Plymouth Sounds takes a turn

The last two days have seen Plymouth Sound operating the Cremyll Ferry, due to a steering problem on Tamar Belle. Journies at high tide have had to be diverted into the Royal William Yard because of space restrictions at Admirals Hard. Plymouth Sound being nearly twice the width of the Northern meant landing at high tide was impossible. Though it is quite a pleasure to have such a lovely vessel.

Disruption on the Cremyll Ferry

There was a short disruption on the 4:15 ferry this afternoon after the Tamar Belle became unserviceable. As Northern is in for refit and Plymouth Sound was on cruises, the Silver Crest was drafted in from the Royal William Yard to operate the service for the rest of the evening. Passengers had to go over to the dock at the Royal William yard to board as at high tide the Silver Crest, being wider, could not get in to dock at Admiral's Hard.

We sahll have to wait and see if Tamar Belle is up and running for tomorrow.

Western Greyhound wins again!

Western Greyhound has won the Independent operator of the year award for the 4th year out of 5, fighting off close competition from rivals Konnectbus who they run very close to every year. The judges were very impressed with the standard of the fleet upgrades to the low floor Optare Solos and its high quality rural services that they have reliably operated for many years. They even managed to make higher profits than previous years even in these bad economic times.

More good news is that Brighton and Hove have won bus operator of the year. Of course B&H are owned by the Go-Ahead group, which have been announced the preferred bidders for Plymouth Citybus. SO even more success could be heading our way!

Western Greyhound's new service

Western Greyhound recently took over the Bude to Callington section of FDC's 76 from Plymouth. But now WGL has taken full control of the route, and I must say its a very impressive start.

I was presuming to see a usual Vario on the service, though in fact it was being operated by one of the brand new '59' registered Optare Solos. Apologies for the bad photography, I was playing about with the camera too much, and the torrential rain wasn't helping! Shutter speeds can be such a nightmare in the rain!

Western Greyhound have also introduced serveral new routes down in Cornwall and are making a big impact on the county's bus travel. Great to see!

Another departure...

... but this time not with FDC!


Series 2 Bristol VR YRC 125M, of Enterprise Boats down in Malpas/Truro has made her final trip on the short route between the two locations. She has now passed into preservation, and the service will soon pass either to another bus, or possibly to Western Greyhound for next year's service.

YRC was new to Trent Motor Traction Company in 1974, making her 35 years old this year. Remarkably in all these years she has only had these two owners. Such a shame though that quite a symbol of Truro and Cornwall itself has now disapeared. YRC 125M has worked in Truro since 1991. 18 years of fantastic service. Many modern buses won't last that long in total, let alone on one route.

She has now passed into the hands of Richard Waterhouse and Ian Thurma, both commited Trent enthusiasts who have grand plans for her restoration, which has already began. She has even already made her first appearance on the rally circle, in the same month as being withdrawn! Just shows how well she has been looked after and is a credit to the company that has looked after her so well.

Though this does mark an end for public service VRs in Cornwall. The last remaining VR in the county is Roslyn's AJH 854T though sadly she is only seen on schools, though does see many visits to local bus rallies.

I very much look forward to the final result of the bus, though whether she'll make a journey back down here, I don't know, however much we hope!

Millbrook Meanders

This week has seen the main road into Millbrook closed for works on the electrics. This has meant that buses serving Millbrook have had to be diverted through other road complexes around Millbrook to miss out this section.

A-Line Travel have been using newly acquired P931 DFJ on service 80s, so that the service can be diverted via Newport Street (round the back!) on the services to Cawsand and via the slip road by the Spar on the way to Cremyll. The 16:28 bus from Cremyll (the busiest of the day) has seen 2 buses operating it, one as far as Millbrook with the Vario, and the other continuing on to Cawsand with the Transit. This has meant that I have pretty much had the bus to myself for this journey, all other people using the bus as far as Millbrook. The extra bus was provided for the extra capacity as the Transit can only carry 16, with none standing.

First have been diverting some of the 81Cs via Anderton, mainly using Volvo Olympians. It has been quite a revival of the old 81B operated by Western National, and FDC before the Tridents were introduced in 2005. One driver even put 81B on the blind, which I must say was a very nice gesture, well done! Still correct in its destination, saying Plymouth. The three newly introduced K-ORLs have never had to negotiate Anderson, due to the withdrawal of the Anderton school bus, before they joined the depot. Only K802 ORL (currently out of action due to accident damage) has done the route, though she was here in the final days of the 81B.

The drivers have all had a smile on their faces coming past on this route, I must say it is that bit more interesting and challenging than a blast over Maker!

