Beer & Buses

Beer and Buses This weekend!

Details taken from Facebook for anyone who is not on that platform for the Beer & Buses event on Saturday

Departure guide:

Please find below a departure guide to get you going on Saturday, from principal departure points. Buses will observe all normal bus stops also, so clearly indicate to the driver you'd like to travel with them, and they'll stop to pick you up.

Full timetables are available in the programme.

Torpoint Ferry from 11am and then the same minutes past each hour:

xx00 - Blue

xx15 - Red

xx20 Green

xx30 - Orange

xx50 - Green

Millbrook Quay

Purple to Seaton - 1153 and then at xx53 past each hour

Green to Torpoint/St John - 1205 and then at xx30 and xx00 past each hour

Blue to Torpoint/Cawsand/Whitsand - 1223 and then xx23 past each hour

Cawsand Triangle

Purple to Seaton, 1203 and then xx03 past each hour

Blue to Torpoint, 1231 and then xx31 past each hour

To Millbrook - 1133 and then at xx05 and xx33 from 1300

St Germans Rail Station:

Towards Seaton at 1142 then hourly at xx42 past the hour

Towards Torpoint at 1247 then hourly at xx47 past the hour

Seaton from 1200:

xx20 - Red to Torpoint via Hessenford and St Germans

xx20 - Purple to Millbrook via Crafthole and Cawsand

xx55 - Orange to Torpoint via Crafthole and Antony

Programmes will now only be available on the day, from the Torpoint Ferry, Millbrook Quay, Antony, Seaton and Downderry

For those of you interested in the buses being operated this weekend, please see below the vehicles booked to operate on each group of routes. Please bear in mind that this is subject to change on the day due to vehicle availability.

Blue/Purple/Orange:

Bristol VR XHK 228X

Bristol VR LFJ 847W

Bristol VR LFJ 873W

Volvo B8RLE T500 TCL

Leyland Atlantean TTT 168X

Leyland Atlantean TTT 171X

Leyland National LAG 188V

Green:

Bristol LHS VOD 124K

Bristol LHS FDV 787V

Mercedes 709D N283 PDV

Mercedes 614D MX05 CZW

Red:

Volvo B58 LUA 255V

Dennis Dart K105 SFJ

Dennis Dart L401 VCV

Volvo B6 M53 HOD

Tamar Coaches LTD have very kindly agreed to run a 'Feeder' service to and from the event, from Plymouth, on Saturday. Times are as follows:

1025 Royal Parade, Theatre Royal (Stop A8)

1030 Railway Station, Saltash Road

1032, Milehouse, Bus Depot

1035, Stoke Village

1100, arrive Torpoint

The bus will observe all stops along the way, but please indicate very clearly to the driver, Kian, that you're intending to travel with him.

The bus will also return to Plymouth, leaving at 1840 from Torpoint.

I am not sure if I will be there myself yet, but have a great time everyone. The weather isnt looking too bad either.

If you are on Facebook keep an eye on the event page for any last minute updates

Five Photos: Torpoint Depot September

Having a few days off work is allowing me a bit of timer to go back through all my emails etc and pick up on some planned posts which for one reason or another never actually happened.  One such post was looking at the buses which are in storage at Torpoint. These were all taken towards the end of September by Peter Heath:

Thanks to Peter for sending the photos in, sorry it has taken so long to post them!

PCTPG Expands its remit

A notice just recently released by the PCTPG. (I cant seem to reproduce the full news letter on the blog)

Dear Member,

75 years ago, 1st October 1942, to be precise, the Plymouth Joint Services agreement was commenced  and this formed a firm, working relationship, between the Western National Omnibus Company and Plymouth City Transport.

This year, 2015, we find our group needing to review its objectives and identity in recognition of the increasing vehicle fleet and interests of our growing membership which is not solely that of the former council undertaking.

Thus formally, on 1st October 2015, we became the Plymouth City Transport Preservation Group. This changes nothing for you, our membership, our interest in vehicles of PCT and PCB has not lessened.

However we now properly cater for the non PCT PCB vehicles in our fleet and look forward to increasing our appeal and welcoming enthusiasts as we grow and cater for their needs.

 

This seems as good a time as any to feature an excellent shot for Plymouth City Transport 103 taken by Andrew Wickham current MD of Go South Coast, formerly of this parish.

103 14 September 1984.

and then this one from the same time of Western National over at Torpoint.

