First South West (Kernow & Buses of Somerset)

[richw]

It would appear I have "missed the boat" (or bus) with this, as the Solo awaiting disposal at Camborne has gone at some point recently. A shame as I am there quite a lot of the time and never saw it depart. Anyway here is a photo of it taken not long before it departed.

The VOR notice on the windscreen in case someone didn't work it out by looking at it!

Which Solo was it?

 

[richw]

P10HDC on the st Ives bound A4 this morning.

 

[richw]

A couple of the A3 yesterday

 

[Busaholic]

At Tesco roundabout in Pz this evening. I had a Citybus on one side of me while the Olympian passed by on the opposite carriageway. Am I dreaming? Any moment now I expect to see a Western Greyhound Routemaster!

 

[kernowvectis]

I wonder if FSW Official or one of his colleagues could have a quiet word with the driver of today’s Atlantic Coaster A4 which was scheduled to leave Quintrell Downs at 09.35 for the journey to St Ives, in order to point out that the advertised route includes Porthtowan, Beach Road.

I was waiting at the Beach Road stop at the requisite time, and saw the bus descending the hill from the St Agnes direction – but it failed to call at the stop, causing some considerable inconvenience.

 

[FSW Official]

Sorry about that. The Operations Manager for that area has your complaint. Thanks

 

[Westnat]

The Orange Optare was working the Royal Cornwall Show service 855 shuttle today between the show ground and Wadebridge.

 

[83G/84D]

Work is progressing on the re-development of Penzance bus station:-

 

[KendalKing]

Work is progressing on the re-development of Penzance bus station:-

Looking forward to visiting it again in 2018. Can't make it this year!

 

[THarris123]

Work is progressing on the re-development of Penzance bus station:-

Doesn't look very award winning this time. Looks worse than Wells bus station, which is 3 bus shelters just dumped there.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Doesn't look very award winning this time. Looks worse than Wells bus station, which is 3 bus shelters just dumped there.

Hopefully better than the last one - may have been award winning but a bit exposed for a coastal location.

There are many worse examples! Could be Weymouth!

 

[Busaholic]

Doesn't look very award winning this time. Looks worse than Wells bus station, which is 3 bus shelters just dumped there.

It looks bog standard, which may be a slur on bogs. It should, however, provide more cover than the previous one, and indeed the one before that.

On the bus front, 32761 was about to get a tow at lunchtime, having come to grief only one stop out of the bus station. Looked like a flat rear offside tyre to me. An hour or two later, closed top 32097 was on the A2, the first time this summer I've seen such a sub: a pity, as it was the perfect afternoon for an open topper. The following journey was made by the open top Olympian.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

It looks bog standard, which may be a slur on bogs. It should, however, provide more cover than the previous one, and indeed the one before that.

To be honest, I'm struggling to think of many small country towns that have much other than bog standard in the South West. Places like Nottinghamshire do have good facilities but not many other places in the provinces.

As I say, it could be worse like trying to catch a bus in Salisbury, Weymouth or Weston with stops strewn across various streets.

 

[richw]

Doesn't look very award winning this time. Looks worse than Wells bus station, which is 3 bus shelters just dumped there.

The previous was style over substance. The roof picked up like a sail in wind, and did nothing to protect from the elements.

 

[83G/84D]

To be honest, I'm struggling to think of many small country towns that have much other than bog standard in the South West. Places like Nottinghamshire do have good facilities but not many other places in the provinces.

As I say, it could be worse like trying to catch a bus in Salisbury, Weymouth or Weston with stops strewn across various streets.

It seems like a lot of towns around the country are replacing bus stations with street stops, Grimsby springs to mind from a recent visit. Where new bus stations are provided they are sometimes inadequate and poorly planned such as Northampton. Having said that the previous facilities at those two towns were poor and in need of replacement.
Exeter & Plymouth have lost or are about to lose their bus stations as well with a small coach station and street stops at the latter.

On the positive side "The Hard" interchange at Portsmouth is nearly finished, has good facilities, seems to be well thought out and is an improvement on what came before.

I'll reserve judgement on Penzance until it is finished however some cover from the wind and rain is welcome.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

It seems like a lot of towns around the country are replacing bus stations with street stops, Grimsby springs to mind from a recent visit. Where new bus stations are provided they are sometimes inadequate and poorly planned such as Northampton. Having said that the previous facilities at those two towns were poor and in need of replacement.
Exeter & Plymouth have lost or are about to lose their bus stations as well with a small coach station and street stops at the latter.

