Bewilderment Blog

Very Bewildered?

The picture above is of a very dear friend who, yesterday, celebrated her 96th Birthday. She is Mrs Helen Fearnley, mother of you know who and the fbb's were invited to the "do" at Torquay. The terribly unflattering picture is of the young lady (!) attempting to blow out her candle; the other 95 were not used to avoid a serious fire risk.

Sadly, the candle had already blown out on the way from kitchen to patio, so Mrs F was attempting (unsuccessfully) to look in a candle-blowing pose.

But it was a spiffing day with much jollity and chat and a stonkingly good lunch prepared by Mrs F junior.

A "party bag" was offered to fbb on departure, consisting of an article from Rail magazine explaining the gargantuan increase in the costs of the Sheffield Tram-and-a-very-small-bit-of-train "experiment", a box of cheese surplus to requirements from the lunch (yummy yummy) and a leaflet.

fbb introduced these services in a blog (here) and subsequently added some photos sent in by Roger French. fbb though that the powerful branding and development of the services represented a brave move by First Kernow.

The leaflet is magnificent in every way. It has an outline of the "A" branded routes ...

... and details of "rover" fares.

£12 seems pricey but is significantly less than most "specialist" sightseeing tours charge. Bath charges £15, Oxford £15.50 and London a painful £32. Kernow's £26, however, is a snip for 7 fays' worth pf travel. the tickets are valid on all Kernow bus routes, not just the Coasters.

Family tickets offer a real bargain "for one or two adults and any number of children"; a cheap outing for a school party? Maybe you wouldn't get away with that!

the leaflet is packed with "tourist" information, backed up by highlighted places on the more detailed maps.

Some of the places are well-known ...

... others less so.

But what is so much better than the run-of-the-mill publicity tourist leaflets typically provided by bus operators is that full timetables are given for all the Coaster branded routes. Here the combined West Cornwall "circular" tour ...

... and here the long and impressive open top trip on the A4 from Newquay to St Ives.

The A5 from Newquay to Padstow and the A17 (additional o the open top A2) from Penzance to St Ives are closed top bus routes but still offering delightful views.

Two positive blogs (yesterday and today) involving First Bus? fbb must be losing his touch!

Bewilderment?

How come Kernow can produce such good publicity when other areas struggle to provide any. Maybe fbb's work for the folk in Sheffield will help?

And bewilderment in  Barnby Dun?

First South Yorkshire services 84, 84A and 84B serve Barnby Dun, located north-east of Doncaster.

But the questions of the day are, "where does each route go and which stops do they use? Is the non-printed timetable any help?"

Maybe the PTE's full colour map of the area will solve our bewilderment.

Yes - bewilderment.

More coming soon.

 Next as yet unplanned blog - Monday 14th August