some of our services, which will come into effect on 1st April 2018. With road conditions and congestion changing within the city we are being proactive to ensure our buses are more reliable. Amended timetables are now available online.

PLYMOUTH CHANGES:

• SERVICE 5/5A: An additional Monday to Friday departure from Plymstock Broadway to Royal Parade at 0435. An additional Sunday evening journey will be added departing from Saltash Church Road at 1735 arriving into Royal Parade at 1825 then continuing on to Plymstock.
• SERVICE 8/9: Monday to Saturday we will add additional running time to the 1905 service 8 to improve reliability on this journey.
• SERVICE 20/A: We have adjusted most departures in both directions by 5 minutes to improve connections to other Citybus services. A new timetable is available from the Timetables section of this website.
• SERVICE 21/A: Due to congestion in the Devonport area in the afternoon peak we will make amendments to improve reliability.
• SERVICE 27/28: The two services will now be split into separate timetables to make sure that the information we are supplying to passengers is as clear as possible. The 27 timetable will remain unchanged. The 28 will be adjusted in the morning and afternoon peak Monday to Saturdays to improve reliability.
• SERVICE 34: The 2255 Derriford to Milehouse journey will be withdrawn due to very low passenger numbers. An additional early morning journey will be introduced on a Sunday from Milehouse at 0640. This bus will then serve the normal route via Stoke/Devonport arriving at Royal Parade at 0705.
• SERVICE 42: This service will be diverted via William Prance Road in both directions to be able to serve the Palmerston Heights providing a better link for commuters who wish to get to the development.
• SERVICE 42A/B: The evening timetable has been amended to improve the reliability of the services we operate.
• SERVICE 42C: The timetable will see minor adjustments due to the amendments made to service 42.
• SERVICE 50/A/51/A: Minor adjustments will be made across the timetable Monday to Friday to improve reliability.
• SERVICE 118: The afternoon school journey from Notre Dame will now terminate at St Budeaux. Passengers who wish to continue to Camels Head and Milehouse will need to transfer onto the service 43 at St Budeaux.

CORNWALL CHANGES:

• SERVICE 12/A/B: Amendments will be made to early morning journeys between Plymouth and Callington to improve connections for commuters, which will also include the new 0450 from Royal Parade. The afternoon 1425 departure from Launceston will now depart at 1435. The 12B will also see the 0740 departure from Launceston to Bude depart at 0735.

Hot Topic leaflets containing all the information will also be available to pick up from our Royal Parade Travel Shop from Thursday 8th March.

By Citybus standards most of these are quite minor changes, just to improve timekeeping. The only one of real interest is the rerouting of the 42s through Seaton / Derriford Business Park. The route into Derriford is in red below. The other 42s will stick to the present route. As someone who works on this red route it could be quite useful to me, depending on the times which I have yet to check out. Full details on this change and the others mentioned above will appear in full in due course…

The estate has not been served for some time but there have been previous attempts to run proper buses down here as way back in 2008 the 42s were sent this way as illustrated by a then new 145…

It didn't last that long as very few people used it and most passengers demanded it reverted back to the main road!

When the estate was laid out it was clearly intended to have buses down here as there were plenty of raised kerb bus stops on the main road through.

(this was back in 2005, when it also snowed!)

First also tried to run their 17s through the estate back in 2006, also not to last that long

Then finally there was the brilliant, but sadly under used Taxibus

It remains to be seen how long the service will last this time. Hopefully it will stay. Planned improvements to the road past the ambulance station will provide better bus links out of Derriford which may well prove the key to making this new section last a bit longer.

Plymouth International

The latest timetable changes for Plymouth Citybus saw the 42 being routed through the Plymouth International Business Park for the first time. This is the first Citybus through this estate although First have tried before, but gave up. Since then more businesses have opened up on the estate so maybe this is why Citybus feel its worth a go now. Taxifast / Target Travel run their Northern Connect service here already so now we do get a choice of buses.

