Go Cornwall Bus

[TheGrandWazoo]

So what of the Electrics purchased by Cornwall Council for the Park & Ride I wonder?

Dave

I’d imagine they’ll transfer over in due course. They haven’t been delivered yet

 

[Goldfish62]

So what of the Electrics purchased by Cornwall Council for the Park & Ride I wonder?

Dave

They will of course be operated by Dartline. Ever since Truro P&R started the council has owned the buses irrespective of the operator.

 

[YorkRailFan]

They will of course be operated by Dartline. Ever since Truro P&R started the council has owned the buses irrespective of the operator.

Is Truronian moving onto the Dartline license then?

 

[Goldfish62]

Is Truronian moving onto the Dartline license then?

Truronian currently doesn't have an O licence and is merely a trading name of First South West Ltd's coaching division. GoAhead has effectively bought the future work of the business, plus the Truro premises. No vehicles are involved, but the staff will move across under TUPE regulations. The depot will become part of Dartline (Dealtop Ltd). Whether they wish, or First allows them, to continue to use the Truronian name remains to be seen.

Cornwall Council has awarded the Truro P&R contract to GoAhead subsidiary Dealtop (trading as Dartline). The council will supply the vehicles and the charging equipment at Langarth.

 

[richard13]

Dealtop Ltd (Dartline) now has operating centres at Plymouth Milehouse for 10, and Truro Bus Depot for 35.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

They will of course be operated by Dartline. Ever since Truro P&R started the council has owned the buses irrespective of the operator.

Indeed - the one surviving 10 plate Citaro has worked for Western Greyhound, First and will now work for Go Cornwall Bus (Dartline)

 

[Goldfish62]

Indeed - the one surviving 10 plate Citaro has worked for Western Greyhound, First and will now work for Go Cornwall Bus (Dartline)

As an aside the sole remaining 08 plate Citaro which was withdrawn a couple of years ago was generously donated by the council to a preservationist and is currently undergoing restoration.

 

[Andyh82]

The Mousehole situation was the lead story on Spotlight on Thursday night

The MD of Go Cornwall said the reason why they are not serving Mousehole Harbour was for two reasons
- he doesn’t believe the manoeuvres in Mousehole are entirely safe
- to make the route viable they need to use larger buses to allow more customers to travel, including those at Newlyn who would often be faced by full buses

Nothing mentioned about Go not having suitable sized buses.

The Newlyn point is probably valid as of course they are also losing service 5 and are going from 5 buses an hour to just 3 buses an hour

 

[Goldfish62]

The Mousehole situation was the lead story on Spotlight on Thursday night

The MD of Go Cornwall said the reason why they are not serving Mousehole Harbour was for two reasons
- he doesn’t believe the manoeuvres in Mousehole are entirely safe
- to make the route viable they need to use larger buses to allow more customers to travel, including those at Newlyn who would often be faced by full buses

Nothing mentioned about Go not having suitable sized buses.

The Newlyn point is probably valid as of course they are also losing service 5 and are going from 5 buses an hour to just 3 buses an hour

Yes, I saw that. It was cheap of him to play the safety card. It's complete nonsense course, especially as he said that while the manoeuvre is unsafe that was the secondary reason for pulling out. No! If something is unsafe, as he claims, then it's always the number 1 reason. As with Safe Harbour he's trying to use dubious safety claims to cover for the real reasons, operational convenience and vehicle standardisation.

He also across as arrogant and not in any way prepared to acknowledge the hardship that the newer arrangements will cause some people. Disappointing for someone who I always thought was a reasonable bloke. His attitude has certainly wound people up even more as a result!

I understand there's a public meeting in Mousehole in a couple of weeks time with representatives from GoCornwall and the council in attendance.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Feb 2026 ==

On a completely different matter several brand new BYD BD11s are on way their way on loan from London to Plymouth.

 

[Express380]

On a completely different matter several brand new BYD BD11s are on way their way on loan from London to Plymouth.

Ummm... interesting, that wasn't on the bingo card of what could happen!

 

[Goldfish62]

Ummm... interesting, that wasn't on the bingo card of what could happen!

Indeed not! Completely leftfield move!

 

[fgwrich]

Yes, I saw that. It was cheap of him to play the safety card. It's complete nonsense course, especially as he said that while the manoeuvre is unsafe that was the secondary reason for pulling out. No! If something is unsafe, as he claims, then it's always the number 1 reason. As with Safe Harbour he's trying to use dubious safety claims to cover for the real reasons, operational convenience and vehicle standardisation.

