Wednesday 2 September 2015

It's a Big Weekend


 Borders Railway 

Formerly the "Waverley Route" (or at least a bit of it) opens to the public from Sunday 6th.
Trains run every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday and hourly on Sundays.
Those mysterious journeys marked "A" are a tad controversial. The code translates to:-


A May not run Wednesdays and
Thursdays until 15 October.
Please telephone National Rail
Enquiries on 08457 48 49 50 or visit
www.scotrail.co.uk before travelling


That's because Scotrail may (?) be running steam specials at these times. Ordinary tickets will not be valid on these premium-fare jollies. When timetable first appeared on-line, these non-trains were not removed much to the ire of Barry Doe; but they're not there now.

 Plymouth 

Saturday is the last day of First Bus' Plymouth operation. Local bus folk have organised a grand farewell day with free rides on "traditional" routes provided by vintage Western National vehicles
According to a rather "basic" on-line information notice, these vehicles will be performing.
Blog readers may amuse themselves by researching the details.

824 KDV - Western National Bristol FLF
468 FTT - Western National Bristol FLF
AFJ 706T - Western National Bristol VRT
LFJ 847W - Western National Bristol VRT
VDV 134S - Western/Southern National Bristol VRT
270 KTA - Western National Bristol SUL
L401 VCV - Western National Dennis Dart


Departures are from Bretonside bus station but as fbb researched this bit, there was nothing about times etc. on-line.

Should be a good day!

Then on Sunday Stagecoach takes over to run a limited selection from the former First network. Plymouth Citybus had withdrawn from competing on the Tavistock and Mountbatten services (Scaredy cat???) but Stagecoach changed its mind to "have a go" over the Tamar in Saltash.

See "Collusion or Confusion in Plymouth 2" (read again).

 Hereford  

First also ends its association with Hereford on Saturday 5th.

Once a Midland Red area ...
... home to a little slice of the minibus revolution with Hoppas ...
... First never seemed to get its network right. fbb ran a web site for Hereford Council in a former life and the number of network changes was horrific.

Anyway, it all goes on Saturday. See previous blog, "'Ereford Extraction" (read again).

Will there be a heritage buses celebration. No. Will there be public celebration? In a different way, possibly. The city network is taken over by Yeomans Canyon with very little change.
Yeomans C anyon, already opertors of some
Hereford city service on tender

71/71A/71B HEREFORD – CREDENHILL
Service operated by Yeomans Canyon Travel. Minor timetable changes
including Sunday service 71B
operating via Moor Park Road not Ferndale Road.

72/72A/72B HEREFORD – BOBBLESTOCK
Service operated by Yeomans Canyon Travel.

74/74A/74S HEREFORD – NEWTON FARM
Service operated by Yeomans Canyon Travel. Minor timetable changes.

75/75A/75B/75S BELMONT – HEREFORD – HAMPTON PARK
Service operated by Yeomans Canyon Travel.

76/76A BARTPONSHAM existing tender by Lugg Valley

77/77A/77B HOLMER existin tender Yeomans Canyon

78/78A HEREFORD – ROTHERWAS
Service operated by Yeomans Canyon Travel.

79/79A/79B HEREFORD – PUTSON – REDHILL
Service operated by Yeomans Canyon Travel.

81/81A COLLEGE GREEN  existing tender Yeomans Canyon

88/88A HEREFORD – SAXON GATE/LOWER BULLINGHAM
Service operated by Yeomans Canyon Travel. Minor timetable changes.

It is a pity that this opportunity hasn't been taken to sort out the messy network; did you, do you really need 27 route numbers for such a small geographical area? I am sure that St*g*c**ch would not countenance such nonsense. Maybe that will come with time?
--------------------------------------------------
 and a Cornwall P.S. 
Thanks to the hard work by Graham of the Plymothian Transit blog (a keen watcher of the VOSA registrations site) we can guess that local Newquay operator A2B is giving up its attempt to compete with First.

Unless they have something else up they omnibological sleeve?

What goes around, comes around. Some years ago fbb rode on this bus when it was operating a Velvet (of Eastleigh) service into Southampton; an abortive attempt to compete with Blue Star. The bus was driven by boss Phil Stockley.
--------------------------------------------------
 Next bus blog : Thursday 3rd September 

2 comments:

  1. I don't know the Hereford area at all, but was not the Hereford - Credenhill service now being taken on by Yeomans Canyon previously the main route of G.H.Yeomans Motors of Canon Pyon for many decades until it was sold to Midland Red circa 1980?
    What goes around comes around.

    ReplyDelete
  2. First have temporarily transferred its Midland Red liveried Enviro 300 single deck from Worcester to Hereford until the garage closes, and it is reported on the www.midlandred.net forum that the plan is for it to operate the very last First journey at Hereford on the final day.

    SEV777 is correct - Yeomans sold the Hereford - Credenhill service to Midland Red West in 1983, during the 'trial'.

    ReplyDelete