A Fitting Final Fling for First

I wasn't going to post today, but just seen this shot from Nick which just has to have a wider audience! I will use his caption as it sums up why its such a special shot...

©Nick Rice
Last day of the X80 it just had to have 34003 rostered for the duty, got a nice wave from the driver too. Also good to see it working something other than the Dartmouth Academy service. 20 years earlier if you search 'K803ORL' on Flickr you will find this very bus working this route when brand new as 1803 with Western National. From an enthusiast point of view a very fitting choice of vehicle. this was the Saturday & School holiday only 08:45 off Plymouth.

Although from a passenger point of view the new Stagecoach Gold is a welcome treat after years of First just running the X80 in autopilot mode, it is sad to see the end of the X80. As Nick points out, these buses were a real treat when they were introduced on the X80 brand new and have always been very comfortable buses for a long route like this. Sadly it was the last time anything new was brought for the X80. We have yet to see how things pan out on the new GOLD service but I am pretty sure we wont be seeing any of the new Scania E400s still out on the route in 20 years time!

South Devon Conundrum

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours taking photos at Marsh Mills so of course I was able to observe a number of X80's and X45s coming in.

Apart from One Trident seen leaving Plymouth all the X80s were Volvo B6BLE Wright bodied single deckers. Most like this one having a reasonable number of passengers, but certainly not full.

Stagecoach on the other hand had three different Dennis Trident double deckers pass through in the same time. Each one was almost full. One actually had a couple of standing passengers although I could see a few empty seats upstairs. Based on yesterdays evidence it would seem that Stagecoach are winning the battle.

So which company has just announced it is withdrawing from the route just as the summer season gets going?

First must think its Christmas!

I was in Town this morning with the intention of spending the day in town and maybe even tracking down the Scania demonstrator. In the end, as I have a miserable cold and was feeling rough I just spent 40 mins or so taking pictures and came home. I don't know if the Scania was out and about today but I will just have to make do with everyone else's photos of this beast. Sometimes even I don't feel up to bus spotting - I must be getting old!

I did get some more work on a major project of mine done though, which will soon be added to the Plymothian Transit blog site. Watch this space!

The war is over?

PH1020951/139 STAGECOACH DEVON LTD, BELGRAVE RD, EXETER, EX12LB
Cancellation Accepted: Operating between Paignton Bus Station and
Plymouth Bus Station given service number X45 effective from 28-Jul-
2008.

The official notice that SCD are cancelling their seemingly popular X45 service next month. It does seem to have caught people by surprise (ok well it surprised me at least) as the service has always seemed to be popular offering a quicker run to Paignton than the competing X80 from First.

There has been plenty of suggestions as to why its been cancelled with the new free travel scheme being one such suggestion as the remuneration available to bus companies does not favour these long routes. The buses may have looked quite full on occasions but if the company wasnt getting enough money to carry them then its not a lot of good. The recent departure of Chris Hilditch may well have been a factor with the new team wanting to reduce the 'bus wars' between First and Stagecoach.

All in all its probably good news for First as it does help safeguard the X80 at least but its sad to see another bus link withdrawn.

A day out on Stagecoach

This past few days I have been home with my son Zak whilst my wife is away camping for the long weekend. Last year I took him to Seaton on a really long day out, this year he wanted to go to Paignton - and maybe Exeter as well.

Mid morning we are waiting at Bretonside and we have a real choice of transport.

The X80 was a smart East Lancs 55 reg Trident, next to it was the Stagecoach Trident X45 and then came the X38, which was one of the trusty Volvo Interurban Plaxton coaches which have served this route for years. We decided to go to Exeter first so we paid our £6 for the Explorer and made our way to the back seats.

The last time I caught one of these the air vent wasnt working and it was incredibly hot. On this coach the vent was working really well, so much that Zak asked me to turn mine off. He was happy once I had pointed it away from him. These are comfortable coaches - but dull and dark inside. One problem Zak has with these is that he can only just see out of the window so wasnt overly happy on this coach.

The journey was nice and smooth and no delays so it did go quite quicky so soon we were in Exeter. I have never worked out where the nearest cash machine to the bus station is so we headed down into the City Centre to get some money - and while we were there we lunched in Burger King. There does seem a lot on construction going on in Exeter at the moment but the buses seemed to be moving easily enough.

