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Cornish bus operators (excluding First Kernow)

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83G/84D

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Separate thread started for other bus companies.

To start with I went to the St Ives beer festival on Saturday and managed a look at some of the newer buses that are now in use in the town.
 

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Goldfish62

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Separate thread started for other bus companies.

To start with I went to the St Ives beer festival on Saturday and managed a look at some of the newer buses that are now in use in the town.

More presentable than First Kernow!
 

smtglasgow

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Could some kind soul please run through the various non-First operators currently active in Cornwall? Been so much attention paid to First over the last few months (with good reason), I’ve lost track of who else is still providing services. Hoping to be in Cornwall at the start of next month, so any help would be welcome.
 

ashworth

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I'm on holiday in Bude in September. I know that bus services along the coast are a bit sparse in that part of North Cornwall/Devon. Are there any reasonably priced day tickets available and what sort of journeys could I do?
 

83G/84D

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Travel Cornwall (Summercourt Travel) provide quite a few public services around the county whilst Group Travel provide some in North Cornwall. Williams Travel provide one route in West Cornwall. Operators such as Roselyn, A2B Newquay and others do lots of schools and other contract work.

Hopleys have several routes in the Truro area. Try going to the schools if your visit coincides with school term time, pm me for some details if you wish. You will see quite a varied fleet of buses on these duties.
 

carlberry

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Could some kind soul please run through the various non-First operators currently active in Cornwall? Been so much attention paid to First over the last few months (with good reason), I’ve lost track of who else is still providing services. Hoping to be in Cornwall at the start of next month, so any help would be welcome.

The list I know of, some are schoolbus only operators.
Age UK ????
A Line Travel Torpoint
Aquarius Travel Camborne
Bakers Duloe, Liskeard
Bio Travel Newquay
Royal Buses St Ives
Gorran & District Community Bus Gorran Haven, Mevagissey
Hemmings Coaches Holsworthy
Hopleys Coaches Mount Hawke, Truro
Jacketts Gunnislake
Maker with Rame Parish Services Torpoint
Maxicabs Callington
OTS Coaches Falmouth
Plymouth Citybus Plymouth
Polperro Tram Company (Polperro Shuttle Bus) Polperro
Roselyn Coaches Par
Rosevidney Travel Penzance
Royal Newquay
Stagecoach Devon Exeter
Treley Coaches St Buryan
St Ives Minibus Service St Ives
Summercourt Travel Summercourt
Darren Tait Cars ????
Tavistock Community Transport Harrowbarrow
Totnes Community Bus Totnes
Webbers Coaches Bodmin
Truro Minibuses Truro
Group Travel Bodmin
Williams (FT) Camborne
West Penwith Community Network St Clare, Penzance
Yeos Contracts Par
 

Busaholic

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Can confirm that Hayle branch of Age UK run the ex-Western Greyhound route between Hayle Retail Park and Penzance via the back roads and Marazion on contract to CC. CC's website is being uncooperative at present but it's numbered either 509 or 515 from memory and run by a minibus.
I think 509 is the number of the route from St Just to Penzance via Sancreed that was at one time run by the same bus and operator as the Hayle service, so that's not the number.
 
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richw

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Separate thread started for other bus companies.

To start with I went to the St Ives beer festival on Saturday and managed a look at some of the newer buses that are now in use in the town.

I rode both the streetlites a couple of weeks ago. Both rattle a lot for new buses. I understand they are both on lease.

I'm on holiday in Bude in September. I know that bus services along the coast are a bit sparse in that part of North Cornwall/Devon. Are there any reasonably priced day tickets available and what sort of journeys could I do?

stagecoach are the main operator in Bude area with infrequent services by Go Cornwall (Plymouth Citybus)

Stagecoach offer a variety of day tickets, the best value for a lot of travel is a Southwest day ticket valid on all Stagecoach services in Devon, Cornwall and west Somerset which is £7.50.

Plymouth Citybus/Go Cornwall Zone 4 ticket would be required which gives validity on all PCB/GC routes is £8 for the day.
Zone 4 is also valid on zones 1,2, & 3

Both offer these tickets for longer periods also.
 