He also across as arrogant and not in any way prepared to acknowledge the hardship that the newer arrangements will cause some people. Disappointing for someone who I always thought was a reasonable bloke. His attitude has certainly wound people up even more as a result!

I understand there's a public meeting in Mousehole in a couple of weeks time with representatives from GoCornwall and the council in attendance.

Yes, I saw that and was of the same opinion too. It is even more surprising as I’ve been in Mr Steven’s Blue Bus Bristol LHS (FDV787V) with him driving it on one of the many trips it has had to Mousehole during the Penzance running days, so he is well aware of what it is like to turn a vehicle in Mousehole Harbour - and perhaps, ironically, a lager vehicle than the Sprinters.

 

[Goldfish62]

Yes, I saw that and was of the same opinion too. It is even more surprising as I’ve been in Mr Steven’s Blue Bus Bristol LHS (FDV787V) with him driving it on one of the many trips it has had to Mousehole during the Penzance running days, so he is well aware of what it is like to turn a vehicle in Mousehole Harbour - and perhaps, ironically, a lager vehicle than the Sprinters.

Yes, I was on said vehicle with him driving as well. In fact he started out as a driver at Penzance in the late 90s and drove regularly on the Mousehole route.

Relevant to mention that the Sprinters have reversing cameras.

 

[Dwarfer1979]

Yes, I saw that. It was cheap of him to play the safety card. It's complete nonsense course, especially as he said that while the manoeuvre is unsafe that was the secondary reason for pulling out. No! If something is unsafe, as he claims, then it's always the number 1 reason. As with Safe Harbour he's trying to use dubious safety claims to cover for the real reasons, operational convenience and vehicle standardisation.

He also across as arrogant and not in any way prepared to acknowledge the hardship that the newer arrangements will cause some people. Disappointing for someone who I always thought was a reasonable bloke. His attitude has certainly wound people up even more as a result!

I understand there's a public meeting in Mousehole in a couple of weeks time with representatives from GoCornwall and the council in attendance.

Sorry but Mousehole is clearly a safety nightmare and if the route didn't predate the widespread ownership of cars and mass tourism no one would propose introducing this route as a new route today. You have a 90 degree blind left turn followed by a 90 degree blind right turn on a road barely wider than the narrowest bus you can buy currently between buildings (with no pavement and high pedestrian movements) then stop with no real pavement next to a metal railing (so very compromised accessibility issues). You then have to do a three point turn in the middle of the village across the entrance of a shop in an area with high pedestrian movement and go back the way you came through all those issues you can in with - and Mousehole harbour is surprisingly busy with cars in the tourist season. Whenever I visited Mousehole, and I would do so every 2-years or so for over a decade when I visited Cornwall though less so recently as the bus scene has become less interesting, I was always slightly surprised there weren't more incidents and that this manouvre had survived though not being local and not knowing an alternative I could see why no one wanted to rock the boat by pulling it out.

I would also say there have been several times where my employers have taken on a route, such as after a tender, where some aspect of the route raised concerns or issues around the route or a manouvre and sometimes after a discussion we have insisted on making a change and sometimes we agree to try it with the caveat that one incident and we come out (and often that concerns becomes real when you start operating) - and it often happens that you are told that your concerns have never been a problem before, take it on and find that there were lots of incidents that just never got raised above the point any average incident gets dealt with because that is just what always happens. So it is perfectly possible that there were concerns, that council persuasion alleviated the worst of those concerns but that other issues meant it wasn't worth trying to deal with it anyway - particularly the capacity issues that I have seen complained about on here before so must be something of an issue.

 

[jammy36]

A few people have questioned whether the Truronian name will continue. An ex Dartline Irizar i6 was in Truro today in the 'new' Truronian livery. This is the same red livery with white chevrons used by Dartline but with TRURONIAN fleet-names. The fleet-names have the Go Ahead corporate style triangular wedge under the Truro part of TRURONIAN.

 

[Goldfish62]

A few people have questioned whether the Truronian name will continue. An ex Dartline Irizar i6 was in Truro today in the 'new' Truronian livery. This is the same red livery with white chevrons used by Dartline but with TRURONIAN fleet-names. The fleet-names have the Go Ahead corporate style triangular wedge under the Truro part of TRURONIAN.

