Yes, that's smaller and got less capacity than the Sprinters!
These sorts of small buses are common in cities across mainland Europe, often operating free circular routes that penetrate narrow city centre streets that normal buses can’t reach (in France, you’ll often see them referred to as ‘Navette’).
Perhaps, as a thought, something like this could be used as a shuttle between Mousehole Harbour and Newlyn to connect into a frequent, larger buses from there? It’d be a form of compromise at least!
I can't think of any routes less suitable for an unmanned vehicle to be threading its way along than the narrow, twisty lanes through Mousehole with pedestrians milling about everywhere and give-and-take needed with other drivers
Not to mention autonomous vehicles need great satellite signal and around those buildings you get none.I can't think of any routes less suitable for an unmanned vehicle to be threading its way along than the narrow, twisty lanes through Mousehole with pedestrians milling about everywhere and give-and-take needed with other drivers
One was tested several years ago and it failed. I believe grounding on the top corner was the issue because the rear overhang is a lot lower than on the original Solo. If the SR could fit First would have bought them instead of the Sprinters.
An OTS Mellor Strata was also tried and was too "snug" a fit.
Richard Stevens only mentioned safety once, and that was in his slightly ill-tempered BBC interview. Following industry commentators including Roger French labelling the new turning manoeuvre at The Parade as dangerous he's not dared played the safety card with the harbour turn again. Plenty of us knew he was taking nonsense anyway, no doubt in order to try to bolster his case.
Well of course it is.
Of course another issue has been the revision of services within that area. Prior to the end you had at least 3 First and 2? GSW services on the Penzance to Newlyn corridor before the splits by Newlyn Bridge, whereas now it’s down to 3. So therefore capacity has already been squeezed between Penzance and Newlyn.
Yes, 4 First (1/1A, M6) and 1 GSW (5/5A) to be exact. Now it's just 1/1A (1bph) and 6 (2bph). The 1/1A is a bit messed up at the moment. Chywoone Hill is closed due to a negligent property owner allowing their substantial boundary wall to collapse into the road.
Absolutely.
No they didn’t, First withdrew their route - along with all their other routes in Cornwall. Go Ahead decided what routes they wanted to run and at what frequencies. Like many other routes, this was less than previously. If Cornwall council decided that was inadequate they could have asked for additional services to be run and paid for it.
Tomato/tomato.
And the 1/1A is timetabled 5mins after the 6 so the train/bus conx are awfulOn 19th April you can once again go to Mousehole harbour every 30 minutes during the Penzance Running Day.
Go South West is a sponsor of the event and Richard Stevens a very keen supporter, although I expect he'll decide to stay well clear of driving buses on that particular route, which he's done at at least one previous running day!
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Yes, 4 First (1/1A, M6) and 1 GSW (5/5A) to be exact. Now it's just 1/1A (1bph) and 6 (2bph). The 1/1A is a bit messed up at the moment. Chywoone Hill is closed due to a negligent property owner allowing their substantial boundary wall to collapse into the road.
The buses used on the M6 weren't standard Sprinter City 45s, but were custom-built longer versions to provide extra capacity.
Was the Mousehole service losing money under First Kernow? We’re expected to believe it’s a loss-making service yet one that experiences overcrowding?
It's perfectly possible for both of those to be true with a minibus – if income is less than running costs then it makes a loss, and if it can only carry 20 passengers and lots of them are on ENCTS passes then yes, you could easily be running at a loss. Especially if at any one time of day, it's only busy in one direction.
26 passengers to be pedantic.
Hmm. Not buying that at all. Not as they’re using double deckers on the Mousehole route.
Are these TfC / Citibus buses, or are they further loans from London, with maybe the original BYDs returning to London to assume duties there?
They are for city use, there are no charging points in Cornwall except for Truro. London buses are now starting to return.
The original order for 50 was increased to 59.