Today I managed to catch a 42 on camera while I sat with Zak waiting for the Taxibus to bring us home from McDonalds.

No timetable info which is a shame - I dont think any of the bus stops have timetables along this section.

There is a great big 'display post' right behind the bus stop which isnt being used for anything at the moment, but it would probably be overkill for how few buses use this stop, even if it available for use in this way. The new Future Inn building is quite impressive but I dont suppose it generates much bus traffic along here!

There was actually one other passenger who got on this 42 at our bus stop, which is the first other person I have seen use this service along this stretch other than myself. I am sure there are others though and its not as if its much of a detour for Citybus so cant be costing much extra to serve this area. With its plush leather seats its almost as tempting as the leather seats in the Taxibus which is coming up a few mins behind this one. Well done to Citybus for trying to serve new areas though, just one of the many improvements in public transport in this section of the City over the past year or so.

Welcome sight in the snow!

Well its rare for Plymouth to get any decent snowfall but today we did. I wasnt able to get out much and get many transport photos but this one was very welcome indeed. Its the Burger Van which comes in to service the builders on the new Hotel Site which is to the right of this picture. It snowed quite a lot more after this photo was taken!
didbygraham

Plymouth International

This is a top deck passengers eye view of the traffic light controled junction at the entrance to the Plymouth International Estate. We are sat in the 'inner' bus lane which is just about to stop the traffic on the right hand lane to allow us to turn right across all the traffic and enter the estate. Ironically the bus service to the estate has just got worse and we are now to to an hourly service only - the 17. Service 6 which was every 20 minutes was cut back at the end of October and now terminates in the City Centre.
This view shows the hotel from the main road. A few days ago you saw it from the other side.
One change you might notice is the lack of a tall crane. Just where the red road crane can be seen was a large built up tower crane which was dismantled towards the end of last week. A similar crane can be found working at the back of Derriford Hospital at the moment, although this too is due to be dismantled any day now. Apparently it will need over twenty lorries to take it away. I am hoping to get a few photos soon before it goes but with the dark evenings its not easy taking pictures at the moment when I am working all day!
I also have a photo of one of a crane lorry which I will post in a day or two.

Plymouth International

I do say at the top of this blog that its also the transport infrastructure that's covered here and this is something I have neglected for some time but I will be making more of an effort to vary the posts here from now on.
So here is a photo of the new road layout taking shape at Plymouth International to service the Hotel side of the estate. At the end of this road is a roundabout which leads off to the deeper end of the estate.

Below we see a clearer shot of the hotel itself

8th June: Plymouth International Traffic Lights

Nothing much to see here is there? Well, No there isnt really. It does though illustrate the buses now entering the Plymouth International Business Park. They started on Sunday with two First services the 6 and the 17 providing 4 buses an hour from Derriford Hospital into Town. Coming up from the City Centre and heading towards Derriford Roundabout the buses have to use this awkward Right turn into the estate. It is traffic light controlled and when the lights work the buses should be able to stay in their bus lane and turn right across all the traffic. At this time though the lights are not working so buses have to get into the right hand lanes - not always easy to do from the bus lane in heavy traffic. Several buses have ended up missing the turn and just carry on down to Derriford Roundabout as they used to. With the traffic lights out of order for a few days it is causing the buses problems although, ironically for other traffic it is actually improving things as there is less of a queue to turn right here than normal!
didbygraham

Roundabout!

This blog is not just about whats on the roads, its about the roads themselves as well. In this case it actually the small roundabout on William Prance Road in the middle of Plymouth International Business Park. Its quite an impressive object and suddenly appeared over the weekend along with several other smaller signs and display boards around the Business Park.
This roundabout is the main intersection on the estate with roads leading down to Derriford Hospital, The Western Morning News, the Rok Building and Bircham House (where I work) and also the new NHS Orthopaedic Treatment Centre which is behind where I am standing to take the photo above. If you go straight across the roundabout in the picture above you come out on Crownhill by McDonalds where many of the pictures on this blog are taken.

didbygraham