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First South West (Kernow & Buses of Somerset)

fgwrich

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Network rail bill the bus operators considerable sums for hitting their bridges.

Saying that I know of a disused railway bridge a little to the north of Liskeard with a 12ft clearance that network rail will never need to know about!

I can think of a few around my area too - the one at Chilcompton could be a good choice.

Basingstoke is a pretty excellent place too - Or Stagecoach seems to think so. The 54 plate MX Trident which had it's erm, altercation with the bridge last summer had it's roof sliced off so cleanly that it's gone to Exeter to become this years Torbay open topper!

To be fair to the designers at Plaxton - They had a period of designing an almost timeless vehicle in the form of the SPD & President. Give either a high quality refurbishment and repaint (preferably the type as specified by FG with bonded glazing) and both vehicles still have the ability to look just as modern and fresh as the Enviro's do now. Wright's had this useful design trait with the Solar/Eclipse for a while as well.
 
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TheGrandWazoo

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Somerset with international travel (e.g. across th
Basingstoke is a pretty excellent place too - Or Stagecoach seems to think so. The 54 plate MX Trident which had it's erm, altercation with the bridge last summer had it's roof sliced off so cleanly that it's gone to Exeter to become this years Torbay open topper!

To be fair to the designers at Plaxton - They had a period of designing an almost timeless vehicle in the form of the SPD & President. Give either a high quality refurbishment and repaint (preferably the type as specified by FG with bonded glazing) and both vehicles still have the ability to look just as modern and fresh as the Enviro's do now. Wright's had this useful design trait with the Solar/Eclipse for a while as well.

First Kernow did, of course, manage it with 34137 in Falmouth IIRC, and with less success in Bodmin more recently.

In Bath, they tried to go one better and try to make an e200 into a charabanc!
 

fgwrich

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Between Edinburgh and Exeter
First Kernow did, of course, manage it with 34137 in Falmouth IIRC, and with less success in Bodmin more recently.

In Bath, they tried to go one better and try to make an e200 into a charabanc!

Ouch! Still, it wouldn't be the first single deck vehicle to become a charabanc given that the LH based thing is still living in Paignton.

Here's a few pictures of our local Trident. Neither phot is mine - funnily enough I was out that afternoon keeping our own fleet of Bristols together and on the road!

Just to say too - none of this is meant in disrespect to First Kernow - the open top presidents do look smart!

(Photos from Basingstoke Gazette and Adrian Roberts on Flickr)
 

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Busaholic

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If you still want to see a MMC displaying the 18 route number then you might get lucky if you track the 18C college route. Its journey this afternoon was certainly worked by a Tinner-liveried MMC. Will the route be renumbered T1C?!
 
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Solo 40321 was at Camborne this morning at 5-15am minus front panels, not sure if it got there under it's own power or was towed in.

Solo's 40324 & 40325 are still there but haven't entered service.

Mentioned this on the other First thread, that 40325 is in use at Yeovil, saw this on the 57 in Sherborne this evening.
 

83G/84D

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Just three years ago:-
 

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83G/84D

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Enviro 400MMC at roadside at Cockwells near Crowlas on an eastbound T1 (at about 1825hrs) with hazard lights flashing.

Some of the 08 plate E400's have been on service 2 this week.
 

Busaholic

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Enviro 400MMC at roadside at Cockwells near Crowlas on an eastbound T1 (at about 1825hrs) with hazard lights flashing.

Some of the 08 plate E400's have been on service 2 this week.

I've an acquaintance who drinks at the weekend with a couple of people who have First connections, shall we say, and there have been some electrical problems, apparently.
 

83G/84D

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I've an acquaintance who drinks at the weekend with a couple of people who have First connections, shall we say, and there have been some electrical problems, apparently.

I have heard one or two things similar but won't go into details.
 

83G/84D

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The Alexander Dennis support van has been in Camborne quite regularly over recent weeks.
 

richw

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FSWOfficial (or anyone else with the knowledge), is the Truro college to callington service an open service? My wife has to go down to treliske next week, and if it's an open service will be quicker getting her home than the train as she'd probably miss the 1642 train time she gets from treliske to the station.
If it is, what is the single fare from Truro college to Liskeard please?
 

