Well, that's one way to electrify your fleet; hand over the low bridge route to another operator. I hope that, when the time comes for Greenslades to electrify, either Tan Lane will be remodelled for better clearance, or we will have lower height electrics, preferably both!
Network Rail will not be spending millions on a new Tan Lane bridge, which is a very narrow private road used mostly by buses. The bridge is more likely to be closed. The buses might just become mini buses - the X should show real demand.
Wow! The X replacing the C is truly awful. Firstly its only every hour South Street to Exminster and it no longer serves Matford Park and Ride. In addition, there will be an extra hourly lopp service running South Street to Haven Banks that goes outbound last stop Riverside Leisure Centre on the main road and then takes Willeys Ave without stopping to loop back next stop being Haven Close (the first stop after Tan Lane). Talk about worlds most pointless loop and also, given it interworks with the main hourly service, the delays at Exe Bridges are almost guaranteed to mean huge delays. So these changes mean a halving of the Matford P&R service and several stops in Matford drop from every 20 to hourly. The Sunday service on this route also goes and the last bus is 1755 from Exeter! Also, its not Stagecoach so their weekly tickets won't be valid.
The B stays the same frequency Mon-Sat but goes every 30 Sunday.
The PR1 is a big enhancement as it runs every 15 mins Mon-Sat and runs express from town to Gallows Corner, calling only at Heavitree Co-op. It will also terminate at the old Park and Ride stop outside Next on Paris Street. So this removes 3 buses from the High St in effect too.
Matford P&R is not used much today; the current provision of at least 8 buses an hour into the city centre is not necessary (B, C, 7, 38, 39).
The commercial / industrial areas (it is not primarily retail) of Marsh Barton & Matford also produce quite limited demand. I suspect a 20 min frequency by the B matches demand and the missed stops in Marsh Barton won't be missed by many. The demand from Exminster, particularly to the Marsh Barton area, I suspect has not increased enough following the introduction of the B a few years ago, and the X and 2 (via the hospital) will have to suffice.
The X, for all its limited frequency, will route via Marsh Barton station and restore a service to the Matford Silverton Road area.
The big improvement to the Sowton P&R with the PR1 is interesting. Sowton P&R is also used much less than it was and may be could replace Matford in the future.
Matford P&R was reduced in size to build the Stagecoach replacement for its city centre depot. Stagecoach use the P&R site as a bus park already.
If my car is in car land for a service, I am more likely to walk to the Matford P&R (Stagecoach depot) stop and take a 7 or 39 (hourly) out of town, than a B or C into the city.
