Transport For Cornwall Web Site

The Transport for Cornwall project is slowly coming along and I see they have now updated their web site and separated it out from the Go Cornwall page. Screen shot from the new site is below. The white space in the middle does contain a diagrammatic map on the site which hasn't come through onto the screen shot sadly.       

Its still clearly a work in progress and it will be interesting to see how it develops over the coming months and hopefully will be completed before the summer season so it will be a lot more useful for holiday makers.

Citybus web site–not all bad news

One nice new ‘toy’ on the web site is the full route tracking which comes in from the app.

Clock through to Live Departure Times and you get the map with all the bus stops

from there you can zoom in and scroll around to select the stop you are interested in then click for departures

As with the app you can see the services which are tracking with the live times in green. You can also click on Track Buses and see where all the buses are on the route

You can then clock the bus to get a bit more detail including the fleet number and the livery

This was all in the app but I prefer it on the desktop – it also means if I see something interesting on my route I can pop out and get a photo!

Although I have already mentioned some of the shortcomings of the route listing when searching for timetables with poor route descriptions and missing route sections being the main issues, there are a few good points here too.

Especially useful at the moment with all operators struggling to keep routes running as drivers get instructed to self isolate, the route listing does highlight any current service updates – and Citybus are really good at detailing when buses are missing from routes.

Another nice feature is when you click on a route timetable

You get the nice map at the top – which you can open in full screen – and see all the buses on the route and where they are. You can choose the direction although both are unhelpfully labelled To Derriford and also decide if you want to see the full timetable at all stops which might be helpful if your local stop isn't one of the major ones. You do have to click the update button to make the changes which might not be obvious to all but is pretty quick. You can select the date to see the timetables for other days of the week too. Although not perfect, and very few bus company web sites are, its a lot better than the previous incarnation in my view.  If they can just update the route descriptions its better than the old web site.

 

New Citybus Website - a Work in progress

You may have noticed Plymouth Citybus has a new web site. I knew one was coming but it was still a surprise when I logged in to check buses for a hospital visit this afternoon. Good job I did as the bus we were relying on terminated in town giving us less than 5 minutes to get out and catch the early one. Another one down to staff shortages due to the pingdemic no doubt.

On first sight it looks quite swish

However when you click through to the timetables you start to see a few issues

I think there is a bit of fine tuning to be done here with a few obvious errors such as the 5 5A making no mention of Saltash, the 71 does not mention Derriford and the 21 21A, probably the most important Citybus route only showing as City Centre to City centre via Devonport – no mention of the main areas at either end of this big route!

I will be looking at other features of the new site later but also feel the need to mention that the Cornish Division also has the new web site template and that one raises a few more interesting questions – The main question being – What happened to Transport for Cornwall? There is hardly a mention of the TfC name anywhere, and from what i can see none of the routes operated by any of the other TFC partners (Hopleys, OTS, Travel Cornwall) appearing on the site? Hopefully this is an oversite and over the next day or two these issues will all be sorted out…

Its not all bad news though there are some nice features to report on – as per my next post…

Planned service changes

There are no service changes due this coming week but there have been a few more notices published this last week for future service alterations:

Licence	Route	Start Point	End Point	Effective	Notes	OPERATOR
PH0004983.413	230	Lizard, Green	Helston, Cottage Hospital	14-Apr-2020	Revised timetable.	FIRST SOUTH WEST LTD
PH1011427.090	51	St. Austell Bus/ Rail Station	Veryan, Pendower Road	29-Mar-2020	Timetable amended	SUMMERCOURT TRAVEL LTD
PH1011427.091	428	East Looe (Bridge)	Summercourt, London Inn	20-Apr-2020	Timetable amended	SUMMERCOURT TRAVEL LTD
PH1011427.088	28	Lostwithiel, Cott Road	St Austell Bus Station	07-Apr-2019	New Service	SUMMERCOURT TRAVEL LTD
PH1011427.092	497 498	Truro, Boscawen Street	Summercourt, London Inn	29-Mar-2020	Timetable amended	SUMMERCOURT TRAVEL LTD

As usual you can follow these routes on Plymothian Bus Services by clicking through on the licence numbers, although it may be a while before the pages get updated!

Now also seems as good as time as any to let you know the the new Transport for Cornwall web site has kind of launched. I say kind of as its very much a work in progress at the moment with only a small number of the timetables uploaded and a few other issues but it is there and hopefully will bring itself up to date pretty quickly

http://www.transportforcornwall.co.uk/

Simple is Best

All to often these days perfectly good web sites are being replaced by ‘new’ sites which supposedly offers lots of bells and whistles but are actually really awkward to use and more often than not less useful than the sites they replaced. Plymouth Citybus, Traveline and First have all suffered from this over the years. The Stagecoach issue is slightly different in that the current web site is an improvement on what was before, but it is still unnecessarily hard work to find what you need.