As much as I am fond of the old Atlanteans, they could never compete with the old Bristol VRTs, especially the old flat screen ones like these.

Torpoint 9 September 1984

 

Thank to Andrew for the evocative shots!

The Last day of First

As promised a bumper selection of photos from myself and others that have been sent in all taken on the last day of First in Plymouth. I hope this conveys the flavour of what was an excellent and affectionate send off. Thanks to all who supplied the photos.

A very proud owner! My favourite ride of the day

I will miss these, just a little bit anyway

Dwarfed by the majestic bridges at Saltash Passage. The 6 and 7 routes were the ones I grew up with and went to school on. It was the Bristol FLFs and then the nice new VRs which led to me becoming a bus spotter.

A faithful friend… and a dog

Not always the best of friends but Plymouth Citybus and First / Western National did manage to get on for most of the time.

Classic bus in a classic bus station – soon to be no more.

The last two generation's of Ferry bus

Southern imposter, but very welcome anyway

Thats me in the front window!

Torpoint wont be the same

Line up of First (plus one!)

 

Somehow the ugobus brand managed to survive right till the end. A brand launched with so much promise but then left to wither away.

A time to reflect on what was and what could have been

There wont be that many photos of First buses and Yellow Flash together as they were only overlapping for one week. Plymouth certainly has colourful buses. It remains to be seen if Stagecoach bring quite as much colour as First did.

Lovely line up for the last ever First run to Torpoint

THE END.

New Timetables 32 32A 32B

This coming weekend sees quite a few timetable changes for both Plymouth Citybus and First. I have covered some of these, but over the next few days I will bring all details and timetables together with links to my Plymothian Bus Services pages where you can view the recent histories of these routes. More tomorrow!

Plymouth Citybus 32 32A 32B

Time and Frequency changes: Service 32 has been re-timed to improve the connections with the Cremyll Ferry. Service 32A has been re-timed with all journeys departing Liskeard 5 minutes earlier than current. This change enables the Plymouth and Liskeard bound services to meet each other in Portwinkle village with an improved wait period. Service 32B with the 18:27 service to re routed to operate via Crafthole.

Timetable 32 Timetable 32A
Timetable 32B

VOSA October Part One

I am a bit behind on VOSA but have started my look back at October.

Applications To Vary Existing Services: VOSA 07 OCT 2014

PH0004983/35 - FIRST DEVON & CORNWALL LTD, THE RIDE, CHELSON MEADOW, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7JT Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between TORPOINT FERRY and PLYMOUTH Bus Station given service number 81/81A effective from 02-Nov-2014. To amend Timetable.

2 NOV 2014: First Torpoint 81 81A

Changes are being made to services operated by First in Torpoint provide better bus connections for staff and patients using the towns new health centre which is due to open in the New Year. From Sunday 2 November, changes to Services 81/81A from Plymouth to Torpoint and Inswork will enable journeys to serve the health centre in Trevol Road. 

The Monday to Friday timetable is being revised with most journeys now terminating at HMS Raleigh. Buses from Torpoint Ferry will serve Great Park every 30 minutes alternating with direct buses which will miss out Great Park on their way to HMS Raleigh. These will run to the ferry on their return. The Saturday timetable will remain unchanged apart from some slight re-timings to early evening services. The Sunday services will be unaffected by the changes. 

At the same time a new £1 fare (50p for those age 5-18 or NUS card holders of any age) will be introduced for all single trips on the 81/81A between the Torpoint Ferry Terminal (Torpoint side) and HMS Raleigh. Commenting on the changes, Paul Smith, First Devons Operations Manager said: "Feedback about these changes have been very positive so far. This is good news for Torpoint as it will mean staff and patients going to and from the health centre will have peace of mind in knowing that there will be regular bus services to ensure they arrive on time for work and for their appointments. 

"The other good news is that we are introducing a new £1 fare for all single trips within Torpoint and we hope this will encourage people, especially those who are not currently First customers or have not travelled on public transport for a while, to reconsider using our buses for their local journeys.' Customers wanting more information about the changes or wishing to view timetables for the affected services are advised to log onto: www.firstgroup.com/devon. First is also on Twitter and Facebook, at www.twitter.com/firstbus_devon and www.facebook.com/firstdevon

There was going to be more this morning but I have run out of time! We will be caqtching up on Octobers activity over the next few days...