Yes, I saw that.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Feb 2026 ==

Sorry but Mousehole is clearly a safety nightmare and if the route didn't predate the widespread ownership of cars and mass tourism no one would propose introducing this route as a new route today.

OK, so you want to be deliberately provocative.

Have you seen or conducted a full route risk assessment there? How many incidents have there been over the years?

There are plenty of routes across the country including in urban areas which may not be introduced now, but fortunately there are still responsible pragmatists in the industry who introduce appropriate mitigations to keep them going.

Please define "safety nightmare". How many other current routes in the UK fall into this category? Also, what's your opinion of First continuing to serve the route when in your opinion it's a "safety nightmare".

If the route so dangerous for a bus to get into the village what's it going to be like when passengers have to walk the very same route?

What's your route risk assessment of the new turning manoeuvre into Parkryn Road?

And yes, I have driven buses into Mousehole.

 

[jammy36]

I understand that the withdrawal of the bus from the harbour stop is unpopular locally. However, when considered practically, the scale of concern appears somewhat disproportionate.

Mousehole is a compact village, and nowhere is particularly far from the bus route. The distance between the harbour stop and the new stop on The Parade is around 250 metres — only a few minutes’ walk. Even from areas such as St Clements Terrace, the walk is roughly 10–12 minutes, which is not unusual in a village setting.

The suggestion that the walk to the Old Coastguard stop is especially steep also seems overstated. In any case, anyone alighting at the harbour stop would need to walk uphill in most directions.

While I appreciate that any change can feel significant, particularly for those with limited mobility, describing the relocation as catastrophic risks overstating the impact. Many communities would welcome the level of service frequency that Mousehole continues to receive.

 

[mattb7tl]

I think it is a situation where there is no right or wrong.

It may look like a daunting route to myself and others who live in an urban area with wider roads but the drivers have managed for years on end with little to no incidents. It is however simultaneously undeniably a risk and a company would also not be wrong for not wanting to accept said risk.

I think as for coverage planners commonly cite that people will regularly use the bus within a range of 400m. It covers mostly the entire village minus a few sprawling homes.

 

[Goldfish62]

I understand that the withdrawal of the bus from the harbour stop is unpopular locally. However, when considered practically, the scale of concern appears somewhat disproportionate.

Mousehole is a compact village, and nowhere is particularly far from the bus route. The distance between the harbour stop and the new stop on The Parade is around 250 metres — only a few minutes’ walk. Even from areas such as St Clements Terrace, the walk is roughly 10–12 minutes, which is not unusual in a village setting.

The suggestion that the walk to the Old Coastguard stop is especially steep also seems overstated. In any case, anyone alighting at the harbour stop would need to walk uphill in most directions.

While I appreciate that any change can feel significant, particularly for those with limited mobility, describing the relocation as catastrophic risks overstating the impact. Many communities would welcome the level of service frequency that Mousehole continues to receive.

Well, it's all a moot point now as buses are no longer serving the harbour as of today, but will return for one day only in April with the annual Penzance running day when you can travel in some "proper" buses to the harbour!

Just to point out that the replacement stop isn't at The Coastguards as inaccurately advised initially by GCB and as incorrectly shown on Bustimes. It's 330m from the former harbour stop in a very exposed location beyond the Parade Car Park.

Anyway, we move on and a new era has started. I wish GCB well and hope that they are able to develop and improve their commercial services as time go on.

 

[Dwarfer1979]

OK, so you want to be deliberately provocative.

Not really. There have been a lot of people pointing back to "big buses" like LHS's doing it but beyond anything else the LHS was the same size as those small Sprinters currently being used (7.9m x 2.3m) but with a high floor and door forward design (i.e the axle is behind the door) they are more manoeuvrable and the high floor is less prone to damage on corners whilst having twice as much capacity.

Have you seen or conducted a full route risk assessment there? How many incidents have there been over the years?

No and I don't work for First to be in a position to know, my comments are from an experienced professional but outsiders view, but if there haven't been lots of incidents that is down to the skill and dedication of drivers but that doesn't mean it is fair to keep putting that expectation on them. If Go-Ahead have done a route assessment that highlighted this as dangerous and then still did it if an incident happened the compensation would be higher as they would be seen as not having taken due care of the risks.

There are plenty of routes across the country including in urban areas which may not be introduced now, but fortunately there are still responsible pragmatists in the industry who introduce appropriate mitigations to keep them going.