On the positive side "The Hard" interchange at Portsmouth is nearly finished, has good facilities, seems to be well thought out and is an improvement on what came before.

I'll reserve judgement on Penzance until it is finished however some cover from the wind and rain is welcome.

To be fair, Bretonside was a very grim place to wait for a bus. It was no great loss. Exeter bus station was/is a different matter but no point in having a massive area and garage in the centre of town. There are a number of bus stations that have been redeveloped over recent years that do suffer from a lack of space; Bath and Bristol to lesser degrees whilst Northampton is a total cock up.

However, in a small town, I'm not certain if we can expect much more than

a) some shelter(s)
b) a set of public toilets close by that you won't get cholera from
c) up to date timetables

An enquiry office/waiting room/cafe might be desirable too. Of course, good point from Busholic that things were no better in the past. The old Newquay bus station was basic, and we've lost some other grim hellholes too over recent years.

As an aside re: toilets. My other half thought the ones at Camborne bus station were grim, whilst my experience of the p*ss stench at Newquay bus station certainly cleared my headache. That was last spring so things may be better now.

 

[Busaholic]

To be fair, Bretonside was a very grim place to wait for a bus. It was no great loss. Exeter bus station was/is a different matter but no point in having a massive area and garage in the centre of town. There are a number of bus stations that have been redeveloped over recent years that do suffer from a lack of space; Bath and Bristol to lesser degrees whilst Northampton is a total cock up.

However, in a small town, I'm not certain if we can expect much more than

a) some shelter(s)
b) a set of public toilets close by that you won't get cholera from
c) up to date timetables

An enquiry office/waiting room/cafe might be desirable too. Of course, good point from Busholic that things were no better in the past. The old Newquay bus station was basic, and we've lost some other grim hellholes too over recent years.

As an aside re: toilets. My other half thought the ones at Camborne bus station were grim, whilst my experience of the p*ss stench at Newquay bus station certainly cleared my headache. That was last spring so things may be better now.

Truro has a waiting room with enquiry office, though it's closed in the evenings. The remaining waiting area is basic, though covered. The direction of the prevailing winds probably allow reasonable cover on most occasions, and Truro is, of course, not coastal, which makes a big difference. It also has free WCs very close, but then Truro is remarkably well provided for these compared to other Cornish towns. The Penzance ones charge, so you might expect they're not too bad, but they seem to be a focus for anti-social behaviour and, regrettably, about one death a year occurs in them, usually associated with drugtaking.

 

[fgwrich]

On the positive side "The Hard" interchange at Portsmouth is nearly finished, has good facilities, seems to be well thought out and is an improvement on what came before.

I'll reserve judgement on Penzance until it is finished however some cover from the wind and rain is welcome.

I'll certainly agree with you on 'The Hard'. They've certainly done a very nice job there and is a very smart welcoming addition to Portsmouth. Just the station to do now I hope (First MTR!). Admittedly I wouldn't mind seeing a much scaled back version for Penzance, maybe one for the future. Although it's not just PZ bus stations in need of refurbishment or modernization, and for now PZ remains one of the most modern.

Not too keen on the shade of blue though - it oddly reminds me of Nat Exs rather awful 'ONE Anglia'.

 

[83G/84D]

To be fair, Bretonside was a very grim place to wait for a bus. It was no great loss. Exeter bus station was/is a different matter but no point in having a massive area and garage in the centre of town. There are a number of bus stations that have been redeveloped over recent years that do suffer from a lack of space; Bath and Bristol to lesser degrees whilst Northampton is a total cock up.

However, in a small town, I'm not certain if we can expect much more than

a) some shelter(s)
b) a set of public toilets close by that you won't get cholera from
c) up to date timetables

An enquiry office/waiting room/cafe might be desirable too. Of course, good point from Busholic that things were no better in the past. The old Newquay bus station was basic, and we've lost some other grim hellholes too over recent years.

As an aside re: toilets. My other half thought the ones at Camborne bus station were grim, whilst my experience of the p*ss stench at Newquay bus station certainly cleared my headache. That was last spring so things may be better now.