In The News

• TELEGRAPH 5 NOV 2014: FirstGroup insists turnaround 'on track' as revenues slide 10.9pc Embattled transport company FirstGroup has told investors its turnaround plan is "on track" as it posted a 10.9pc fall in revenues. The bus and rail giant on Wednesday reported first half revenues of £2.9bn, 10.9pc lower than in the same period a year agoTim O'Toole, chief executive, said trading during the first half was "in line with our expectations for the Group and our transformation programmes continue to make progress as planned".

Featured Blog Post

• ENSIGN VINTAGE FLEET: October update There was a time when we used to get to the Autumn breathe a sigh of relief and start pulling vehicles off for the winter as it quietened down. Not so now, as the season and particularly wedding season work is still very busy with some Saturdays seeing us having up to 13 vintage buses out per day.

Reading List

• FOCUS TRANSPORT: Miliband pledges London-style bus service across England
• RICHARDS TRAM BLOG: CRICH HALLOWEEN 2014
• NORWICH BUSES: BorderBus Updates
• DENNIS BASFORD: ‘Scene’ in Dorchester
• STEVES BUS AND TRAIN PAGE: Spotting In The Rain
• IPSWICH BUS BLOG: 32489 ENTERS SERVICE
• GREAT YARMOUTH BUS PAGE: 33126 enters service!
• PUBLIC TRANSPORT EXPERIENCE: Worries Whilst Waiting at Watford [2]
• FOCUS TRANSPORT: SEASONAL STAGECOACH SERVICES
• ANDYS BUS BLOG: Looking back... East Anglian vintage variety 2

Torpoint Treated

First Devon & Cornwall continue their run of positive service changes:

NEWS: Bus service changes and new fare offering in Torpoint will provide improved links to new health centre

Changes are being made to services operated by First in Torpoint provide better bus connections for staff and patients using the town’s new health centre which is due to open in the New Year.

From Sunday 2 November, changes to Services 81 from Plymouth to Torpoint and Inswork will enable journeys to serve the health centre in Trevol Road.

The Monday to Friday timetable is being revised with most journeys now terminating at HMS Raleigh. Buses from Torpoint Ferry will serve Great Park every 30 minutes alternating with direct buses which will miss out Great Park on their way to HMS Raleigh. These will run to the ferry on their return. The Saturday timetable will remain unchanged apart from some slight re-timings to early evening services. The Sunday services will be unaffected by the changes.

At the same time a new £1 fare (50p for those age 5-18 or NUS card holders of any age) will be introduced for all single trips on the 81 between the Torpoint Ferry Terminal (Torpoint side) and HMS Raleigh.

Commenting on the changes, Paul Smith, First Devon’s Operations Manager said: “Feedback about these changes have been very positive so far. This is good news for Torpoint as it will mean staff and patients going to and from the health centre will have peace of mind in knowing that there will be regular bus services to ensure they arrive on time for work and for their appointments.

“The other good news is that we are introducing a new £1 fare for all single trips within Torpoint and we hope this will encourage people, especially those who are not currently First customers or have not travelled on public transport for a while, to reconsider using our buses for their local journeys.”

Recommended Reading

• EAST NORFOLK: The Three Setras I found three Setras; two in Shearings Holidays' colours and one in National Holidays' white.
• FOCUS TRANSPORT: Go Ahead Interim Management Statement October 2014 “Delivering excellent levels of customer service is important to us and I’m proud our bus division achieved its highest ever satisfaction score of 92%.
• NORWICH BUSES: A day out with Norfolk Green - Part Two Something I love about the company is how each route appears to have regular drivers, this has lead to drivers being able to recognize passengers and when they travel.
• PUBLIC TRANSPORT EXPERIENCE: 2 : Bolster the Business Make up Your Mind, First Bus! In a typical burst of incompetence, First Bus merely repeated the Cornwall text on its own web site but gave no information about the 588, despite referring to it "below". There was nothing "below"!! 3 : Bolster the Business An Agnesian Antipodean Aside ... and one Oz politician naively commented, "Transfield quoted the cheapest price and assured us they could deliver." Now where have we heard that before?
• TRANSPORT ILLUSTRATED: Toddington The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway staged its annual bus rally in July. I'd given the event a miss last year due to the infrequency of the hourly bus service in 2012 but things were greatly improved this year and I was very glad I decided to head for one of my most local annual rallies in the absence of the Stroud Running Day and demise of the Cheltenham Coach Station event

Torpoint - the hard way

Over the last few weeks I have received a few photographs from people for the blog but have not managed to fit them all in with everything else going on at the moment! So this morning we start to put that right starting with a few from "Laira" who was on the 31 temporary Plymouth to Torpoint service laid on while the Torpoint Ferry staff were in strike recently:

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Bluestar hands M back to Velvet Bluestar have advised that they are no longer running the M, which they had taken on after Velvet collapsed last week.