Back to the bus station and Zak was happy to see a Trident come in for the X46. I was dissapointed not to get one of the Megabus Olympians. Zak was even happier when he got his front seat! At least we got the nearside seat as the offside above the driver has extremely limited leg room on these buses. I have never really liked Alexander bodies with all their blue plastic which reminds me of a 1970s bathroom suite. These buses do give a good ride, have good speed and provided a good journey to Torquay. Sadly the days of front opening windows seems to have gone for good. Not too bad while the bus was at speed but boiling while sat in traffic - something the Torquay bound buses do a lot.

Stop for an ice cream in Torquay and the choice of buses to get to Paignton. Sadly Zak insisted on a 12 as he didnt want to go on an open topper. The X80 open toppers were doing reasonable business on this lovely hot day, but the one Stagecoach open topper I saw was full upstairs so they dont seem to be loosing much business. We did finally get to see a Megabus Olympian on the X46 going back to Exeter.

Another Trident soon turned up on the 12 and a slow run to Paignton in heavy traffic. Paignton Bus Station seemed to full of Tridents - almost all of them on variations of the 12! Zak asked why all the buses were number 12's. I didnt notice the world famous number 12 driver while I was there, although he was working.

After a trip around the train stations for Zak and a long walk to try and find toilets (not easy) we made our way back to the bus station. the 16:40 X45 back home. Standard Trident only this time we couldnt get the front seat. Zak was not happy. Even worse was that on this journey we were blessed with the family from hell. foul mouthed couple with 5 kids - all equally foul mouthed and loud. It seemed a very long time before we reached Marsh Mills where we could get off for a spot of peace and quiet. I am a commited bus passenger and dont like travelling by car unless I have to. Journies like this one made me wish I could have driven.

After a spot of shopping at Sainsburys we found we had a fifty minute wait for a Citybus 50. Zak was brilliant for this long wait so we played several car counting games - the time soon passed. Sadly the Citybus journey home was just as bad as we have five very drunk lads behind us - even more foul mouthed than the other lot. Apparently they had already been kicked off one bus. I am amazed they were allowed on this one. I think they were pretty suprised too.

All in all it was a good day out for Zak - he enjoyed it a lot more than I did! I think he was oblivious to all the bad language going on as he just loves travelling on buses. I know its not the bus companies fault but you can see why people prefer their cars. £6 for a day out like this was good value and the fast direct service on the X45 should make this a good alternative to the car.

I must admit that I am a 'Western National' man at heart and would have preferred to go on the X80 - if it wasnt for the fact that the Explorer for £6 does open up the rest of Devon on Stagecoach. Sadly with First once you get to Torbay you can really only catch the same bus back again. With the new X45 opening up the chance to use the Explorer ticket from Plymouth to Paington it does open up a lot more options for travel. by paying a little extra * you can also use it on Western Greyhound so trips into Cornwall open up too. Sadly the options for using the First equivilent day ticket are rather more limited.

Stagecoach do seem to be coming out on top of this current skirmish, the X45 is more direct and quicker from Plymouth to Paignton and this is being noticed by passengers at Bretonside when deciding which to catch. It may be a bit of a pain having to change buses at Paignton for Torquay - but they are so frequent its not really a problem. Both the X45 and the X80 seemed to be carrying reasonable loads between Plymouth and Paignton but in previous years the X80 was often carrying full loads and occasionally had to be duplicated.

A quick note to end - This is my 700th post to Plymothian Transit! Thanks to all regular visitors as I notice I have just passed the 29,000 visit too.

* I can now clarify that the basic £6 Explorer includes travel on Western Greyhound so its an even better bargain than I gave credit for! The extra Explorer Plus Ticket at £7.25 is for use on Plymouth Citybus services as well as Stagecoach and Western Greyhound.

Battle of the giants

From FDCs web site comes the following increase in service between Paignton and Torquay. Stagecoach are of course running a new X45 between Plymouth and Paignton.

From 17th June 2007 the service between Torquay Strand, Preston and Paignton Bus Station will be increased to operate every 15 minutes Monday to Saturday daytime. Buses will continue to operate from Paignton to Totnes, Ivybridge, Plympton and Plymouth every 30 minutes with super low floor double deck buses. The majority of journeys on this service will continue to be operated by easy access super low floor buses that enable people with mobility problems and those with wheelchairs, buggies or prams to board easier.

