Saturday 21 May 2011

Petition Closed - Final Count Is In

The petition to restore Stagecoach South West 111 service to its original route instead of total withdrawal closed on Saturday, 21st May, 2011, at 23:30. With your help, the grand total of signatures collected is...

Speechless! 438!
What now?
Well, as far as we're aware, we're waiting for the Herald Express to contact us to arrange a date for a photo of the handover to Stagecoach South West. With regards to Devon County Council, a copy of the petition will be sent for their review immediately following the handover to Stagecoach. And after that, we guess that all we can do is wait for their answer.


Monday 16 May 2011

One Absolutely Huge Thank You!

All I can say is this:

Thank you, so, so, so, so much to absolutely everyone who's joined in with the efforts to help restore the 111.

Special thanks are due to the following people:


  • To my Shop Leader at Save the Children, who allowed a paper petition to be placed on the counter
  • To Totnes Tourist Information Centre, who also allowed a paper petition to be displayed for 1 week
  • To Dartmouth Tourist Information Centre, who have allowed the same
  • To Alex Ali from the Herald Express, who got an article regarding the petition on page 10 of the Herald Express
  • To the shops and businesses all over Dartmouth, Totnes and the 111 route
  • To Torbay Hospital for displaying posters in the main entrance
  • To Nathan Thorn, who posted the link to the petition on his site, UK-BUSES
  • To David Banks, who posted a link to the petition on his blog, "Bus Driving".
  • To Dartmouth River Boats, who allowed the posters to be displayed on all their vessels for free
  • To any business who has downloaded a poster to display in their window. By the way, if you want one for your business or staff room, you can get one here.
  • And to everyone who's been spreading the word to Restore The 111
  • Anyone I've missed: you must let me know! Just comment below.
I never imagined that there'd be this many signatures. I mean, literally never.
You're all amazing people for caring about your local bus service.

And equally, I never imagined Torbay Bus Routes would get to this position in under a year.

Thank you to everyone who visits the site and sends kind comments via email.

Please keep signing here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/tbr/.

THANK YOU!

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Why We're Doing The Petition. Why You Should Sign It.

As many regular visitors, Twitter followers and other members of the public will now be aware, we are on a campaign to get the 111 back to Torquay instead of it being withdrawn on Monday, 23rd May.

First of all, a huge thank you and virtual high five is due to all who have signed so far, bringing the total to 41 signatures.

But some may ask the question: "Why does it need restoring to its original route? And why the huge deal?"

There are so many reasons why the 111 must not be allowed to go.

Number 1, in my book, is the fact that many elderly people used it to access Torbay Hospital & The Willows from Dartmouth, Harbertonford, Halwell, Totnes, Berry Pomeroy & Marldon. Passengers from Totnes onwards can still do this, but only with a few trips a day on the new Country Bus 149.

Many members of the public that we met today in Dartmouth & Totnes in the tourist information centres, Co-Op, Sainsbury's, Lidl and the Dartmouth Riverboats all had the same message, and it was loud and clear: they feel it's disgusting and awful that their local bus service that they use to get to work and out and about is going.

The staff in the Dartmouth Co-Op had to almost stop serving at the tills in utter disbelief at the fact that it was being withdrawn. Some weren't even aware that this was the case. So our posters and petition information really did cause a stir amongst all the staff in the Co-Op. The posters were displayed, and we're now counting on all staff and shoppers there to sign it.

And over at the Dartmouth Riverboats, it was the same story. The advertising manager said his mother is now unable to get to The Willows shopping centre in Torquay due to the route change to serve Paignton instead of Torquay. The petition is to get the route back to where it was, thus serving the hospital and The Willows once again. The manager was extremely kind and let us put the posters up for free on the passenger ferry and the riverboats between Dartmouth & Totnes.

The response was immense in Totnes, too, where the fish & chip shop near Coronation Road put up the poster immediately with no questions.

We'd like to thank everyone who is in support of this.

And for those of you who know other without Internet access, there's something we've organised...

This Saturday, 14th May, the petition will be available to sign in Save The Children's shop in Totnes between 10:00 and 13:00. We encourage as many people as possible to come and sign it.

(We'd like to point out very quickly that the petition has absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with Save the Children.)

Keep passing the message on. We're 100% determined and committed to getting the 111 back for you, the passengers and people who depend and use this service on a daily basis.

Once again, a huge THANK YOU to all!

Sign the petition at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/tbr/

Sunday 8 May 2011

Sign The Petition - Pass It On!

The 111 at Dartmouth
The support received for the Restore the 111 with Torbay Bus Routes petition has been great so far.

But if we're to get the 111 restored to its original route, more must be done!

If you've signed, or are now going to sign, it would so awesome if you could pass the word onto others, friends, family - anyone who'd like to help save a local bus service.