Evesham Vale Light Railway The EVLR [Evesham Vale Light Railway] held their gala days recently with both their steam locomotives "Dougal" and "St.Egwin" in steam and extra trains running.

Fruit in Pots [1] The variety available today includes "Fruit Pots" which are, no doubt, far more nutritious and healthy than the concoctions fed to the mewling an puking** baby that was to become fbb. Of course, as you come to expect in an fbb blog post, the link to public transport is tenuous in the extreme.

12: Newton Abbot - Brixham The 12 is a high frequency link between the major towns of the English Riviera, serving several major tourist attractions along the way. It runs every 10 mins Mon-Sat daytimes, every 15 mins Sunday daytimes and every 20 minutes each evening. It's run by Stagecoach and is branded as Hop 12.

'Scene' in Hanley Bus Station. The independent operators. I was familiar with the old Hanley bus station and I had not yet seen the new one that opened in 2013 so a visit was long overdue. Although it was only a weekday, it seemed crowded and a driver told me to come back at tea time when it would be gridlocked.....!

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

Torpoint and Beyond

First Devon Facebook

There have been some rumors that First will shortly no longer be running buses between Plymouth and Torpoint. We can confirm that this is not the case and continue to run up to 4 service 81 buses an hour between Plymouth City Centre, Devonport, Torpoint and HMS Raleigh, 7 days a week (including evenings). However as we have recently lost the Cornwall Council tender to run the service 81 buses beyond HMS Raleigh to Insworke and Rame (from 1 June) we are currently looking at whether this section of the 81 will continue after this date as we will receive no financial support to run them. We will keep you posted. But for now please be assured the service 81 is still and will still be running between Plymouth and Torpoint (CJ)

We have already noted that Plymouth Citybus have won the Cornwall County Council tenders in this area...

22 April 2014

PH0000135/159 - PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LTD, MILEHOUSE, MILEHOUSE ROAD, PLYMOUTH, PL3 4AA Registration

• Starting Point: Royal Parade Plymouth
• Finish Point: Liskeard Railway Station
• Via: Torpoint, Downderry
• Service Number: 32A
• Service Type: Normal stopping
• Effective Date: 1 June 2014

22 April 2014

PH0000135/150 - PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LTD, MILEHOUSE, MILEHOUSE ROAD, PLYMOUTH, PL3 4AA Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between Royal Parade and Torpoint HMS Raleigh given service number 32/22B effective from 01-Jun-2014. To amend Route and Timetable.

We now have the full timetables up on Traveline SW

1 June 2014

Service 32 New Timetable

TIMETABLE PDF

Service 32A New Route!

TIMETABLE PDF

Service 32B New Route!

TIMETABLE PDF

It will be very interesting to see if First Devon do decide to run at least some of these services on a commercial basis. It would certainly upset Plymouth Citybus especially as the Council might then have to reconsider the original tender. It could then also upset the council who might wonder why First can suddenly run a service on a commercial basis when it has needed a subsidy for years! If however First give in and cut back their routes to just Plymouth - Torpoint then it should free up a few buses and drivers for use elsewhere in Plymouth where their earning potential should be quite a bit higher. I guess the ball is now firmly in First's court and we all wait to see what First do next... They certainly seem much more up for the fight these days than they have been in recent years.
Full route history on Plymothian Bus Services

Staying Put

First Devon Facebook

We've heard there's some rumours circulating that we will no longer be serving Torpoint in the near future. We can confirm this is very much not the case. Our service 81 continues to run between Plymouth, Devonport, Torpoint and HMS Raleigh, seven days a week with up to 4 buses an hour. The extended journeys between HMS Raleigh and Rame, are financially supported by Cornwall Council, and we are currently waiting for the outcome of their re-tendering as to whether we will continue to run between HMS Raleigh and Rame on their behalf (we're hoping to find out this week) Regardless of the Cornwall Council re-tender results we will still run our service 81 between Plymouth and Torpoint/HMS Raleigh as we operate this section of the route on a commercial basis (as in we don't receive any council funding to run it)

Ferry Bus 1987

©Jos Van Hemeert 22 July 1988

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