The Tender Trap

But NOT the film!

Local authorities find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Western Greyhound [WG] registers the end of its one-time prestigious 510 between Wadebridge and Exeter. Stagecoach beefs up its X9 and X10 (a bit, but not a lot!) and calls them a "brand new" 6 and 6A.

The 510 has competed with the X9/X10 between Exeter, Okehampton and Launceston, but its withdrawal leaves a bit of a gap ...

... between Launceston and Wadebridge.

So what does a cash-strapped Cornwall Council do? It has probably spent all its "subsidy" money and any delving into the "reserves" piggy bank will produce only small change. So how do the relatively few customers get between Launceston, Camelford and Wadebridge.

One bit is easy.

WG already links two of the towns with services additional to the "main road", but withdrawn, 510. The 584 wiggles lengthily round the back way ...

 ... calling at Doc Martin Land (Port Isaac Peapod) on the way ...

... whereas the 595 follows the "old" A39 diverting off the main drag to serve the villages.

So the Wadebridge to Camelford link retains a service.

Which leaves a smaller gap between Launceston and Camelford.

Cornwall's low cost plan involves tendering (presumably?) a service 410 from its chummy "partner", Travel Cornwall. The County's web site explains:

Western Greyhound 510

Following the withdrawing of service 510, please refer to Services 6/6A operated by Stagecoach and Service 410 operated by Travel Cornwall for details of replacement journeys.

Which, obediently, we do; on Sunday 22nd February, the day before the 410 starts. But, refer we might ...

... and having referred we are reminded of the main thrust of the change.

We are also given the new numbers and even a little panel for the 410.

BUT ...

... none of these "new" panels offers a link to the timetables. "Perhaps the links will appear on the Monday," (i.e. yesterday) thinks fbb with little confidence**.

Fortunately Traveline has the new 410 service in place (have a chocolate peanut!) as does Travel Cornwall's own site.

But for the average (possibly elderly, possibly unlinked to the information not-very-super highway), how will they find out?

The local oracle ...

... knew nothing (and understood less) on February 11th, expressing deep joy about the "new" Stagecoach service which wasn't (!), and continuing ...

However, along with Liberal Democrats on Cornwall Council he (MP Dan Rogerson) ...

... would continue to campaign for a replacement for the 510 services between Wadebridge, Camelford, Davidstow, Hallworthy, Pipers Pool, Tregadillett and Launceston.

"We haven't heard yet which services will replace the 510 between Launceston, Camelford and Wadebridge," he said. "I know Cornwall Council is looking at all the options to make sure that residents who don't have access to a car in Tregadillett, Pipers Pool, Hallworthy, Davidstow and other communities along the route aren't left stranded."

We also need to remember that WG haven't told their on-line public that they are withdrawing the 510 and their website was still unavailable today.

Never mind. This blog was prepared on Sunday afternoon when a little man in van from Cornwall council was nipping along the route sticking 410 timetables in the frames and removing 510 publicity, continuing with the latter project all the way to Exeter. No, sorry, all the way to Launceston; thereafter it's the lads from Devon who will have been out and about.

That will have happened, won't it?

** STOP PRESS! No links to new timetables by the time the fbb blog office closed at 2200 yesterday.

 Next birthday blog : Wednesday 25th February 

The Old Tram Road [2]

Is this the point of Point?

See also yesterday's blog, (read again).

Above is the detritus from the "Consols" (Consolidated) Mines at St Day, near Redruth. Copper "streaming" was nothing more technical than getting ore from streams, and later by excavation. Once stuff near the surface was exhausted the next option was to dig elsewhere or dig deeper.

The Consolidated Mines (colloquially known as Consols) were formed in 1780 and comprised the eighteenth century mines of Wheal Virgin, West Wheal Virgin, Wheal Girl, Wheal Maid, Wheal Fortune and Carharrack Mine. In 1819 United and Consols mines were taken over by John Taylor (1779-1863) and sons who turned these mines into the largest copper producer in the world. By 1820 they were producing a larger quantity of ore than any other group in Cornwall, a position they retained for the next 20 years.

Traditionally, copper was transported from the mines by packhorse and coacl and other materials brought in by the same inefficient method. Taylors vision was to build a horse drawn "tranway" from Redruth, down the Carnon Valley to wharves at Devoran and the lttle settlement of Point. The track was formed on iron rails on stone block "sleepers" and, in a back alley in Redruth some of those blocks remained.

This was later converted to steam operation with two rather spartan locomotives; Miner ...

and Smelter.

Spitfire completed the trio.