Possibly though mostly that is just getting a bus through due to car parking. I can't think at any route at any company I have worked for that has all of the risks of this route in such a short stretch of route. The need for the three point turn in the middle of Mousehole is probably the big safety issue that kills it from a safety perspective, particularly as in trying to manage that risk means you are having to compromise the service you provide by running smaller buses than demand requires.

Please define "safety nightmare". How many other current routes in the UK fall into this category? Also, what's your opinion of First continuing to serve the route when in your opinion it's a "safety nightmare".

As I outlined there are multiple high risk aspects all within a 300m section of route. It is a very narrow approach then 2 blind 90 degree bends with no room at all to adjust the bus to give room to pedestrians or cars. The bus has to do a 3 point turn in the middle of the village, across a shop entrance and one of the exits from the 'beach' so there are lots of kids not paying attention. There are no pavements to drop off safely but this also means pedestrians are prone to wander into and around traffic. Even a decade ago many of these risks were lessened as people were a bit more prone to care but in recent years there are more people (may still be a minority but a bigger one than it used to be) who expect everyone else to make space for them and seem to lack a bit of self-preservation instinct.

I can understand why they were reticent to change it (they have a long standing involvement and then took over the rest of the route from a much loved independent, all when traffic was lighter and buses smaller) and once they have made that decision when they took it on it is difficult to reverse that unless there is a major incident, which you are intimating hadn't happened, though they were clearly struggling to acquire suitable vehicles with enough capacity for the demand and small enough for this issue. That calculation will change when a new operator takes over - different people making the decision, different history, different fleet calculation and a clean sheet view which

If the route so dangerous for a bus to get into the village what's it going to be like when passengers have to walk the very same route?

Safer as they aren't having to deal with buses squeezing in at the same time and part of the danger I highlighted was all the pedestrians coming from the car park next to where the bus is now terminating.

What's your route risk assessment of the new turning manoeuvre into Parkryn Road?

Not ideal but safer than the Harbour as there are clearly defined pavements and less tourists (particularly children) wandering around not properly paying attention.

I could see a limited solution with the council providing in some manner a small minibus (so easier to turn or possibly even able to run in a loop) into the Harbour for the elderly & infirm at a low frequency whilst Go-Ahead provide the higher frequency for the regular passengers but turning at Parkryn Road.

 

[Goldfish62]

Some observations from this morning so far.

The 1/1A, 2/3, 6, 14/18 are all double deck.

The 4/4A and 17 are full-length E200s.

The E400 Cities seem to be mainly concentrated on the 14/18 and 32, ie the primary trunk routes.

Very early days of course and things may change again, especially as it's half term week.

 

[Express380]

Some observations from this morning so far.

The 1/1A, 2/3, 6, 14/18 are all double deck.

The 4/4A and 17 are full-length E200s.

The E400 Cities seem to be mainly concentrated on the 14/18 and 32, ie the primary trunk routes.

Very early days of course and things may change again, especially as it's half term week.

Considering how many extra buses they said was needed, hardly any are out! Although it depends if you counts the 400 Cities but they aren't exactly a recent addition down here.

Might be as you mentioned the half term timetable requiring less.

 

[DaveHarries]

Yes, I was on said vehicle with him driving as well. In fact he started out as a driver at Penzance in the late 90s and drove regularly on the Mousehole route. Relevant to mention that the Sprinters have reversing cameras.

Interesting that GCB have acquired some Sprinters then: I wonder where those will go. As far as the Mousehole Harbour turnaround is concerned though I definitely wouldn't fancy trying to do that without a reversing camera.

On a completely different matter several brand new BYD BD11s are on way their way on loan from London to Plymouth.

Yuck. I don't mind electrics but having recently seen a couple of single-deck Metrolince BYDs at Hengrove (Bristol) where they were paying a call for charging - I know they departed later for London because I passed one on the M4 - I hope they are not staying. I wonder what is being awaited which necessitates the need for the BYDs.

Dave

 

[Goldfish62]

Considering how many extra buses they said was needed, hardly any are out! Although it depends if you counts the 400 Cities but they aren't exactly a recent addition down here.

Might be as you mentioned the half term timetable requiring less.

Yes, half term requires significantly fewer vehicles due to no college or schools work.

It gives GoAhead some breathing space to get things up and running for next week.

