Part 2 - Colyford; It's Worse ...

... at the Other Stops.

Mike, fbb's churchy chum, has a low opinion of public transport information as we saw yesterday. If he were to stroll eastwards from Colyford The Elms, he would come upon this view. On the left is the Wheelwright Inn and just peeping out from behind the first white cottage on the right is ...

Colyford's "Motoring Memoirs" is a museum packed with loads of old car "stuff"'

Only it isn't!

The museum, Motoring Memories, in Colyford, contained vehicles, pumps and motoring artefacts from the 1900s. Curator Robin Barnard said the costs, overheads and the time it took to run the museum had forced him to close the facility. He said hoped a buyer could be found for the collection. If not, the items will be sold at auction in 2012.

He didn't and they were.

But there are stops there according to Google Maps. There are stops there according to fbb's piccies.

The Museum is now an antique shop. But what stops there at the stops? The flags carry the X53 label, as we have observed before, and nothing else. There is no timetable frame. A tedious trawl through Traveline's stops lists reveals that the following services do or do not claim to stop at the (ex) Museum:-

First Bus X53 eastbound YES

First Bus X53 westbound NO

Stagecoach 20 eastbound NO

Stagecoach 20 westbound NO

Axe Valley 885 eastbound NO

Axe Valley 885 westbound YES

Axe Valley 899 eastbound NO

Axe Valley 899 westbound YES

Kingsholme, by the way is just after the left hand turn made by buses running from Colyford to Colyton. In the Colyton direction there is no stop pole or flag, but coming back via Colyford to Seaton we have a new variety.

It has a very fetching yellow stripe marked ...

   bus stop both     

 sides of the road  

... and below that:-

www.journey devon.info

There is no mention of Traveline. What is Journey Devon? fbb knows, but would Mike be prepared to find out?

We have already seen that X53 journeys to Exeter are near useless with just three trips at inconvenient times. But if Mike were very brave, he could walk westbound ...

... to Harepath Road. He needs to walk down Harepath Road to the stops at the small industrial estate where, yet again he is told that the X53 stops. Yet again there is no other information.

But fbb knows that Stagecoach 52A running every hour to Exeter stops here.

As he trudged down Harerpath Road, weary and frustrated at the appalling lack of useful information, his anger may have caused him to miss something at the very top of the road, on the right.

This stop is such a closely guarded secret that none of the Traveline timetable admits to its existence. Thus it will not appear on any of the journey planners either. 

But fbb thinks that the 52A for Exeter stops here as well.

Now, wouldn't it be nice of you could search for "Colyford The Elms" on your phone and get an instant list, independent of signal strength, of all services calling at that stop ...

... get a full timetable ...

... and select the journey you want?

That might actually help bus-non-user Mike to realise what his options might be without a gargantuan struggle.

So fbb will reveal, from tomorrow, how the residents of Seaton, Colyton, Colyford and Beer will be able to do just that from next Monday 11th April.

Exciting isn't the word (?)

 Next "GoTimetable" blog : Wednesday 6th April