The line startd in Redruth and (as shown on a 1930s map) ran south east to Lanner ...

... before skirting the hill Carn Marth. The line turned north east to Carharrack and Crofthandy before turning south east again via Bissoe to Devoran.

A further track ran on to Point and Penpol but this section used horses right to the end. The quays at Devoran were extensive ...

click on map to enlarge

... with the "extension" to Point continuing lower right.Apart from the cycle track etc., very little remains of this line which closed in 1915. These splended chaps are outside the headquarters building and "works" ...

 

... which now forms the Devoran village hall.

The turn-off to Point etc. ...

... is now blocked on the side facing the old wharves, but can be seen from the "inner" end.

An aerial view of the village reveals a few muddy silted ponds where busy wharves once witnessed the unloading of copper and the loading of coal but these are not really recognisable from quay road itself.

Local industrial archaeologists will be able to identify assorted sheds and outbuildings which survive post 1915 and the shape (at least) of the main Devoran quayside remains.

But the main obvious clue takes us back to the former horse-drawn extension to Point, now labelled "Old Tram Road". And that is where we began yesterday.

Should our readers wish to explore further, bus U1 from Truro ...

... wiggles off the new A39 to serve stops on the old A39 whence it is but a short walk to Quay Road; and there's one doing it before it was the U1!

 For even more excitement (?) service 46 does a loop via Devoran village ...

... but only manages a bus every two hours.

And finally; although the company was called the Redruth and Chacewater (aka Chasewater) Railway, it never reached Chacewater. The decline of mining and the expense of construction meant that this "branch" only ever warranted a dotted line as a proposal.

Thanks to assorted sons, daughter-in-law and grandsons for opening fbb's eyes to a captivating piece of almost forgotten railway history. Thanks, too, to several local history sites from the area that helped fill in the many gaps.

 Next bus blog : Tuesday 24th February 

The Old Tram Road [1]

A Transport Teaser.

fbb does like a transport challenge. On the joint jolly to St Mawes, the old codgers followed the signposted route but the younger set went off piste. At the packed lunch rendezvous, fbb was asked, "we drove along Old Tram Road in Devoran; what's that all about?"

In arrogant old man/schoolteacher mode, fbb opined, "I expect it was a mineral waggonway of sorts; it certainly wouldn't have been a passenger line or a tram as we would know it"; then went to his confuser and started checking!

The nearest trams to Falmouth were at Redruth. See "A Tram.I.Am; but not Well Known [1]" (read again), and "A Tram.I.Am; but not Well Known [2]" (read again). Was there some crazy plan to extend the line from Redruth via the Carnon Valley to  Falmouth?

No, there wasn't.

The Falmouth branch crosses the valley on a viaduct near the village of Bissoe ...

... and here are stumps from a previous construction ...

 ... which was a typical Brunel "trestle" viaduct ... 

... now replaced by a stronger all-stone erection, seen below under construction.

Strangely, earlier in the week, fbb had crossed the viaduct in a train and spotted a track below.

"My, my", mused he as he dieseled to Truro, "that track could almost have been a railway line."

So, in response to the family query, off went your investigative blogger to a road near Bissoe, and snapped the viaduct whilst standing on the aforemetioned track.

And it did look remarkably like a former railway track. And looking back at the trestle viaduct picture, what do we see lower left?

The Redruth & Chacewater Railway Trail branches off from the Coast to Coast Trail at Twelveheads and follows a route of contrasting scenery (woodland and moorland) with spectacular views across Cornwall. Following as closely as possible the original railway route the trail bypasses the villages of Carharrack and Lanner. Gwennap Pit ...

... is close by and Carn Marth ...

... can be accessed from the trail. The trail then continues to the west of Lanner before connecting in to the Great Flat Lode Trail and Tresavean Trail at Buller Hill.

Progress is being made. We now have the cpmpelling evidence of the cycle, horse and walking trail which follows the track of the Redruth and Chacewater Railway ...

... which, as we shall eventually see, doesn't go to Chacewater. Indeed it never went to Chacewater!

But it does go to Devoran.

It even had a level crossing complete with gates where it crossed the A39.

The gate is still there, but the A39 has moved to create a big roundabout.

The gate was in the undergrowth bottom left, but has been cleared and repainted since the Google Earth aerial view was assembled.

So next we need to learn about copper streaming.

 Next rail blog : Monday 23rd February 

Something for the Weekend - Again

Northampton's New Bus Station : Again!

