Had my trip on the 300 and other services in the area earlier this week on a £15 First Kernow 2 day ticket.
Volvo Citybus vintage? They are nearly thirty years old. Has bus design reached perfection or stagnated?
I was quite happy as I grew up in Weston-super-Mare and used to travel to school on them when they were initially leased to Badgerline. Definitely far from clapped out. The most rattly, rough sounding thing I travelled on was the XC Voyager from Plymouth to Bristol!
I think selling the First Day ticket is sensible in providing a simple ticket can be used all day to occasional bus users who see public transport as expensive for their one trip of the year home from the office Christmas drinks. Good selection of discounts too. A couple of pensioners with concessionary passes I spoke to travelling on another service were quite happy to pay the £5.00. (Same cost as parking at Land's End) They weren't interested in the vehicle, just to travel the route with someone else driving. They said they barely use their passes at home but it is the easiest way to get around the area. Another pensioner did rather annoy me delaying the 1A I was on for over 5 minutes complaining that it wasn't an open top then sat downstairs. It does state on the timetables it may not be possible.
I spent two days travelling on step entrance, usually from ground level buses, which ran late (Cornish time as one passenger described it). Camper van drivers-Learn the dimensions of your vehicle and how to manouvre it! There were no announcements or laser display boards and people coped with buggies, getting off at the right stop etc.
I think there should be accessible transport but I think the legislation is ill thought out. Possibly a minimum number of accesible vehicles per hour depending on the frequency with those times specified. However having been on a bus which lost 20 minutes loading and unloading 3 wheelchairs across San Francisco once punctuality will go out of the window. Still no help in Cornwall which is a bit of an operator's nightmare having to shift large crowds for a few months of the year while a minibus would usually suffice. It has long been the case that high capacity vehicles migrated to Cornwall after giving service elsewhere.
The driving standard was excellent by all bar one and good customer care was provided. I thoroughly enjoyed my two days in Penzance and beyond though I should have worn a hat in that sun!
