I have been looking at the long awaited timetables for the summer services. They look quite exciting but a few caveats.
First the D services centred on the Eden Project. A great idea and they do have Cheltenham style arrivals and departures at 10.30 and 14.30. Seven routes in (D1-5, D8,D9) with a second D5 from St Austell one hour earlier. Then eight routes out, D1 and D5-D11, to a great selection of places: Newquay, Mevagissey, Lost Gardens of Heligan, Charlestown, Fowey, Polperro, Lanhydrock and Padstow. They give a reasonable amount of time in some places but only about 2 hours or so in Newquay, Polperro and Padstow. I'm not sure this is enough, I think if I visited one of these places for a day trip, being there at lunchtime, I would want a bit longer for a wander round and some lunch. Especially Polperro where it takes some time to walk down to the village, you will struggle to get time to eat anything and be back for the bus at 13.30. I totally get it that the buses have to be back for the college services and this is a major constraint in the afternoon but I do think a later departure would be better. Perhaps once the college has finished the afternoon times will be pushed back an hour or two. The other point is that there is only 5-10 minutes connection time at the Eden Project. What if one bus in (or back) is late - are they going to hold all the others? For how long? And what if one breaks down?
Then the Coasters. The Lands End one looks pretty good and similar to recent years. I think eight buses are required of which five are out by 09.00, the others maybe can be used for schools in the morning, but not in the afternoon. A bit disappointed with the timetable for the Atlantic Coaster though. The service doesn't start very early, no buses start until 09.25 and the first departure from Padstow isn't until 11.20! Particularly surprising is that the first bus from Newquay heading west isn't until 10.45, I am sure it was an hour earlier on the A4 in the past. I also expected an hourly service to Hayle Towans as in the past. While no buses are out in the morning peak there are five on the road at 15.30 so additional resources are needed for afternoon school journeys. Again maybe there will be more in the main holiday season. I don't know how Cornwall think about such matters but I would be surprised if they proposed cutting the TfC 56 at all between Newquay and Padstow, while the Atlantic Coaster has six journeys it does not provide a comprehensive daytime service.
We don't know everything about the Lizard yet but the hourly L5 service from St Ives to Helston looks interesting and the different routings is clever. I am not sure the L3 Truro route warrants an hourly service given there is also the TfC service 36 but I understand the resources are there. And the L1 is still unknown, again I would be surprised if it provides a sufficiently comprehensive service to withdraw or reduce the TfC 34. The L2 remains unknown, presumably going to Coverack and that area. It would be great if at least one journey each way was able to follow part of the 33 route and include Helford!
Also we have the Dartmoor Explorer. Definitely fancy using this one. On the current timetable it is very much an 'excursion' with just an hour in Moretonhampstead or Tavistock, and it starts later than I would have expected, 10.00 from each end seems late. Shame it doesn't provide any connections in Moretonhampstead with the infrequent services from Newton Abbot or Okehampton. Again I think we are expecting more in the summer.
Really hope we have good weather and the great British stay-at-home summer is a success and these services do well!
I do wonder what some people are expecting this year. There does seem to be a real belief that if a bus operator puts an open top bus out in any location at any time of the day, it will be swarmed. The new products introduced are in the main projects we have been working on for a couple of years now but were unable to introduce last season.
All the new ones are careful introductions that test the market and the offer without silly financial risk. They are also all aimed at trying to secure a growing long term product, not aimed at the supposed overwhelming, Midas touching staycation frenzy.
And then on the Land’s End Coaster we know the market fully. The reason why we don’t operate earlier is because there’s no demand - the demand that would make the money to pay the costs!
On the Atlantic Coaster we’ve significantly increased the resource - and I’d suggest that comparing the 2019 timetable for the A4/5 against this one would be an easy starting point for anyone wanting to make a factually based comparison.
Here the challenge is to cover off the multiple flows in the morning without using additional PVR just to run a single journey. We manage to run Morning journeys at the critical times for visitors coming out in every direction - the whole morning headway Newquay to Padstow, Hayle into St Ives, St Ives to Newquay and onwards - the balance is that Newquay to St Ives gets one a bit later - we know from experience and our factual data that there is very little trade out of Padstow in the am peak. By carefully stepping buses back across the 5 PVR timetable we then get mid day journeys to allow half days, and get the return journeys in the afternoon in the right places.
On Dartmoor again we’ve taken a very clear view of what the market actually is. We’re more bothered about being in a position to duplicate for this season rather than add more.
On the DayTripper network again we’re conscious of the time constraints but we’ll see how it goes and we’re not actually convinced people want huge amounts of time in end locations. Eden is not only the hub but likely to be the main draw itself for the journey straight in and then back out.
The connections are all supervised in Eden with synchronised arrivals and departures - contrary to the implied assumption.
While we’re being panned by some of the armchair expert enthusiast fraternity, we’re working closely with a whole range of significant professional organisations across the tourism and leisure sectors in Devon Somerset and Cornwall who are really positive about the beginnings of our regional ‘Adventures by Bus’ portfolio and how it will hopefully grow sustainably and commercially over the coming years
Looks like that. Also, were it to be a straight there and back, it's very tight with little recovery time so wouldn't be confident of it keeping to time so seems like a sensible way of working
Exactly. Those who understand the realities of planning will understand the relationship between the PVR deployed and the cost of that, against the choice of which revenue streams to target.
‘Terrible Planning’ = long and hard deliberation leading to the conclusion that for this initial season we should target the round trip ‘out for an open top ride’ market on the Lizard and the connections through Helston (in both directions). Helston has 5 legs all connecting in a hub and spoke formation - Truro, Lizard, St Ives, Penzance and Falmouth, offering visitors staying on the Lizard lots of choice for days out, and an easy connection through to the Lizard Open Top from a range of a visitor accommodation locations...
Terrible!!!!
Then again, their Open Topper seems to crop up on various different routes throughout the year - the 18 being the most popular.