Its not just in South Devon where the two groups are in competition. Stagecoach has moved into North Devon in a big way, mainly to fill in the gaps left by First as they withdrew from many services. We are now beginning to see First fighting back on their remaining services with extra journeys between Barnstable and Bideford and also an increase in Okehampton to Exeter services.

I wonder whats next?

X80 Low Floor

I must have been standing at Marsh Mills taking photos on Monday 26th for longer than I realised as I managed to get 4 X80s on camera - all of them low floor double deckers. The first one was 32711 ex Bath but the others were the newer Cornish Tridents 32761-3.

New look to the X80

© Nick Rice

Looking very smart is 32709 the new order for the X80 - and a very welcome one for many passengers. At last X80 passengers wont feel like second class citizens when they arrive in Torbay!

Thanks as always to Nick Rice for allowing me to post his photos.

FDC INCOMING TRIDENTS

It has been reported that new Volvo double decker buses have been seen on delivery to First, for Park and Ride services in Bath. Normally this would not be anything to get excited about here in Plymouth, but once the new buses are in service they are due to release existing Park and Ride low floor DD Tridents to FDC. W709-17RHT 32709-17 are East Lancs bodied Dennis Tridents and are expected to be placed into service on the X80 Plymouth - Torquay service.

It has also been reported that the new Tridents currently operating down in Cornwall WJ55CRX, CRZ, CSF (32761-3) are due to transfer to Plymouth as they are not getting enough mileage down in Cornwall. I am not sure if this is true or not - but I have seen it mentioned more than once!

First are really spoiling us again

Derriford Hospital had another Bus Users Forum today attended by representatives from the City Council, First Devon & Cornwall and Plymouth Citybus. It was actually a fairly quiet affair with only 3 staff turning up this time - I guess many are away at the moment, although with no timetable changes to annoy staff at the moment either things are fairly quiet anyway.

The biggest contentious issue was the poor deal Plymouth pensioners get with the free bus passes compared with Devon and Cornwall. This was fairly explained by the Council representative as all being down to money and how the money from Government has been poorly distributed. He actually did a good job at explaining all this, and the staff raising the issue did accept his reasons.

The one little bit of good news I managed to find out from Marc Reddy from FDC was about the X80 Plymouth Torbay service. I have noticed the increasing use of Dennis Dart single deckers on the service recently whilst the big 'Airbus' Olympian double deckers seem increasing use on city services. This was partly to keep the buses 'local' he said. He did also confirm that later this year the X80 was getting low floor double deckers. There had been rumours of a batch coming from Bath which at first some thought might be for the Park and Ride instead of new double deckers. As we have already found out the new buses are coming later this year.

All in all its just another sign of improvement at FDC.

Cornwall Express - in Devon

Thanks to Jeff Lloyd who sent this photo from his collection of one of Plymouth's long serving Leyland Olympians in one of the many liveries carried by this batch of buses. A750VAF is in the colourful Cornwall Express livery from around 1986/1987 known by many as the Captain Birdseye livery. These were always comfortable buses and worked well on the longer runs like the X80. The livery carried was for the excellent Cornwall Express services which meant a ride on one of these fine buses all the way down into deepest Cornwall. Sadly its less easy these days.
[Copyright unknown - no details written on back of photo purchased by Jeff Lloyd. If its yours then please let me know!)

Airbus Olympian

This picture was taken a few months ago but it was down at Marsh Mills Roundabout so it does kind of fit in with the theme of the last few days.
First 34194 481FPO is one of the "Airbus" Olympian buses which have been drafted in to Devon to use on the X80 Plymouth - Torquay service. This is a heavily used service and has been crying out for decent buses for a long time. These fine machines fit the bill perfectly, although nice new Trident low floor buses would be even better!

This particular bus was acquired from Airlinks in April 2005 and was new as N113UHP. David Oakley has a few photos on his fotopic site of this batch of buses including N112UHP in Airbus livery and N117UHP in National Express Airport livery (this bus is now 34196 OWB 243 in the FDC fleet.

didbygraham