I totally agree about Bretonside, it was neglected for years and an embarrassment to the city. Camborne bus station is not great. Facilities are poor, the travel shop and waiting room closed several years ago. The toilets are awful and there are not enough stands at times for buses to use. It's a shame that the public areas of the bus station were not rebuilt or refurbished when the depot was done 20+ years ago.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I totally agree about Bretonside, it was neglected for years and an embarrassment to the city. Camborne bus station is not great. Facilities are poor, the travel shop and waiting room closed several years ago. The toilets are awful and there are not enough stands at times for buses to use. It's a shame that the public areas of the bus station were not rebuilt or refurbished when the depot was done 20+ years ago.

First have done a creditable job in sprucing up Taunton bus station. It would be good if they could do something with Camborne - may already be in their plans but would understand that there are greater priorities.

At least FSW still have some enquiry offices. Bit of a rarity now as stuff like coach travel and holidays are sold online.

 

[richw]

There is of course the travel office at Penzance already. The lady is very helpful.
I went in there the other week as I forgot my timetable book and she didn't have any books, so she printed off A4 timetables for the routes I was planning using.

 

[FSW Official]

First have done a creditable job in sprucing up Taunton bus station. It would be good if they could do something with Camborne - may already be in their plans but would understand that there are greater priorities.

At least FSW still have some enquiry offices. Bit of a rarity now as stuff like coach travel and holidays are sold online.

We are working with Cornwall Council using Growth Fund monies to improve facilities across the business.
Penzance is underway and will include yet to be announced changes to the provision.
Truro will see additional works and improvements some of which are just waiting for the opening of a separate staff facility in town.
Newquay is in the planning stage and includes plans to address the need to reconfigure the facilities so the currently closed toilets can be relocated inside a waiting and enquiry facility.
St Ives is in the planning stage.
Our preference for Camborne is to seek alternative facilities. The current site is not suitable.

 

[83G/84D]

We are working with Cornwall Council using Growth Fund monies to improve facilities across the business.
Penzance is underway and will include yet to be announced changes to the provision.
Truro will see additional works and improvements some of which are just waiting for the opening of a separate staff facility in town.
Newquay is in the planning stage and includes plans to address the need to reconfigure the facilities so the currently closed toilets can be relocated inside a waiting and enquiry facility.
St Ives is in the planning stage.
Our preference for Camborne is to seek alternative facilities. The current site is not suitable.

Re Camborne:- relocate the depot and bus station I presume rather than just one of them?

 

[83G/84D]

First have done a creditable job in sprucing up Taunton bus station. It would be good if they could do something with Camborne - may already be in their plans but would understand that there are greater priorities.

At least FSW still have some enquiry offices. Bit of a rarity now as stuff like coach travel and holidays are sold online.

Taunton looks great and yes I agree the enquiry offices that remain are useful, as are printed timetable books which are much appreciated.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

We are working with Cornwall Council using Growth Fund monies to improve facilities across the business.
Penzance is underway and will include yet to be announced changes to the provision.
Truro will see additional works and improvements some of which are just waiting for the opening of a separate staff facility in town.
Newquay is in the planning stage and includes plans to address the need to reconfigure the facilities so the currently closed toilets can be relocated inside a waiting and enquiry facility.
St Ives is in the planning stage.
Our preference for Camborne is to seek alternative facilities. The current site is not suitable.

Thank you for the update. I had hoped that this was the start of some developments but didn't wish to speculate too idly as it seems you're busy enough

 

[83G/84D]

I have just seen Trident 32819 in Truro looking very smart after a repaint into "Fal River" blue and cream.

 

[FSW Official]

Re Camborne:- relocate the depot and bus station I presume rather than just one of them?

No just the bus station

 

[83G/84D]

No just the bus station

Okay, I'll watch that with interest over the coming months and years. Thanks.

 

[Busaholic]

I'll admit to being an old codger, and having some colour blindness, but I don't use glasses even for reading and have always had excellent sight. I have a problem with reading the destination and number displays on the open toppers: at first I put it down to reflections from the sun, until I looked at displays on other double deckers from exactly the same angle and in the same sunlight and found no problem. Anyone else experienced this?

 

[co-tr-paul]

The orange on black has never worked. Same elsewhere in country. Blame manufacturers..... . white on black has always worked be it printed with light behind or now as seen on latest mmc's, led displays.