Struggling With Serice to Saltash (1)

Ferry To Bridge

Once upo a time, if you wanted to go from Plymouth to Saltash, you coud take a train and cross the magnificent Royal Albert Bridge seen in part above. Or you could take a tram to Saltash Passage thn a ferry across the River Tamar.

The ferry predates any recognisable form of public transport, but by the time of the trams, it was already carrying the new-fangled motor car.

The trams begat bises ...

... but all was to change with the oening of the Tamar Road Bridge in 1961.

The two ferry slips can be clearly seen in the aerial view below; in the shadow of the rail bridge.

Once the toad bridge was open buses began running through from Plymouth to Saltash. These were, of course, operated by Western National.

With privatisation, Western National was bought by First Bus and subsequently local buses from Plymouth to Saltash were nubered route 1 ...

... and route 2.

Then First Bus suffered vehement competition from Plymouth City Bus and ultimately threw in the towel and Stagecoach took over their few remaining routes.

With a few hiccups, Stagecoach services settled down to being numbered 2 and 2A for Saltash.

There is a map on the Stagecoach web site which suggests that the service could be thought of as a bit complicated.

But it is simply two lollipops a the end of a main road route from Plymouth. Part of the service tuns across the town and via a big "hook" to terminate at Mount Batten.

Unfortunately the map in the Cornwall bus timetable book is very unhelpful ...

... but that is not surprising as the maps cover the whole of the county with no local enlargements.

The first thing we notice from the March Cornwall booklet is that the onward route from Plymouth to Mount Batten is ignored. 

Well it is in D*v*n where the Piskies can easily become Dragons! There does, however seem to be some disagreement as to what these little fellows look like ...

... or what they don't look like!

fbb thinks their appearance may vary according to the amount of alcoholic beverage consumed before meeting one. What is agreed, however, is that they are Piskies in Cornwall, parts of Devon and just over the border in Dorset, 

Elsewhere in the UK they are called Pixies.

There is no evidence that Piskies have ever travelled by bus from Plymouth to Saltash, but if they had, they would have struggled with the timetables, as did fbb.

More detailed analysis had to wait until after yesterday's Fellowship meeting - and will therefore conclude tomorrow.

In the meantime. here is a First Bus single decker on its way to Mount Batten on service 2 ...

...  and a picture of Mountbatten Metro station entrance!

 Next Saltash blog : Wednesday 7th Aug