Darting into Torpoint

Torpoint has now gained a 3rd Dart, in the shape of 43810, a '52' reg Dart, previously in the Trevithick Link livery, based in Truro.

I must say I do prefer the newer Mini Darts, they always seem that bit more powerful, this particular example absolutely flies compared to the 2 S-regs. Sadly though what you gain in speed you loose in comfort, these having the horrible 'urban 90' seating.

It has been rumoured that these three will take over many of the Olympian duties, reducing Torpoint to just one Olympian.

Video will be uploaded of her shortly.

The end once again

Picture shows E215 and E216 BTA together. E216 BTA (below) is about to work a 76 to Callington, where E215 BTA has just returned from a trip to Wembury on the 48.

With all the recent fleet updates that have been happening in the area, there, as has been reported, been a considerable loss of high floor vehicles.

The latest to go are the two E reg Volvo Citybus' these being E215 BTA and E216 BTA. These two buses (along with sister E217 BTA scrapped a few years ago) have become quite a symbol of Plymouth.

The three were new back in 1988, numbered 1815 to 1817. These fleet numbers were originally going to be Leyland Olympians, though the National Bus Company moved these three to Maidstone, where they staied. The Citybus' were bought specially to run the X38, back when Western National operated the service. These did many years of hard graft to Exeter, until the K-ORL batch took over in 1993. Though when Badgerline bought Western National, the BTAs were moved upto Bristol to operate alongside the D-GHYs, as this was a more common type in Bristol. Ironically all of the D regs are now working in Cornwall, albeit by the skin of their teeth.1815 and 1816 made it back down in Plymouth where 1817 remained in Bristol until she was scrapped in 2005. This was only a temporary move, though in fact 12 years extra service has been gained by these two, on their move to Plymouth.

The Citybus' have been used for a whole manner of different tasks since then, longer distance such as 93 and 76. They've been used on the Ugobus network, commonly seen on service 3. And E215 BTA was even used for a wedding trip, when the Routemaster failed!

So we bid farewell to the last reminder of the Western National era. Yes I know the W-PAFs are technically Western National, but does a Volvo B6 really represent that era?

So we say goodbye to these from the streets of Plymouth. But who knows, the 2 may join the D-GHYs as open toppers in Penzance. Only time will tell.

Trip to Truro

Well what was going to be a quite innocent and hopefully uneventful journey down to Truro turned from 2 hours into 4 hours!

I set my sights to try out the new 581 operated by Western Greyhound. But before I even got to this, there were troubles. My 81C was running 10 minutes late in the hands of Gerald Dover, so we cut it quite fine when joining the 581. The journey then onto Liskeard was very pleasant aboard Vario WK04 HSD, makes a nice change having a proper manual gearbox. On reaching Liskeard I had plenty of time to get into the station to catch the train. But as I walked into the waiting room, what was there to greet me but the board flashing *0850 Penzance CANCELLED* So what else could I do but join the 581 again back into Liskeard. Sadly there wouldn't be a bus down into Cornwall for 50 minutes, so I continued right back to Torpoint again. But what I then didn't realise was how fine I was then cutting it with the next train to Truro. And to make it worse, the 81 that was scheduled wouldn't meet the train. Luckily Gerald came to my rescue with a late running 81A, so I hopped on with him, a quick blast into Royal Parade and the back out upto the station on a 1, just in time to meet the 10:33. I can now definitely see that advantages of the 81A!

On reaching Truro, I boarded a seemingly forever packed, service 14 to the bus station. There was relatively little buses of interest. Even the G reg Leylands are becoming few and far between. With my day reduced by 2 hours this also dramatically limited what I could do within the time, restricting me to Truro routes only, different from what I'd planned. It was the usual kind of things, though more and more Solos seem to be running down there. Also new service 500 operated by Western Greyhound was seen with a brand new '59' plate Mini Optare Solo. I also bumped into Mr Coates who I had a ride from St Austell to Truro aboard K608 NAE, one of the recent arrivals from Bristol. And if i'm honest, they've not the nicest thing to ride on with those seats! I'd forgotten what real bus seats were like, as really the what used to be standard design is quite few and far between, in favour of more comfortable designs.

Back up in Plymouth however, there were a few more interesting observations to me made. There is now much more evidence of Volvo B7s in the city, they are rapidly increasing in number, and there are still more to come. Very different to the bar war of previous years where any old thing was put into service. Now which bus war did we prefer!

On the note of 'older' buses, a Volvo Olympian was seen on the X38 this evening! This is now a very rare sight, with either a Trident or Enviro 400 as standard operation. I know what I'd pick! Surprisingly the Volvos are quite well suited to the route when I travelled on one on the route a couple of years ago. Though really the old P reg B10Ms are irreplaceable in my eyes. That's what is really needed on a route such as X38. Also Countrybus' Mercedes 709 P475 FJF was seen operating towards Totnes. Again a reminder of a bygone era. Even Countrybus' 709s are starting to dwindle, with one coming up for sale on ebay this week.