One local operator has redesigned their web site and has achieved the holy grail - a site which just works! Its easy to find what you want and its all very simple.

So lets see how Country Bus manage to get so much right:

very simple clean home page with links to timetables maps etc along the top. This is where it usually starts to go down hill…

Timetables

Nothing fancy, just a list of all their services in number order with no distractions.

so lets see what the 75 timetable gives us

Nice and simple and clean. There is even the ability to download a PDF of a print friendly version of the timetable. Excellent!

Now it would be nice to have a link on this page to go to the map - but otherwise it has everything you need.

Talking of maps - the maps link goes to a page that looks exactly the same as the timetable page - a very clean list of all their services including the 75 - so lets see what these maps look like

Again, a nice clean look with no distractions like massive bus stop icons that obscure most of the map (Traveline!). The web site seems to contain maps for all of their services too - another bonus.

You can get the latest news where they explain service changes. All too often this is missing from the smaller operators sites. 

and there is another page of live service updates

once again, keeping everything very clean and simple. I have also checked the site on my mobile - and again - it all just works. Probably the only thing which is missing from the site is bus fare information but that's missing from most operators anyway.

Congratulations to Country Bus - they have managed what so many operators big and small just don't get close to.

a decent web site that just works

http://countrybusdevon.co.uk/

Country Bus wisely don't have pictures on their web site - so here is one of mine!

Information at your fingertips? Part 2

It used to be difficult to get timetable information. You had to reply on being able to get printed booklets and leaflets and more often than not they were never available. There were reasonable full timetables stuck on some more important bus stops which were quite handy but otherwise you had to try and phone the bus company who seemed to take ages to answer but sometimes would then post you timetables. (Western National was always pretty good at this if you asked them)

Of course its all a lot better now. Now we have the Internet. A massive resource which all bus companies and local authorities, big and small have taken advantage of to supply bang up to date information on all their bus services along with plenty of notice of any coming timetable changes

The amount of time I have spent trying to put my regular Devon & Cornwall Transit post together and all the additional information which goes into PT Bus Services which aims to be the full service history for bus services in Devon & Cornwall has shown me that statement is far from the truth, and if anything, its actually getting worse…

The big three - Go Ahead (Plymouth Citybus), Stagecoach (Stagecoach Devon) and First (First Kernow) have all had updates to their web sites making them more corporate along the way which has left us all with a worse local experience than we ever had before. The aim seems to be set everything up to look good on mobile phones but in the process loose all the good stuff that was available on proper PCs. New all singing mobile apps which offer so much but deliver so little seem to be the way things are now. National web sites which local companies seem to struggle to keep up to date.

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So lets see how First Kernow are doing? They were having all sorts of problems with their service changes this weekend earlier with nothing appearing until very late in the day.

 

So lets have a look at News and service updates as this wasn't working recently

so 4 options - I would guess either Planned changes is the best one to start with - and yes - there is now a note about the changes due. Unlike Stagecoach the links to the timetables go to PDF pages that you can open and view rather than just download. Interestingly if you select the News and Service updates you also get the planned changes page along with a twitter feed which is a nice touch too - but then wouldn't it be easier just to have them all one page anyway so its clearer where to look? Not a big issue but it always helps to make things as easy as possible.

The twitter feeds at the moment includes links to the new timetables which is a nice touch…

if it worked! (to be fair they normally do work)

The timetables which do have links working are nice and tidy and print out as nice colourful PDF pages to a fairly consistent design.

You can just search for timetables and unlike stagecoach there is just one easy search box

so not as fussy as the Stagecoach search. The box did initial default to 251 when I tried to get the 25 as I that one is not yet in the Cornwall Transit as its taken First so long to sort things. However the results are clear and also give easy to read date ranges so you should be able to see which timetable to use. I am still not convinced you need a separate timetable for both Saturday and Sunday but I can kind of of see why some would like that.

The timetables they link through to are different to the PDF linked files. These are quite plain but they are pretty clear.

So - what about the routes themselves - are there any maps.

That looks promising

Routes and Maps link gets you this

so just a few town centres (still could be useful) and a network diagram (still for the summer times but most services don't change till later in September) so you clearly need the Route Maps link

Oh well!  I guess some First Group ops do have something on this page otherwise its not needed

All in all its a much better web site and easier to use than the Stagecoach site. There are gaps in map provision and the company do seem to have had issues keeping this site up to date at times but at the moment its not too bad. The next lot of timetable changes come up in mid September - so lets wait and see how long that takes.