83G/84D

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Some fleet listings from some smaller operators in Cornwall in 1997/98. Anyone remember the one's no longer operating?
 

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Harlan Cage

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Grenville Motors of Troon which operated services to from Camborne and some of the local Falmouth services from the 1950's until 1989 when they were taken over by First. I remember them as a child with old buses in a multitude of colours and often very tatty at Falmouth Moor. Long gone but not forgotten!
 

83G/84D

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Grenville Motors of Troon which operated services to from Camborne and some of the local Falmouth services from the 1950's until 1989 when they were taken over by First. I remember them as a child with old buses in a multitude of colours and often very tatty at Falmouth Moor. Long gone but not forgotten!

Yes, I also remember them well. A fleet of mainly Bedford buses over the years but also Metro Cammell bodied Leyland PDR1's & PD2's of Plymouth origin. A few coaches also purchased in latter years.

The office and main bus stop was at the bottom of Cross Street where Beaver Blinds now are for anyone familiar with Camborne.
 

Busaholic

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Harvey's on the Mouzel bus. When they were operating in competition with Western National on the route, many locals spurned the green bus for the blue. I used to see one of the ex-Harvey's drivers around in Pz, but not for a year or two now. Big tall chap, softly spoken, glasses, anyone remember him?
 

Goldfish62

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Harvey's on the Mouzel bus. When they were operating in competition with Western National on the route, many locals spurned the green bus for the blue. I used to see one of the ex-Harvey's drivers around in Pz, but not for a year or two now. Big tall chap, softly spoken, glasses, anyone remember him?

Can't recall him, but then my childhood was a long, long time ago.

Harveys were bought by Grenville about a year before it sold to Western National. The former company yard is still there in Mousehole, but sadly most village residents now seem blissfully unaware of its former pivotal role for the village.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Can confirm that Hayle branch of Age UK run the ex-Western Greyhound route between Hayle Retail Park and Penzance via the back roads and Marazion on contract to CC. CC's website is being uncooperative at present but it's numbered either 509 or 515 from memory and run by a minibus.

Are there any other bus services that are run by Age UK in Cornwall?
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Can't recall him, but then my childhood was a long, long time ago.

Harveys were bought by Grenville about a year before it sold to Western National. The former company yard is still there in Mousehole, but sadly most village residents now seem blissfully unaware of its former pivotal role for the village.

Where is the former Harveys yard? I'd assumed it would've been developed in such a place!

I seem to recall (but I may be wrong) but when WN bought Grenville, they were going to take on the Troon depot and closure Union Street. However, instead they redeveloped Union Street as a modern depot and then closed Troon? Is that the truth or just enthusiast rumours?
 

Goldfish62

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Where is the former Harveys yard? I'd assumed it would've been developed in such a place!

I seem to recall (but I may be wrong) but when WN bought Grenville, they were going to take on the Troon depot and closure Union Street. However, instead they redeveloped Union Street as a modern depot and then closed Troon? Is that the truth or just enthusiast rumours?

The entrance is opposite the Coastguards Hotel. Its so narrow they had to reverse buses in - it was always quite a sight seeing the PD2 manoevre its way in.
 

Busaholic

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Are there any other bus services that are run by Age UK in Cornwall?

The bus used on the Penzance service is also used for a few journeys on a Hayle town service, but otherwise AFAIK there are no other Age UK operated bus services in Cornwall. Cornwall Council on its website dated 27/5/15 is promising a new timetable booklet for April/May 2014!
 

richw

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Looking at their fleetlist http://www.kernowfoxbus.co.uk/enthusiasts/4589471990

None of it looks DDA compliant, all being V,X and R plates.

The fleet listed in Cornwall is Cornwall Busways fleet. Cornwall Busways suffered a fair amount of breakdowns to the point they were hiring minibuses from Dash van hire to operate at one point.
No sign of the bus in the web picture on their fleet list though!

X513ADF possibly might just be DDA.
 

