I expect this post will bore some people to death but I am quite interested in logistics and how things work. Now I could wait until perhaps the schools go back after Easter and this will become apparent on MusTimes, but in the meantime this is about the extended service 85 to Tavistock and the Bude outstation.
Having seen the timetable for the 85 from the start of April I am intrigued by a couple of things: (1) there are more journeys from Holsworthy to Tavistock than returning from Tavistock, including an odd journey at 18.50 from Holsworthy to Tavistock – why? And (2), in addition, there are more journeys from Holsworthy to Barnstaple than returning from Barnstaple. In both cases there are five journeys from Holsworthy and only four to Holsworthy.
Let’s start with the Tavistock end. The odd one out looks to be the 18.50 from Holsworthy to Tavistock. How is it run? The options to me would be (1) a Bude vehicle, having done something else, runs empty to Holsworthy, then runs the 85 to Tavistock then empty back to Bude; (2) a Tavistock vehicle, having done something else, runs empty from the Tavistock area to Holsworthy then in service back to Tavistock; (3) a Tavistock vehicle actually runs on the service or in the North Devon area for some of the day and uses this journey to get back to base.
The next question is why run the journey? It doesn’t appear to connect with anything, it is 45 minutes after the 85 from Barnstaple and Bideford has passed by, there is no evening journey to Holsworthy on the 71 any more (I’ll come to this later), yes it does connect with the college day 6 from Okehampton but why bother when this journey also connects with a Go Cornwall 306 at Okehampton which gets travellers to Launceston much quicker and the bus direct from Okehampton to Tavistock would take Exeter passengers there -and it runs all days (inc Saturdays) not just college days – and there’s no connection with the college run 6 in the morning (Holsworthy at 06.27). There seems to be no logical reason for it running. While not ruling out Devon county council instructing it to be run on the tender for an illogical reason it must be more likely that it is being run simply because it is convenient for Stagecoach. Which leads me to conclusion (3), that a Tavistock vehicle runs somewhere in North Devon and this is bringing it home. What could it be doing before getting to Holsworthy at 18.50? It could be the 72 finishing at Shebbear at 18.20, or the 372 which finishes at Bradworthy at 18.14, both of these currently run empty to Bude. The 72 is currently a decker so this is less likely but you never know.
For this to make sense then Tavistock have to be involved somewhere in North Devon. The most logical way for this would be for a Tavistock vehicle to run empty to Holsworthy to take up the 85 at 7.05 to Tavistock, then run on the 85 doing the 8.30 round trip to Barnstaple, then the 14.10 Tavistock to Barnstaple, returning from Barnstaple to either Shebbear or Bradworthy as above. Logically then Barnstaple run the 8.40 and 14.20 round trips from Barnstaple while Bude run the 7.05 Bridgerule to Barnstaple and 16.55 return, which is essentially what happens now, with a decker which works on other routes during the day in between. So that’s my suggestion as to what is going to happen. Alternatively perhaps Tavistock run the 372 in full, which means in the morning a Tavistock bus will run empty to Bradworthy, run the 372, Bideford locals during the day, then run the evening 372 followed by the 85 to Tavistock.
This leaves the question of the Bude outstation and what it does. At the moment I think it does this:
- A decker on the 6 all day
- A decker running the 819 contract in both morning and afternoon, spending the day in Barnstaple
- A decker running the 919 contract in the morning and the 6 schoolday and college day afternoon journeys
- A decker running the 85 (and currently 185) journeys and other services during the day
- A decker running the 72, starting and finishing at Shebbear
- An E200 running the 71 journeys that start and finish at Holsworthy, doing other things during the day (usually the 85)
- A Solo running the 372, including local services around Bideford during the day.
Any of these (except the 6 and usually the 919 contract / 6 bus) can be swapped around Barnstaple or Bideford for vehicle servicing requirements, the E200 is different every day, but one assumes the drivers head back to Bude on these workings.
Going forward, if we assume that Tavistock run the evening 372 (it could be something else), and given that there will be a morning 71 from Holsworthy but no evening return working, we have the Bude position appearing unbalanced. In the morning it will provide buses for the 6, the 71, the 72, the 85, the 372, the 819 contract and the 919 contract, that’s seven. In the evening buses will return home from the 6, the 6 schooldays, the 819 contract, the 72 and the 85, that’s only five, so two short. So how is this going to work? Maybe the 919 contract won’t be run by Bude, but then something has to get to Bude for the afternoon only work on the 6. I don’t know the answer to this. Perhaps Barnstaple will run the morning Shebbear start on the 72, which will be college days only. Perhaps Bude will run something which finishes at Great Torrington, either the 71 at 18.42 or the 75 at 18.48. I will wait with interest to find out!