While I am talking about First Group I have also had a look at First Wessex as some of their services creep into Devon. As you would expect the web site works in the same way and there is a good list of the services and changes from this weekend

which includes brief details and links to the new timetables

although, at the moment these links don't work!

One area that Wessex are doing better is with maps - click through to the Network Maps and you get a nice collection of bang up to date area maps and more…

The screenshot above does not do it justice as it has not captured the full page that well

Most impressive is the full local timetable book for September with all the times and maps. Excellent!

So come on Kernow - if you can produce something similar for your network for the winter timetable later in September then it will make life easier for everybody who needs to use your services. If they can just get the updates uploaded on time for the next changes…

Information at your fingertips? Part 1

It used to be difficult to get timetable information. You had to reply on being able to get printed booklets and leaflets and more often than not they were never available. There were reasonable full timetables stuck on some more important bus stops which were quite handy but otherwise you had to try and phone the bus company who seemed to take ages to answer but sometimes would then post you timetables. (Western National was always pretty good at this if you asked them)

Of course its all a lot better now. Now we have the Internet. A massive resource which all bus companies and local authorities, big and small have taken advantage of to supply bang up to date information on all their bus services along with plenty of notice of any coming timetable changes

The amount of time I have spent trying to put my regular Devon & Cornwall Transit post together and all the additional information which goes into PT Bus Services which aims to be the full service history for bus services in Devon & Cornwall has shown me that statement is far from the truth, and if anything, its actually getting worse…

The big three - Go Ahead (Plymouth Citybus), Stagecoach (Stagecoach Devon) and First (First Kernow) have all had updates to their web sites making them more corporate along the way which has left us all with a worse local experience than we ever had before. The aim seems to be set everything up to look good on mobile phones but in the process loose all the good stuff that was available on proper PCs. New all singing mobile apps which offer so much but deliver so little seem to be the way things are now. National web sites which local companies seem to struggle to keep up to date.

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In the latest round of service changes taking place this weekend I have actually been praising Stagecoach as they were the first ones to get their changes online in plenty of time. I have had plenty of emails from them reminding me that my buses will change this weekend. So far so good, especially as its rare for me to praise anything about Stagecoach Online.

However all is not brilliant here and there are inconsistences in how these changes were published.

If when you log in to Stagecoach and set your location to Exeter  you will see the service updates section in the middle of the page and if you click the Service Updates menu you go to the page with all the details on. Great - its working as you would expect it to.

 

so we click the > Read More link to see whats changed in Exeter.

and you get this

A totally unnecessary page with yet another link to follow

But then you do get a page of all the changes which are well detailed and explained. There are also links to downloadable PDF files with full timetables. It would be nice to have links to the online page so you can view the timetable from here rather than downloading a pdf though. There is no download link for service 4 even though there is an extra journey added to the timetable. You can search via the timetable menu so enter 4 into the Download bus timetable box (even though I don't want to download it)

Confusingly there are 4 lines for the 4 but they all click through to the online timetable which is what I wanted.. although at the moment the timetable is dated April 2016! Maybe this will work correctly on Monday morning when the new timetable starts but technically the change is from Sunday 3rd so the correct one should be current

There arer of course other annoyances such as when you search for GREEN park & Ride timetable

You have to search for GRN to get that - very poor programming designed for the database rather than the user. For Falcon you need to know its FLCN.

OK, so know we know how all of this works then the Plymouth changes should be nice and easy as they use the same system?

So no service updates for Plymouth? that's funny, I know there are.

Well if you leave the home page up long enough you will see the scrolling message box which will eventually give you a big notice

so click in this and you get the page with all the details. At least this was available in plenty of time. There are links to most of the new timetables - again only as downloaded PDFs, but once again- not all of them. The new 36 is mentioned but no links for it at all.

If you search via the timetable link you do get a timetable for this - albeit a pretty scruffy page rather than the nice Stagecoach designs. Also there is a lovely timetable note on the timetable

Prd1 Only operates within limited dates (dates not known) -

why not just say term times only - even if the operator don't know the dates - the passengers will - this comment just makes the company look silly (a minor point I know!)

Also - there are no decent maps or even route descriptions for most routes at all.

So, there are quite a few things that SC get right - and it was possible to see all the changes in plenty of time but its all a bit inconsistent and still to many unnecessary steps designed around the database rather than the passenger, and the lack of decent maps is a shame for a company the size of Stagecoach.

Maybe I am being picky but you are trying to sell your services to passengers so at least try and make it easy to find the services you run

We will look at the others over the coming week or so…