Busaholic

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As no-one else has reported it, I thought the following might be of interest. It is taken from 'Coach and Bus Week' dated June 16th:-

''An appeal by Cornwall Busways Ltd against a licence revocation and fine has been
dismissed.
The operator had its licence revoked for failing to operate the number 29 service from St Austell to Bodmin. The operator had refused to operate the service during the 56 day notice period because a competing service had been introduced by Western Greyhound, which it claimed had been 'fast tracked' despite the council not requesting it and was being operated illegally. He said the 29 was 'losing £5,000 a week' as a result.
However, Traffic Commissioner Nick Jones said commercial factors could not be considered for a short notice cancellation and revoked the licence, fining the company £300.
Nicholas Siddaway, the sole director of the appellant company, had attempted to surrender the O-licence prior to the public enquiry but was refused by the TC.
The grounds for appeal were that the TC was bound to accept the surrender of the licence and that he therefore had no power to revoke the licence or impose a penalty...
The tribunal said that the operator could have reasonably foreseen the competition and that there was not sufficiently compelling material to call into question the judicial decision to allow WG to vary its service at short notice. The appeal was therefore dismissed, though the the operator has said it will publically campaign to discredit the system.''

On the basis of the facts presented in this report it is hard not to feel a smidgeon of sympathy for CB : seemingly double standards are being applied and the tribunal is covering the back of the TC.
On the other hand, perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye and, for whatever reason, the TC was trying to get CB closed down before.... what, exactly? Is Kernow Fox lurking in the background of this story, somewhere?
 

LateThanNever

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As no-one else has reported it, I thought the following might be of interest. It is taken from 'Coach and Bus Week' dated June 16th:-

''An appeal by Cornwall Busways Ltd against a licence revocation and fine has been
dismissed.
The operator had its licence revoked for failing to operate the number 29 service from St Austell to Bodmin. The operator had refused to operate the service during the 56 day notice period because a competing service had been introduced by Western Greyhound, which it claimed had been 'fast tracked' despite the council not requesting it and was being operated illegally. He said the 29 was 'losing £5,000 a week' as a result.
However, Traffic Commissioner Nick Jones said commercial factors could not be considered for a short notice cancellation and revoked the licence, fining the company £300.
Nicholas Siddaway, the sole director of the appellant company, had attempted to surrender the O-licence prior to the public enquiry but was refused by the TC.
The grounds for appeal were that the TC was bound to accept the surrender of the licence and that he therefore had no power to revoke the licence or impose a penalty...
The tribunal said that the operator could have reasonably foreseen the competition and that there was not sufficiently compelling material to call into question the judicial decision to allow WG to vary its service at short notice. The appeal was therefore dismissed, though the the operator has said it will publically campaign to discredit the system.''

On the basis of the facts presented in this report it is hard not to feel a smidgeon of sympathy for CB : seemingly double standards are being applied and the tribunal is covering the back of the TC.
On the other hand, perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye and, for whatever reason, the TC was trying to get CB closed down before.... what, exactly? Is Kernow Fox lurking in the background of this story, somewhere?
Quite - much sympathy for CB. Why didn't they at least 'suggest' that Western Greyhound were untaxed and uninsured and so constituted unfair/illegal competition? Or was that much more recent? Only thing you can say is that if they were losing 5k a week then £300 one off is much cheaper!
 

richw

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As no-one else has reported it, I thought the following might be of interest. It is taken from 'Coach and Bus Week' dated June 16th:-

''An appeal by Cornwall Busways Ltd against a licence revocation and fine has been
dismissed.
The operator had its licence revoked for failing to operate the number 29 service from St Austell to Bodmin. The operator had refused to operate the service during the 56 day notice period because a competing service had been introduced by Western Greyhound, which it claimed had been 'fast tracked' despite the council not requesting it and was being operated illegally. He said the 29 was 'losing £5,000 a week' as a result.
However, Traffic Commissioner Nick Jones said commercial factors could not be considered for a short notice cancellation and revoked the licence, fining the company £300.
Nicholas Siddaway, the sole director of the appellant company, had attempted to surrender the O-licence prior to the public enquiry but was refused by the TC.
The grounds for appeal were that the TC was bound to accept the surrender of the licence and that he therefore had no power to revoke the licence or impose a penalty...
The tribunal said that the operator could have reasonably foreseen the competition and that there was not sufficiently compelling material to call into question the judicial decision to allow WG to vary its service at short notice. The appeal was therefore dismissed, though the the operator has said it will publically campaign to discredit the system.''