The 76 today was being operated by the Waitrose liveried Optare Solo W811 PAF, something that would have previously been very rare to see on such a route. Where as Ex-Callington Driver, Dave of VR news was driving an 83.

I finally got a trip on Torpoint's 'new' Dart today, 43809, and if i'm honest, she's not the nicest Dart I've ever been on. Bit underpowered, with not enough leg room, even for me. As usual the half 4 81C was packed, where as Dennis Trident 32762 was only 20 minutes behind, would likely be carrying very few on its journey back to Torpoint. Interesting to note though that all 3 Mercedes Varios that are currently allocated to Torpoint were tucked right in the corner of the depot, behind the cars. Could this be the end for the Vario at Torpoint? Or just stuffed out the way until required in the week. Time will tell!

The Olympians live on

The link below is well worth a look. 'vss1x' of Flickr has put this photo online of C412 and C413 HJN together in there new home at Wern. Though the 2 have moved on yet again to a buyer in Nantwich. Great to see them both still alive and well, looking pretty unscathed at the moment. Sadly there are no confirmed details on what will now happen to the sisters, but they seem to be getting further and further out of reach.

Picture can be viewed at the link below (not some reason I couldn't get Blogger to accept it!)

www.flickr.com/photos/32313490@N02/3966287473/

The new 81A

As I have mensioned in previous blogs, 81A is now in effect an X81, cutting out the journey via Stoke and the station etc and going straight down Devonport to the City Centre along Union Street.

I finally managed to get a picture and as you can see for some reason a Vario is on it, even at this peak time! Sorry for the quality but my phone's shutter speed seems to be perfect for taking photos of digital blinds!

Torpoint changes (Day 2)

I'm afraid I'm picture less for today's 'events' so I have taken that 'nostalgic' picture where C412 HJN is operating an extended 81 to Crafthole.

Now I'm sure many of you would agree with me on this, but often the extended 81s to Crafthole and Sheviock seemed to carry no one at all. But I have already had several people asking me about whats happened to our bus service! There are now extremely few buses operating to Crafthole. In fact on a Saturday not 1 First bus operates to Crafthole, not even the late night 81Cs which used to include Crafthole. I must admit I used to get very annoied when my journey was lengthened, but for people living in Crafthole it is now a nightmare to try and get anywhere.

The only service that still regularly serves Crafthole is Western Greyhound's 581 (old 181). But these don't seem to be regular enough for commuters or at the right time for shoppers etc on the weekend. Not Western Greyhound's fault, they still carry plenty of passengers on the services they run, and are in line with what needs to be provided. Also because the journey to Plymouth is now with 2 companies the fare has increased. Again not the fault of either company, though it is just another blow for public transport in Crafthole. Maybe this could be an opportunity for a company to operate a shuttle type bus between Torpoint serving surrounding villages such as Sheviock, Crafthole, Portwrinkle etc.

On the Torpoint school buses today, again both buses were Tridents, which were today even following each other around Millbrook. 981 was again not on the blind, but on the bus from Cremyll, James was correctly displaying "81C Torpoint Community School" so thumbs up to him. The destination was so long that it is actually in a smaller font, across 2 lines on the blind.

I'm sure there will be more stories to tell in the near future. I still haven't risked trying out any of the new services, but will try to get round on some, on Saturday. Indeed even bus spotters have been getting caught out in the timetable changes. (Not mentioning any names Luke Farley)

Torpoint Changes

Now I do apolgise for such a terrible picture but don't worry I have my excuses lined up!

My battery charger has been playing up recently and the batterys are no where near fully charged. Infact this morning they wearn't charged at all, yet I forgot about this and proceeded with turning the camera on for this shock photo. In fear of not getting the blind showing 81A Plymouth via Devonport I put the camera onto continuous shoot mode. Sadly this continuous shooting only lasted for one picture before it died! It went off far too early, wasn't aimed correctly and even worse, the blind isn't showing!

But at least you can tell that this picture shows the new 81A with Dennis Dart 40002 going across Stonehouse Bridge! The bus was full to the brim with passengers, with not a seat spare. It seems that First have definitely not thought through bus workings!

Not only this for a very busy route but down the other end of the route in Cremyll there were also problems! 981 was not yet plugged into the Trident operating is this morning. Instead there was 81 Torpoint Depot, which also was driven via Witsand Bay, where it is advertised to not go via, but go via the Poron Factory! This didn't matter before when it was a school bus, but now its a stage carridge service I'm sure there will be people who will get annoied with this quite quickly!

