Struggling With Service to Saltash (2)

When DO The Buses Go?

They certainly go to Mount Batten, but they do not go to Mountbatten. The above picture is of a stop on the Singapore MTR rail network.

It is on the ORANGE "Circle" line.

It was named after Lord Louis Mountbatten who, in turn, was named after Mount Batten at Plymouth!

But back to more mundane matters.

Here is an extract from the March edition of the Bus Times book (Transport for Cornwall). We see a half hour frequency on route 2 and similar on 2A giving a bus every 15 minutes to Plymouth.

fbb thinks that, in the not too distant past, these services were each every 20 minutes thus giving a 10 minute headway into the city.

Now see that change from the me July timetable book.

The clever people at Stagecoach have improved route 2 to every 20 minutes (as it once was!) but left the 2A at every 30. This means the frequency on the common section (and the busiest section) is now totally unfathomable to any normal passenger. And, no doubt, Stagecoach will not provide their customers with a printed timetable, so tough cheese all round.

Where DO The 2s Go?

In March, they went to St Stephens but from July they now go to Cornwall College which, of course, is not shown on the map! But then neither is Long Park Road School from the March listing.

There is a school (Saltash Community College) with a stop on Broad Walk ...

... which comes just one stop after the Weard time point at Weard Road. Excitingly the stop at Weard Road is mentioned on the timetable with Weard as the district name. But the District  of Weard does not appear on the map.

Weird. 

It is, however a favourite of Travelinre!

But, as ever, fbb's terrier-like approach to trying to unravel bus timetables leads him to Church Road (sometimes with the addition of "Saltash", sometimes with "St Stephens").

On Open Street Map, the stop is called Saltash College and it is outside Fountain Head House School! (Confused.com). The former time point at Long Park Road is just round the corner. In fact this bit of Cornwall College (Fountain Head House School as was) ...

.. is now closed, so a new time point will be needed!

Maybe Stagecoach does a better job with its locations?

The most recent offering just has "Cornwall College".  But there is a problem with both versions of the timetable.

You can get FROM Weard (as above) but nobody's timetable tells you that you can get TO Weard.

All outbound service 2 buses, apparently, go no further than Cornwall College. And, of course, from July we have lost any reference to the district name, St Stephens, which IS on the map!

Again, weird!

Where Do The 2As Go

Neither of the district names shown on the map appear on the timetable. All we get is Saltash Frith Road. 

The unwary might think that Saltash Frith Road is in the centre oft he town, close to Saltash Fore Street Bottom - but, of course, it isn't.

No matter, Frith Road doesn't appear on the bus route look map either! 

But it is a stop on Callington Road ...

... opposite Frith Road and at the start of the terminal loop with no mention of anywhere ON the loop.

But if we click on the stop icon on Google Maps we get this:-

Now, didn't fbb tell us that the 2 ran to St Stephens a k a Cornwall College and the 2A to Latchbrook or Burraton Combe or possibly Frith Road?

If Weard is weird then Firth Road is Weirder.

And So To Sunday

In the March timetable book Sunday looks almost "normal"!

There is an hourly 2 to St Stephens and an hourly 2A to Frith Road, so seemples!

Now take a look at Sundays in the July book!

Oh, alas and alack. St Stephens Cornwall College has lost its service altogether on journeys from Plymouth, with a half hourly service wending its heavily loaded way (?) to Frith Road ONLY - and beyond to the terminus loop. 

A careful check reveals that the Sunday buses do come back via Cornwall College.

Stagecoach shows NO 2A journeys at all on Sunday.

That's yer lot! This might imply exactly the opposite of the Cornwall book; i.e. ONLY Sunday buses to St Stephens on route 2, and NONE to Frith Road.

But there are times for Service 2 on Sundays.

Here are two extracts from the timetable pages. It would appear that on Sunday daytime buses serve both Frith Road AND Cornwall College.

fbb is unable to tell his loyal but befuddled readers how much of the St Stephens (route 2) loop is served on a Sunday. Although 2 and 2A appear on Google Maps at Frith Road (as above) only 2 is shown at Cornwall College.

And likewise at every stop round the loop! Equally, Weard Weard Road is not shown as a time point on any of the above journeys.

But when we look later in the day ...

... we see evening journeys that do call at Weard Road and not at Frith Road. They would appear to be "normal" service 2 journeys.

However you look at it, the timetable in the Cornwall book for July IS CONFUSING on Sundays! Stagecoach is not much bettier.

fbb guesses that "the lads" at GoAhead, who are probably in front of their screens in Sunderland (!), simply have no clear idea where the uses go, especially on Sundays. They are simply copying from registrations which are not usually customer friendly.

There are surely better ways of presenting this "operational led" timetable on Sundays.

And senior bus men (bus persons?) wonder why passenger numbers are declining!

Tomorrow we take a look at a Paris landmark and its surprising links to public transport. Here is a clue!

?????

 The blog must have a look at Gustave : Thur 8 Aug