If you've not heard of the petition yet, then you really must check out: http://torbaybusroutes.co.uk/111.html (information and link to sign petition).

Once again, thank you to all who have signed.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.

Friday 6 May 2011

Torbay Bus Routes Would Love To Restore The 111!

On Monday, 23rd May, 2011, Stagecoach's 111 service, currently operating between Paignton & Dartmouth, is to be withdrawn.

Torbay Bus Routes believes this is not the answer to the added competition from First's X81, which extended to Dartmouth, running the same as the new 111 route.

The old 111 route operated between Dartmouth, Totnes, Berry Pomeroy, Marldon, Torbay Hospital & Torquay. This operated around every hour.

New Country Bus 149 service operates the section of the route left unserved by the 111 in April between Totnes & Torquay. But this service only has a few trips a day.
The choice to withdraw the 111 completely cannot be the answer.

Don't you think it should be changed back to the original route between Darmouth, Totnes & Torquay?

This would mean passengers could easily travel from Torquay, The Willows & Torbay Hospital to Marldon, Berry Pomeroy, Totnes & Dartmouth. And all without the confusing array of services that exists now.

So we hope that you're in agreement: the 111 needs to be restored to its original route. It does not require total withdrawal.


What can I do?


We urge you to sign our petition online at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/tbr/

With your support, we should be able to get a substantial amount of signatures to pass onto Stagecoach and Devon County Council.

If the petition asks you donate anything, please ignore this. Just continue.


Together, we can make a difference & restore the 111. Thank you!

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Farewell, 111. You Will Be Missed.

There's another set of changes and cuts to hit Torbay, and this time, it falls on Monday, 23rd May.

One that surprised many was the withdrawal of Stagecoach 111.

After having changing the route to run from Paignton (not Torquay), this service is now to be withdrawn. This should come as a surprise to many: not only was a Sunday service due to come into effect the Sunday of 29th, but it's been little more than a month since new timetables, route maps, stickers for the stand in Paignton Bus Station, set-up of ticket machines, new destination blind settings and information informing people of the change were all set up.

In fact, the "new" 111, as some refer to it, will only have operated for 42 days. For those of you in the know, you'll have guessed what's going to be said next... but for the benefit of others - the minimum time to register a change/cancellation to/of a bus service with VOSA is 54 days. Therefore, Stagecoach would have had to have known they were going to withdraw it 12 days before it started running from Paignton with a Sunday service. Of course, VOSA can grant these things under short notice (so it can be fewer than 54 days). But neither @blytheski on Twitter nor I could find anything under Section 3.5 (Cancellation of Existing Services) or Section 3.6 (Cancellation of Existing Services Granted Under Short Notice).

It came as a surprise to many, I'm sure, that the 111 was to be withdrawn after such a service change. However, if you then look into it further, it does start to become clear as to perhaps why Stagecoach has decided this will be the 111's fate. Firstly, First (that's not a pun!) extended their X81 service (originally between Torquay & Totnes) all the way to Dartmouth, running the same route between Paignton & Dartmouth. It appeared that Stagecoach have tried to hit back at this by providing services on double deckers: something that was never before seen under usual circumstances on the 111's original route.

But there's more: all 111 and X81 journeys in the morning and into early evening are timetabled at the same timing points throughout the whole route with a five minute gap either way. That means that if you've just missed an X81 in Harbertonford, then never fear: a 111 is no more than 5 minutes away! This is clearly a huge competition, but Stagecoach should have the upper-hand. They have been running the 111 for a very long time, and most have Stagecoach passes, which aren't valid on First. Moreover, everyone was used to the 111. Suddenly, the people of Dartmouth and the villages between there and Totnes have got an X81 coming through, and it seems to have confused some.

From my own observations one early Saturday morning (07:55 from Dartmouth, in fact), people were waving on the X81 and hailing down the 111. I thought: "But people are choosing the 111 over the X81! Why is it being withdrawn?"

There's also another area that Stagecoach must have been wary of when making the decision to withdraw the 111: remember the X45? Stagecoach launched an express service between the Bay & Plymouth, in competition with First's X80. What did First do? They increased to every 15 minutes and dropped the fares to rock bottom prices. They even had radio adverts playing on the local radio (which also played on the 12's during the summer), advertising that their tickets were cheaper between Paignton & Torquay than on Stagecoach's buses. Yes, Stagecoach did make sure the radio stations were turned off! But then what happened when the X45 was withdrawn? Up went the fairs. Down went the frequency.

So perhaps Stagecoach is now scared that First will start to add lower fares, higher frequencies and many more journeys to their X81 - things that Stagecoach may not necessarily be able to compete with. So it could be seen as quitting while their ahead. It seems very much like de-ja-vu of the X45 days, so maybe that's what Stagecoach is frightened of. But I'm sure they could put up a fight against First: the passengers seem to want the 111.

Anyway, rant over. Until next time. Over and out.