On the basis of the facts presented in this report it is hard not to feel a smidgeon of sympathy for CB : seemingly double standards are being applied and the tribunal is covering the back of the TC.
On the other hand, perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye and, for whatever reason, the TC was trying to get CB closed down before.... what, exactly? Is Kernow Fox lurking in the background of this story, somewhere?

Mr Siddaway is listed as a director of Kernow Fox. I suspect the fact this licence was revoked will go against any future applications he makes, or businesses for which he is director make.

There are a few other companies he is also listed as director of, but of most relevance to the bus operations he is currently listed as director of 5 bus firms (and several pub firms, but they aren't relevant here)

Also:
Company address: KERNOWFOX LIMITED
35 MEADOW RISE, PENWITHICK, ST. AUSTELL, ENGLAND, PL26 8UE
Company address: CORNWALL BUSWAYS LIMITED
35 MEADOW RISE, PENWITHICK, ST. AUSTELL, PL26 8UE
Company address: THE NORTHERN GENERAL TRANSPORT COMPANY LIMITED
35 MEADOW RISE, PENWITHICK, ST. AUSTELL, PL26 8UE
Company address: PIRAN BUS LIMITED
9 BOLDVENTURE ROAD, ST. AUSTELL, PL25 3DX
Company address: THE BUSES OF CORNWALL LIMITED
35 MEADOW RISE, ST AUSTELL, ENGLAND, PL26 8UE

As well as the instances where he didn't forfill the 56 days notice, the service even when it was running would cancel a lot of services, for varying reasons -breakdowns, roadworks, damaged buses being the most common reasons posted on Facebook. I suspect the TC was aware of this.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Quite - much sympathy for CB. Why didn't they at least 'suggest' that Western Greyhound were untaxed and uninsured and so constituted unfair/illegal competition? Or was that much more recent? Only thing you can say is that if they were losing 5k a week then £300 one off is much cheaper!

The allegations of untaxed/uninsured was much more recent.
CB ceased last summer, WG whilst unreliable were as far as I know always road legal under Howarth. The Untaxed/Uninsured allegations were only made during the last few weeks of operations, and I am unsure of the strength of them.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Mr Siddaway is listed as a director of Kernow Fox. I suspect the fact this licence was revoked will go against any future applications he makes, or businesses for which he is director make.

There are a few other companies he is also listed as director of, but of most relevance to the bus operations he is currently listed as director of 5 bus firms (and several pub firms, but they aren't relevant here)

Also:


As well as the instances where he didn't forfill the 56 days notice, the service even when it was running would cancel a lot of services, for varying reasons -breakdowns, roadworks, damaged buses being the most common reasons posted on Facebook. I suspect the TC was aware of this.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


The allegations of untaxed/uninsured was much more recent.
CB ceased last summer, WG whilst unreliable were as far as I know always road legal under Howarth. The Untaxed/Uninsured allegations were only made during the last few weeks of operations, and I am unsure of the strength of them.

Tend to agree with Rich W on this one.

Firstly, the allegations against WG (which is hearsay) were in the last few weeks of operation not when CB were still operating (sporadically).

Also, the TC has to look at each instance on its own merits. Fact was that CB were, by their own admission, dropping journeys and then stopped a service without statutory notice. That's something for CB to defend.

If there's an issue with WG, and I am amazed that they haven't been called to heel based on the suspension of evening services, then that is something for WG to defend.

Anyone can register company names etc - this has been covered extensively in relation to various Fox entities. However, they've not had an operators license; there has been a claim to actually have been behind Pier Buses but that has been the subject of some discussion. The O license holder was Shaun Craigie but he doesn't appear on any other current or former licenses.
 

83G/84D

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Travel Cornwall are trialling an Optare Solo demonstrator YJ64 DWD in a mainly orange colour scheme.It was seen in Truro a short time ago on layover before working service 493.
 
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matt_splat

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i swear I saw a picture on twitter or facebook as kernow fox playing with the solo
 
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83G/84D

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Here is a photo of the Optare demonstrator currently with Travel Cornwall seen at Truro today:-

(excuse the quality as it was taken using my phone camera)
 

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