March 1st 2015 is an auspicious day. It marks exactly one year since Nrthampton's bus station opened. Called Northgate (or North Gate) because it is nowhere near the north gate of the old walled town; it has been a bit of a problem since inception.

It is too small; most services don't use it and it is difficult to get to (by bus) with many junctions and turns. The general view from 12 months before it opened was that any minor happening around the town stood a good chance of causing an unfathomable cloggage.

Well now ...

 Dateline Tuesday 17th February : 0945 

Our Northampton correspondent writes:-

A small section of Sheep Street, opposite where the Salvation Army Citadel used to be, was closed due to a burst water main.

This small hole in the road once again revealed what a disaster for the town Northgate Bus Station is as all traffic stopped and was still like that when I left about two hours later.

A National Express coach took 25 minutes to get from Victoria Street (top right) to Drapery (lower left) ...

... and the 1330 service 41 to Bedford left at 1410. Passengers for Wellingborough and Kettering Road services (1,2,4,7,8,X4, 43, X46, X47) ...

... were being advised to walk from Northgate (at Sheep Street bottom left) to Abington Square (A5123 upper right) to catch their bus which was presumably turning short to avoid and reduce the chaos.

We await some information from our councillors about what they are going to do about this sort of problem; predicted from the very start of the project. A good start might be to give some Northampton drivers a reminder about what a box junction is for.

Meanwhile, thee local press seemed unconcerned about the utter chaos faced by bus passengers, instead focusing on the poor motorists.

Traffic is queuing around Greyfriars, Lady’s Lane, Victoria Street and Sheep Street with motorists at a near standstill.

One driver said it had taken him 25 minutes to get out of the Grosvenor Centre car park. Another said they are stuck on the fifth floor of the car park with ‘no sign of moving’. Maureen Houghton had been waiting for more than 30 minutes in Grosvenor car park. 

She said: “This town is a nightmare."

All together now, "WE TOLD YOU SO!"

Western Greyhound - Again

In a recent blog, fbb reported that a large number of service changes had been registered with the Traffic Commissioners. The chubby one was mis-informed as WG has NOT registered a competitive route to Falmouth - yet.

A local correspondent advises that many of the changes are to time WG buses five minutes in front of the competitive First Kernow (FK) services recently started.

Bodmin – St Austell (FK 27, WG 527)
Bodmin Mount Folly depart xx35 (WG), xx42 (FK)
St Austell Bus Station depart xx15 (WG), xx20 (FK)

Fowey – St Austell (FK 24, WG 524/525)
Fowey depart  xx55hrs (WG), xx00 (FK), xx25 (WG), xx30 (FK), 
St Austell depart xx10 (WG), xx16 (FK), xx40 (WG), xx46 (FK)

Similar scheduling applies to Newquay to St Austell (21/521) and Truro to St Austell (27/527)

Of course, First can now re-register their services five minutes in front of the new WG times and thus the silliness continues to the ultimate detriment of the passengers' sanity.

Past competition - at Mousehole

Peak Vehicle requirement reduces by four buses from Sunday 22 February 2015 with the withdrawal of service 510 (Exeter – Wadebridge) but increases by eight buses from Sunday 29 March 2015 (an overall increase of four vehicles).

An increased vehicle requirement for a company that can't run what it has registered now; sensible competition or commercial suicide?

First Cake - Again

Annotated extracts from a recent press release.

First is celebrating the first anniversary of running bus services from Rusholme since the acquisition of Finglands in February 2014. The celebration was marked today with the now-obligatoy cake. The key highlights of the first year are:

More than doubled customer journeys from under 50,000 per week in 2014 to over 100,000 per week in 2015.

Over £10m investment to improve customer services

New cross-city network

The 42 links the North Manchester General Hospital with Hospitals and Universities on Oxford Road, improving the daily journeys of many Manchester people. 

First has also extended service 41 between West Didsbury and Manchester ...

... to create a new cross-city service to Eccles via Salford. The service has provided a direct connection between Salford University and Wilmslow Road opening access to Salford Royal (Hope Hospital) from South Manchester. 

Value fares initiatives

Driving staff doubled

Pictured cutting the cake are First MD Theresa Broxton and Chair of TfGM Andrew Fender. The takeover of Finglands took First deep into Stagecoach territory and into fierce competition along the Oxford Road

Western Greyhound : Again (again!)

At 0900 testerday, Western Greyhound was working on its new web site. Although why that involves deleting thee old one is not at all clear. Built and test new site off line, then upload, deleting the old; that's the way to do it!

Welcome to our new site!
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Very helpful.

 Next rail blog : Sunday 22nd February