FSW Official

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FSWOfficial (or anyone else with the knowledge), is the Truro college to callington service an open service? My wife has to go down to treliske next week, and if it's an open service will be quicker getting her home than the train as she'd probably miss the 1642 train time she gets from treliske to the station.
If it is, what is the single fare from Truro college to Liskeard please?

Yes it's a registered route
 

lodekkafs

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Mansfield, Notts
Truro College Log - Mon 27/02/17 Afternoon

I recorded the following at Truro College on the afternoon of Mon 27 February. It was the first time I have been here (I'm from Nottinghamshire) and I have to say it was a fantastic sight, professionally run and with no fuss. A credit to the College and First staff in sheer excellence (and the fact I am a Stagecoach Manager underlines I understand these things!). Anyway, the log for those interested:

211 - 23010 Scania/Irizar
212 - 33174 Trident/President
213 - 32053 B7TL/ALX400
214 Fowey - 32873 Trident/President
214 Par - 65761 Scania Wright Solar
215 - 32879 Trident/President
216 - 23318 Scania/Irizar
217 - 33176 Trident/President AND 42860 Dart/Plaxton
218 - 33112 Trident/President
219 - 32757 Trident/East Lancs
222 - 33233 Trident/President
222A - 42358 Dart/Caetano
223 - 32102 - B7TL/President
224 - 30879 B7TL/ALX400
225 - 32861 Trident/President
226 - 32762 Trident/East Lancs AND 68555 BMC
227 - 65763 Scania/Wright Solar
228 - 33234 Trident/President
230 - 32200 B7TL/President
231 - 30880 and 32097 B7TL/ALX400 AND 33068 Trident/President
233 - 53040 Optare Solo
234 - 32211 B7TL/President
235 - 32874 Trident/President
238 - 30875 B7TL/ALX400
239 St Ives - 33458 ADL E400MMC
239 Castle Gate - 33467 ADL E400MMC
240 - 33450 ADL E400MMC
241 - 33111 Trident/President
243 - 65760 Scania/Wright Solar

Plus a Roselyn Van-Hool double deck coach on the Looe/Pelynt route.

First also provided a spare DD, which initially was 33068, but that got allocated to a 231 releasing 32859 Trident/President as the spare.

A sight to behold and an experience of the bus industry at its best.

Stephen Read
 

Busaholic

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Truro College Log - Mon 27/02/17 Afternoon

I recorded the following at Truro College on the afternoon of Mon 27 February. It was the first time I have been here (I'm from Nottinghamshire) and I have to say it was a fantastic sight, professionally run and with no fuss. A credit to the College and First staff in sheer excellence (and the fact I am a Stagecoach Manager underlines I understand these things!). Anyway, the log for those interested:

211 - 23010 Scania/Irizar
212 - 33174 Trident/President
213 - 32053 B7TL/ALX400
214 Fowey - 32873 Trident/President
214 Par - 65761 Scania Wright Solar
215 - 32879 Trident/President
216 - 23318 Scania/Irizar
217 - 33176 Trident/President AND 42860 Dart/Plaxton
218 - 33112 Trident/President
219 - 32757 Trident/East Lancs
222 - 33233 Trident/President
222A - 42358 Dart/Caetano
223 - 32102 - B7TL/President
224 - 30879 B7TL/ALX400
225 - 32861 Trident/President
226 - 32762 Trident/East Lancs AND 68555 BMC
227 - 65763 Scania/Wright Solar
228 - 33234 Trident/President
230 - 32200 B7TL/President
231 - 30880 and 32097 B7TL/ALX400 AND 33068 Trident/President
233 - 53040 Optare Solo
234 - 32211 B7TL/President
235 - 32874 Trident/President
238 - 30875 B7TL/ALX400
239 St Ives - 33458 ADL E400MMC
239 Castle Gate - 33467 ADL E400MMC
240 - 33450 ADL E400MMC
241 - 33111 Trident/President
243 - 65760 Scania/Wright Solar

Plus a Roselyn Van-Hool double deck coach on the Looe/Pelynt route.

First also provided a spare DD, which initially was 33068, but that got allocated to a 231 releasing 32859 Trident/President as the spare.

A sight to behold and an experience of the bus industry at its best.

