Western Greyhound's map of their services 524 and 525 between St Austell and Fowey is awful and highly misleading. Cornwall County Council's map of ditto is ditto!
Equally the "town map" for St Austell gets it wrong as well. Honest!
We really do need an fbb map. And here it is.
Tada!
Armed with this simple (?) diagram, we can match up the time points on the Western Greyhound [WG] timetable and begin to understand everything.
To make yesterday's developments almost understandable, we can say that the First's new service 24 is a direct copy of WG's 524 with one minor exception. The 24 nips down to Charlestown and back, turning at the roundabout ...
... just south of the "Old Chapel" timepoint.
Clearly First Bus have done their homework and concentrated a thirty minute frequency ...
... on the main residential areas of Par and St Blazey
(hourly with WG's 524)
, leaving the incumbent to mop up the bits and pieces on their alternative but more rural 525.
A couple of other possible areas of confusion. The 525 TO Fowey doesn't quite get to the time point at Par Green because of the one way system (see fbb map) but on journeys FROM Fowey it joins the 524 at the junction with Moorland Road ...
... and provides a joint half hourly frequency.
Then there is the challenge of Par Station which fbb faced at 1015 yesterday. At the top of the access road, you turn right and there are shelters and stops on both sides of the road. Where might you wait for a bus to Fowey?
Answer (from the arrival of First Bus yesterday) there are three buses an hour to Fowey from one of the stops and one bus an hour from the other. As he was writing his blog, fbb wondered how well that might be explained. We will doubtless find out tomorrow!
Meanwhile:-
Tada!
A couple of other possible areas of confusion. The 525 TO Fowey doesn't quite get to the time point at Par Green because of the one way system (see fbb map) but on journeys FROM Fowey it joins the 524 at the junction with Moorland Road ...
Then there is the challenge of Par Station which fbb faced at 1015 yesterday. At the top of the access road, you turn right and there are shelters and stops on both sides of the road. Where might you wait for a bus to Fowey?
Meanwhile:-
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Christmas is Over
The Church festival of Epiphany occurs on 5th January or 6th January or the first Sunday in January according to your ecclesiastical background. It is when the visit of the wise men is remembered in the Church calendar. The 5th/6th date also marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas. Which is, of course, cue for a song.
To set the scene, First Bus Eastern Counties put out a press release revealing some of the property left on its buses in 2014. So, enjoying just a little artistic licence, our readers can all join in. fbb only shows the words for Day 12 but, lubricated with a little alcoholic beverage, some enthusiasts for seasonal ditties may wish to start from Day 1.
On the twelfth day of First Bus we found lost propertee
12 black umbrellas
11 shopping bags
10 well-filled wallets
9 senior's passes
8 mobile phones
7 bags of chips
6 pairs of Y Fronts
5 angel's wings
4 wooden legs
3 blow-up sheep
2 urns with ashes
and a turkey, oven readee.
And here are the actual lists from First without poetic licence aka blatant lies!
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Next bus blog : Wednesday 7th January
Next bus blog : Wednesday 7th January
When I caught a bus from Par to Fowey earlier this year and was perplexed by what side of the road to wait, it wasn't helped by Western Greyhound posting the same timetable on both sides of the road at the bus stops!
ReplyDeleteA simple list of departures from the particular stop would, of course, have made things clearer and simpler - don't you think, FBB?!!
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
DeleteNO
ReplyDeleteJust completed four single journeys on First service 24 between Tywardreath and St Austell and bus has followed exact 524 route every time. No journeys served Charlestown village, only the Church in Church Road.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that there is confusion between Charlestown Chapel served by 525 and Charlestown Church, served by both the 524 and 525? Hence the 24 would not be expected to divert away from the 524 route?
ReplyDeleteYour maps are terrible. God knows what you are trying to achieve.
ReplyDeleteNow completed three journey journeys on First service 24 between Tywardreath and St Austell and every bus has followed the exact 524 route. All six journeys operated and none arrived at destination more than five minutes late. Paid six pounds return on Monday and Tuesday, but fare reduced to four pounds fifty from today.
ReplyDelete