A Wet and Windy Day, But a Ride on a Merc!

Today was the Exmouth Vintage Bus Running Day, by the Devon General Society, at Exmouth Bus Station.

Stagecoach kindly let the society have the bus station between 10:00 and 17:00 for running a variety of services on vintage vehicles.

There was a great turn out of people - probably, at a guess, in their hundreds, all enjoying the great, free bus trips on offer.

Despite it thrashing it down with rain for the whole day, it was all worth it for a ride on M245 UTM, a Marshall-bodied Mercedes 709, which replaced Ford Transits, and is in the grey-green-purple "Exeter Minibus" livery. But why was that bus so special?

Well, for many, many people who catch (or used to catch) services 5, 5E, 17, 17A, 22, or 24, they'd know all about the buses that used to be on there before Optare Solos: Mercedes 709D's. They were loud and bumpy, and those gears really crunched, but they got around. And that nostalgic, classic noise as it goes into reverse, along with that ever-so distinctive gear change, really did provide a trip back to just a few years ago when many enjoyed the old Mercs on Brixham and Paignton town services.

Here she is below:

Also whilst there, some bus maps from 1993 up to 2011 by Devon County Council provided a good look back into how services have changed: when the 12B used to go from Bovey Tracey to Brixham; the 22 was every minutes; the 7 was every 20 minutes; there were night buses into Torquay and Newton Abbot; and it was the 100 that came into Brixham, not the 12.

The good old days?

Happy 15th Birthday, 701! :-)

It's been 15 years since the first Volvo B6LE was introduced as a low floor bus onto service 12 in Torbay. 701 (P701 BTA) was one of those, and has been withdrawn from public service since 2011.

But with the help of Stagecoach South West, the Devon & Dorset Group, who put on the Torbay Vintage Bus Running Day in September, managed to buy and restore 701 to its original livery, complete with interior signs and down to the very last detail. It really is a great restoration, and it can be seen at the rallies put on by the Devon & Dorset Group.

This week marks its 15th year since entering service in 1997, and to celebrate, she was taken out on the 12 route from Newton Abbot to Brixham and back. In addition, the original 12A route was done from Torquay Strand up to St.Marychurch and back down again.

The TBR Team as well as local blogger David Banks (Bus Driving blog) and other local bus enthusiasts were all aboard the bus, and the day was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Here are some pictures below:

Breakdowns aren't always bad!

On Saturday, 31st March, 2012, I took the 16:12 Stagecoach X46 from Paignton up to Exeter. A lovely ride on 18303, a 2005 Trident, below:

She'd been driving smoothly right up to the Matford Roundabout, just outside of Countess Wear, where I noticed a strange, spitting-like sound coming from the engine. On we did plod, until the next roundabout at Bridge Road.

There, we gradually came to a gentle stop, and despite the best attempts of the driver, that engine was not going to start again without assistance.

Luckily, not too far from Exeter Depot, a bus was with us within 15 minutes. Here's the replacement below:

How nice of Stagecoach to send us 19106, Cockwood, to rescue us! I didn't expect to be on an Enviro for all or part of that journey! And finally, we wave good bye to 18303, who is hopefully making a full recovery...

Please bid farewell to...

Torbay Bus Routes' timetable library currently covers all timetables for buses in the Torbay, Totnes, Dartmouth, and Newton Abbot areas.

However, in order to keep our timetable library to the highest standard and hold a manageable amount of files, we must unfortunately hereby give notice that timetables for services that do not enter Torbay will be removed from Torbay Bus Routes with effect from Monday, 12th March, 2012.

As such, the following timetables will not be available for download from the above date from Torbay Bus Routes:

2, 39, 70, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79A, 79C, 90A/B/C, 91, 93, 164, 165, 167, 175, 176, 177, 178, 182, 184, 193, 361, 671, 672, 886, 888

The only exception is service Stagecoach X64, for which a timetable will still be available. This is because Torbay Megarider tickets are valid on this service between Totnes & Newton Abbot, whereas they're not on service Stagecoach 88.

The timetables will always be available from the operators of the services, as well as in Devon County Council produced bus timetable guides.

We are sorry to have to inform users of this, and we hope you will continue to enjoy Torbay Bus Routes.

If you do like the work we do, please consider donating to make sure the service continues. 

Say Hi to a New TBR Tweeter!

Starting tomorrow, Monday, 6th February, Kameron from Paignton will be a new TBR Tweeter on Torbay Bus Routes' Twitter.

Just like the others, he'll be providing live bus updates throughout the day, further improving the success and reach of TBR's Live Bus Updates!

Please say "Hi" to Kameron and welcome him aboard the Torbay Bus Routes Team!

Our regular TBR Tweeters are Allan [A], Ben [B], Elliot [E], and Kameron, who will now be [K]. The letter - [x] - in the square brackets can be seen at the end of our tweets, and they denote who did the update.

Here's to 2012 being a further successful year for Torbay Bus Routes.

New Mobile Friendly Site!

Well, as you can see, we're back on Blogger! We agree it's much better than Tumblr, as it allows anyone to comment and follow it.

But that's not the exciting bit: oh, no!

Torbay Bus Routes has launched a brand new mobile site at m.torbaybusroutes.co.uk, which allows users to access key information from TBR when they're out and about - from their mobile phone.

You can view timetables, maps, the Ticket Guide, MyStop, and more in the palm of your hand.

So add m.torbaybusroutes.co.uk to your phone's favourites, which will allow to always grab a timetable when away from a computer!

Of course, you can always access the full site from an Internet-enabled mobile phone, but the new site has been designed for a mobile phone screen to make browsing a breeze.

We're working now to automatically redirect mobile phones from torbaybusroutes.co.uk to its mobile counterpart. However, at present, users just simply have to add "m." at the beginning.

As ever, feedback is greatly appreciated, and so you can send any to info@torbaybusroutes.co.uk, which will be received with great pleasure.

In other news, we have released a new Policies & Practices, which covers how we operate and the policies in place to ensure a maintained quality of service. You can read these here.

Over and out. Until next time.

MyStop Adverts and Website Revamp

Many of you may have seen the MyStop adverts at Brixham Bank Lane and Torquay Harbourside. We think they're great - and by the by, MyStop has seen a definite increase in web traffic. So "ADVERTISING REALLY DOES WORK! PEOPLE ARE READING THIS!" 


And in other exciting news: the Torbay Bus Routes will be receiving a revamp very shortly. The content will be updated, as well as some content removed, but more added. There'll be a new design as well, so do look out for it some time in late December or early January.

Here they are, anyway:

Brixham Bank Lane. Copyright 2011, Allan Wagner.

Torquay Strand Harbourside. Copyright 2011, Allan Wagner.