Daftness in Dartmouth (3)

Knowing no fear and without the help of safety net, fbb decided to try to unravel the deep and intractable mysteries of Dartmouth Park and Ride.

Note that the daytime service terminates at the "bus depot" ...

... the patch of fenced yard pictured in previous blogs and where a natty turning circle is provided.

That fact (?) is confirmed by the blue bus blob on Google Maps.

... and further confirmed by the Traveline timetable for Monday to Saturday daytimes.

There is "Cotton Bus Depot" towards the bottom of the upper panel.

In the evenings there is still a 30 minute service on the 90 - which seems unusual - until you realise that the "normal" 90 doubles up as the evening version of Park and Ride.

Thus the terminus is now NOT the Cotton bus depot but "Dartmouth Park & Ride".

Without a map, it has taken fbb some considerable time and mental effort to work out which way the 90 goes. But here goes ...

It leaves town via the "main" Victoria Road ...

... which makes a sort of hairpin bend to become Townstal Road where the solid orange meets the dashed orange upper left. Readers who are familiar with Dartmouth will spot a serious omission.

The red A379 is a new-ish road, leaving the old yellow Townstal Road and ploughing across the front of the Naval college - a Stagecoach 3 is seen running that way.

The 90 follows the Post Office Van into and out of town. After a short dalliance with Townstal Road the 90 (to the bus depot, remember) dives off into the estates north of the B3207 (then), the A3122 (now). A promoted road - exciting, isn't it?

fbb thinks (?) that buses follow a different outbound and inbound route through this maze  ...

... IN via Collingwood Road and Mayflower Close but OUT via Britannia Avenue (unmarked on the map above). Both routes re-merge just a short distance from the Park and Ride roundabout as they re-emerge onto Townstal Road.

But much of the above is rubbish; its rubbishness revealed by the on-the-spot knowledge from correspondent Keith.

The daytime 90 no longer serves the turning circle!

To get to the depot, buses now run VIA the Park and Ride site and through a gap in the hedge, a purpose-built gap, not one made by using an old Solo as a battering ram. The gap is near the white car in the picture below.

Which is why there was a 90 "waiting time" at the P and R site but refusing to accept P and R tickets as per Keith's original email.

Of course, there was no information at the stop by way of explanation. Except, you may recall, a 2017 P and R  timetable. People were, understandably a tad confused and a lot annoyed.

Daftness is too mild a word.

Do the Stagecoach management realise what a shambles this is? Do they realise what a poor impression all this befuddlement gives of ALL their services in Dartmouth? Do the local authorities (town and county) that look after (ha ha!) Dartmouth realise what an appalling example of incompetence is in operation?

Do these people (presumably paid quite a lot of money) even know or care where Dartmouth is?

Here is what the town web site tell you about P and R.

Don't bother to click on the South Hams link as it tells you nothing more. And a timetable? 

Of course not!

A Dartmouth guest house offers something just a little better (a little less useless); but gives contradictory frequency information.

Clicking on the green "Full Timetable" button reveals one of these ...

... for the whole year; but with no explanation as to what the colours might mean. Two half terms, for example, are shown in green (more frequent? less frequent?) as are other periods.

Keith sent a photograph of two buses waiting for their departure at the town terminus. The one at the front was going to Kingsbridge ...

... a secret Stagecoach code for Plymouth! The one in the rear claimed to be a 91 P and R. It had stood forlorn and inactive for 30 minutes before departing on the ten minute (or is it twenty minute) 2017 timetabled frequency, according to the information on the stop.

So, to summarise:-

There is no map showing the correct bus services to Dartmouth

There is no map at all for the 90 Town Service

The Traveline timetable for the 90 is wrong

Stagecoach's OWN timetable for its OWN service 90 is wrong

Daytime 90s now leave from the Park and Ride site ... BUT

Park and Ride tickets are NOT accepted

Evening 90s still leave from the Park and Ride site ... AND

Park and Ride tickets ARE accepted

Service 3 to Plymouth runs only as far as Kingsbridge

You simply could not make it up! And bus companies wonder why they are losing passengers.

Public Transport enthusers just despair, snivel pathetically in the foetal position, grab the tranquilisers and run screaming (and possibly naked) down the road.

It is beyond belief.

And a special thanks to Keith for his assistance in preparing these blogs. Without him fbb would still be in blissful ignorance, believing that Dartmouth had a good and usable Park and Ride service.

Tomorrow we stay with Stagecoach to explore something of the new service X2 between Barnsley and Sheffield.

But Hold On Just One Moment ...

There is hope yet for the Dartmouth chaos and that lies with Devon County Council who still produce timetable books, yes, indeed, printed on paper and available free.

Within the pages of the precious production for South Hams we have A MAP ...

... which reveals that fbb got is wrong (in part). It is still incorrect at the terminus though, as are the timetables for service 90. But there is a Park and Ride timetable, difficult to unravel at a glance but it is there.

Perhaps scissors and a pot of glue could be bought our of Stagecoach's limited resources and the map (amended) and Park and Ride timetable could be provided to help Dartmouth's essential visitors to know what is happening. But first, get the timetables right.

 Next publicity blog : Thursday 16th May