Also was the new 81C that is advertised to go via Anderton. Some idiot has booked a Trident on this working! This means that the SERVICE cannot operate via Anderton and is diverted along the normal 81C via Maker! This left many school kids stranded round Anderton without a bus! There are some severe teething problems and hopefully these will be sorted, but it is not popular so far!

Another interesting thing to note is that there are no buses going to Millbrook from Cremyll between 12 and 3, all of these go straight to Cawsand! Again many people are angry about this. I've been trying to work out why this is, and I've come to the conclusion that it must be the ticket machines! They show who has got on at each destination and quite plainly no one needs or wants to get on to go on a bus to go to Plymouth from Millbrook. yet many will want to use the bus from Cremyll for Millbrook. But does this register on the ticket machines? All I know is this seems a very strange decision.

I'm sure there will be much more news on these changes in the weeks to come. Hopefully along with some better photos and some correct destinations!

The end

Yesterday saw the final operations from two of the county's depots.

Firstly I visited St Austell yesterday morning to take my first and final look at the depot. I had heard, though operations have stopped at St Austell this depot's engineering side will continue winding down for another 2 weeks. Strange to see this go as this was a well established depot with many routes running from it, though with the re-tendering process going on St Austell lost several routes to Western Greyhound and therefore was not viable to keep the depot in operation. Though even yesterday there were no fewer than 6 buses in the depot.

Secondly I took the chance to ride all the way to Bude and back with Dave of VR news. Likewise the depot at Callington where the 76 runs from closed yesterday. No winding down here though, all the buses were removed from the depot this morning, and there lays the ghost of what once was. Depot buildings are now a Co-Op and I'm sure the depot space will be a handy few extra parking places in the future! Again First has lost the 76, this now going to Western Greyhound as the 576. First are continuing a 76 as far as Lauceston but running from Plymouth instead.

First has now withdrawn all services from Bude.

Further pictures are available on my flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11717981@N02/

They're on the road!

My first capture of one of the new Plymouth Citybus Volvo B7s on the road! I was going to photograph a Vario coming into the bus station, but thank god I looked behind, as this was powering down Exeter Street.

I must say she did look smart, even if the livery is slightly disjointed in parts. The new Electronic blinds look very smart and I'm sure will be a great addition. It is interesting to note that this one still has the double doors, where some have been converted. I must say I particularly liked the advert on the side of 414. Whether this means filling there stomachs, or filling them better than they can fill the stadium! The seats are also waiting to be fitted, I'm guessing with brand new upholstery?

9 days to 9 months?

A source has informed me that that Tamar Cruising will now be operating the Cremyll Ferry for another 9 months. This has not ben confirmed yet, though there have been many complaints to the council about lack of public information on their part that has likely caused this.

Good news for the Northern Belle though, this will mean she will be able to achieve 84 years in service!

Torpoint's new Dart

AS promised here is a proper picture of the new Dennis Dart MPD at Torpoint, 43809, seen here operating an 81. She does look very smart in the Barbie 3 livery, though the original moquette still remains.

Plymouth's new buses

Plymouth is fast gaining Volvo B7s from Manchester, not to replace the older fleet, but simply to add to the fleet for the new services. These buses will be used against Plymouth Citybus, so their reasoning is newer bus, therefore passengers will use them. But on routes such as the 43 and 21/51 Plymouth Citybus are using even newer/same age Mercedes Citaros, which are really, that bit nicer than the B7s! But Ohh well!

Major accident in Cremyll

Bus services were disrupted after 4:00 today after an incident on the road coming out of Cremyll. A van was traveling out of the village. By the looks of the scene he swerved to avoid something went up the bank onto the wall and flipped the van, while flinging it across the road. The driver had a nasty cut right the way up his arm, but other than that he was ok. There were no other cars present at the time, though no doubt there will be an investigation into the incident.

Steve managed to squeeze Bertie past the debree on the way down to Cremyll, though when the Ambulence was in attedence then this proved too tight to get the bus through. Ellie (E920 EAY) was also stuck the other side, unable to turn around, along with K803 ORL, and was later also joined by S764 RNE. All three were unable to get by or reverse soo looked like they may be there for some time to come before the van could be moved.

I will feed you informaiton when it comes avalible.

First glimpse of the Dart

Sorry its not the greatest picture in the world but here is the new bus parked up in Torpoint yesterday. 40002 still seems to be the Dart of choise among the Torpoint drivers. Every duty normally covered by a Dart has been 40002 over the last week, including today! Hopefully will catch it in service in the near future.