Stephen Read

Up to a few years ago (six? seven?) a mini version of this was also played out about a mile down the road at Richard Lander School, the site of which is now a housing estate. About a dozen First deckers, plus one or two other operators (certainly Hopleys of Mount Hawke) used to draw up in the layby outside the school.
 

83G/84D

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The new Richard Lander school gets quite a few coaches in as pupils transport. The main operator on my last visit was Wheal Briton with a couple of buses from first and a few other operators.
I haven't been there for quite a while so this may have changed.
 

Busaholic

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The new Richard Lander school gets quite a few coaches in as pupils transport. The main operator on my last visit was Wheal Briton with a couple of buses from first and a few other operators.
I haven't been there for quite a while so this may have changed.

Have to say I've never been past the new site at the appropriate time. Presumably it wasn't feasible for First to continue with most of these services with the growth of Truro College.
 

busconductors

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13 Sep 2015
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I have just spent most of the afternoon working out weekend travel Bodmin to North Somerset and back. They have changed Traveline and do not give the usual options. In the end I found a way to get to the transport options and it was asking me if I wanted to avoid going through London! What have they done to Travelinesw? I asked to travel by bus and coach and it came up with National Express. There seemed to be no way to incorporate Stagecoach Falcon. Even when I tried the timetable option and requested Stagecoach Falcon, it refused to recognise it. In the end I resorted to googling the timetables - it seemed the only way.
 

carlberry

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I have just spent most of the afternoon working out weekend travel Bodmin to North Somerset and back. They have changed Traveline and do not give the usual options. In the end I found a way to get to the transport options and it was asking me if I wanted to avoid going through London! What have they done to Travelinesw? I asked to travel by bus and coach and it came up with National Express. There seemed to be no way to incorporate Stagecoach Falcon. Even when I tried the timetable option and requested Stagecoach Falcon, it refused to recognise it. In the end I resorted to googling the timetables - it seemed the only way.

If you click on 'route timetable' then enter 'falcon' as the service number it gives the Falcon timetable.

Google will usually be easier, without Google gives a link to Traveline as whichever idiot redesigned Traveline decided to change the link structure slightly (not much, but enough to negate all the previous ones).
 

FSW Official

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Have to say I've never been past the new site at the appropriate time. Presumably it wasn't feasible for First to continue with most of these services with the growth of Truro College.

We can cope with anything!
We aren't the only tenderer for contracts in Cofnwall
 

83G/84D

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Volvo B7TL 32104 has appeared at Camborne after surgery and was taken away. 32209 is here and may be next in line.

Meanwhile the number plates off Dart 43812 have been transferred to a staff members car.
 

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FSW Official

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Volvo B7TL 32104 has appeared at Camborne after surgery and was taken away. 32209 is here and may be next in line.

Meanwhile the number plates off Dart 43812 have been transferred to a staff members car.

32103 is next. It's inside being chopped
 

Busaholic

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We can cope with anything!
We aren't the only tenderer for contracts in Cofnwall

I'm sure you could. I would wonder about long-term viability, though, of so many extra buses just providing two journeys a day, basically, during school and college term. Driver cover might or might not be a factor, but the main one would surely be the cost of running, taxing, insuring and garaging these 'extras'. Accountants can write down the cost of ten and fifteen year old buses as much as they like, but the rest isn't so easily accounted for. You can, of course, leave all the buses out in the open guarded by a man in a van with an alsatian appearing for twenty minutes during the night, but there is plenty of experience, especially in Cornwall, of the folly of such a policy!

P.S. Hope Cofnwall was a Freudian slip!
 
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FSW Official

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I'm sure you could. I would wonder about long-term viability, though, of so many extra buses just providing two journeys a day, basically, during school and college term. Driver cover might or might not be a factor, but the main one would surely be the cost of running, taxing, insuring and garaging these 'extras'. Accountants can write down the cost of ten and fifteen year old buses as much as they like, but the rest isn't so easily accounted for. You can, of course, leave all the buses out in the open guarded by a man in a van with an alsatian appearing for twenty minutes during the night, but there is plenty of experience, especially in Cornwall, of the folly of such a policy!

P.S. Hope Cofnwall was a Freudian slip!

Not sure of your logic
If someone contracts us they pay us to operate them.
 

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