 

[RELL6L]

At Mousehole I am 100% with Go Cornwall on this. They have not withdrawn anything, First withdrew all their services. This gave Go Cornwall and everyone else an opportunity to register whatever they wanted in the area, but no obligation to do anything. Go Cornwall registered what they wanted to register which covers basically the whole First network, albeit with some routes on reduced frequencies. At Mousehole they had the option to register to the harbour, acquire suitable vehicles, provide a sufficiently frequent service to cover the needs of Mousehole and Newlyn using small buses, not interwork with anything unless buying even more small buses and using them on other routes, or doing what they have done. I expected the 6 to be interworked with the 4/4A but this doesn't seem to be happening.

Nobody else has registered to operate to Mousehole harbour, or indeed cover any of First's network. It is up to Cornwall County Council, if they think any aspect of the network is inadequate, to provide such further services as they deem to be required. Presumably, under the terms of Go Cornwall's agreement with the council, it would be for Go Cornwall to provide such further services. It appears Cornwall County Council have decided not to provide anything.

Not Go Cornwall's obligation or problem.

 

[Goldfish62]

Yuck. I don't mind electrics but having recently seen a couple of single-deck Metrolince BYDs at Hengrove (Bristol) where they were paying a call for charging - I know they departed later for London because I passed one on the M4 - I hope they are not staying. I wonder what is being awaited which necessitates the need for the BYDs.

Dave

I like the BYD double decks. They might be pig-ugly, but they're smoothest riding and most rattle-free of any EVs I travel on. Plus they actually have working heating (take note, Wrightbus).

Allegedly, on top of the eight already arrived at Plymouth there's another 12 due. It's all most surprising and it'll be interesting to see what use they're put to.

 

[buscoaster]

I do think it an odd decision not to have kept the T1 and T2 route numbering. The routes have been given a much higher profile in recent years with the T prefix, and I think the renumbering takes away from the trunk nature of the route. Small detail on the surface — but route numbers carry real commercial value. Under First Kernow, those numbers had built recognition and familiarity along the north coast, as well as within the tourist industry. A pity!

 

[Goldfish62]

I do think it an odd decision not to have kept the T1 and T2 route numbering. The routes have been given a much higher profile in recent years with the T prefix, and I think the renumbering takes away from the trunk nature of the route. Small detail on the surface — but route numbers carry real commercial value. Under First Kernow, those numbers had built recognition and familiarity along the north coast, as well as within the tourist industry. A pity!

There was much scepticism, including from myself when the 14 and 18 were renumbered, but now it seems odd reverting back to them!

As others have mentioned, in contrast to other GoAhead OpCos GSW are very much a plain vanilla operator so don't expect any great flourish of marketing as in the 2016-20 period of Kernow.

 

[DaveHarries]

I like the BYD double decks. They might be pig-ugly, but they're smoothest riding and most rattle-free of any EVs I travel on. Plus they actually have working heating (take note, Wrightbus).

I haven't heard good things of the Wrightbus EVs which run between Taunton and Minehead (although I will try before I judge) but I have travelled on one the Wrightbus EVs in Plymouth (short ride on a 21A between Stonehouse and Plymouth City Centre while on a work errand: no rattles) which I found to be OK and I am glad they went for the design they did on those. I have also been on the Yutongs in Bristol, Newport and Cardiff (E12 and, in Bristol, U11DD - not sampled the Newport U11DDs - which I also have found to be a good ride). I haven't tried the ADL E100EV and E200EV or the newer E400EV (I may try and sample an E100EV or E200EV when Bath get theirs later in 2026) although the ADL electric deckers in Coventry I always found to be a good ride too.

I presume that they BYDs on loan to Plymouth will be used while some of PCB's deckers are down in Cornwall helping out so that suggests to me that some of the new arrivals due for GCB have been delayed in appearing.

Dave

 

[Goldfish62]

I haven't tried the ADL E100EV and E200EV or the newer E400EV (I may try and sample an E100EV or E200EV when Bath get theirs later in 2026) although the ADL electric deckers in Coventry I always found to be a good ride too.

The ones in Coventry are BYDs with ADL bodywork.

I presume that they BYDs on loan to Plymouth will be used while some of PCB's deckers are down in Cornwall helping out so that suggests to me that some of the new arrivals due for GCB have been delayed in appearing.

Dave

Quite possibly so. The next few months I'm sure will be very interesting both in Cornwall and Plymouth!