With public transport now being opened up to non-“essential” use and a couple of fine days in the forecast I headed off with a supply of face coverings to Cornwall to see for myself what was going on and visit some new places. My first day was a mixture of First and Transport for Cornwall (TfC).
Having stayed overnight at a Travelodge near Okehampton, first thing Monday I presented myself at Truro bus station. Truro at 6.30 am seemed fairly normal. First journey was the 6.50 U1 to Falmouth which turned up in plenty of time, a green and orange B7TL (ex Leeds?). No issue with buying a day ticket, a few people on board and an uneventful journey to Falmouth. Not much open in Falmouth at 7.45 but I spotted someone with a Costa cup, found the shop and enjoyed a coffee and bacon roll.
Then I took the ferry to Flushing, new territory for me. The ferry arrived with 3 commuters from Flushing and we left at 8.40 with me plus 6 kids and a teacher from Flushing school. Seems some children maybe live in Falmouth and go to school in Flushing, I don’t know how that works in rough weather! Flushing was small but pleasant and great views over the estuary to Falmouth.
Time to use TfC in the form of the OTS 69. BusTimes said it would be 7 minutes late, but it turned up on time. A brand new bus, a Sprinter I think, very smart. I asked for a TfC day ticket but as the road was narrow and the bus blocking it the driver asked me to wait. We continued to Penryn and arrived on time, no passengers, and the driver said he was sure he was able to issue me a day ticket but hadn’t done it before. When I said I was going on other TfC buses later and would buy one anyway if he preferred he seemed relieved. I did ask him if it affected OTS financially if I bought it elsewhere and he said it didn’t.
A brief wander round Penryn village centre and then walked down to the bridge. From here I got the First U4 to Porthleven. A town I had passed through but never stopped at and which looked worth at least 38 minutes of my time. The U4 had a few passengers, my bus was an E400 but the other U4s were elderly Tridents. There were notices about the main street in Helston being closed – indeed the published timetable even now shows buses not going via the Blue Anchor between 10.00 and 16.00. But the road isn’t closed and we went down it, delayed by a waste collection vehicle, a few minutes late in Helston but on time by Porthleven.
I dare say this is not true on a wild westerly windswept day, but on Monday Porthleven was delightful. Scenic to walk either side of the harbour with views along the coast when you have done so. I thoroughly recommend it. I then got the next U4 back to Helston. As we passed the boating lake the next U4 to Penzance was sitting at the stop clearly having not gone through the town centre. Its passengers, well four of them, were at the Blue Anchor stop with no idea what had happened to their bus. Very poor.
Now time to go on TfC as in Go Cornwall. The plan was to get the next 34 to The Lizard and it turned up about 11.35 from Redruth, but only showed Helston. The driver confirmed he was not going to the Lizard and told the four passengers waiting for this bus that we should wait at the Blue Anchor. So we waited and waited. BusTimes showed nothing, the TfC App showed “error” when I clicked on the departure time. So I thought I’d ring them once it was 10 minutes late to see how useful they were. A very helpful guy in Plymouth, but his computer was slow and it was clear that he had no more access to any useful information than I had on BusTimes and the App. He could see the one in from Redruth had stopped at Sainsburys but then didn’t know where it was, he asked people, nobody knew. Clearly no actual contact with the depot operating it, Then he said that it had appeared on the system and had left Sainsbury’s 11 minutes late. I thought he meant it would then come to pick us up (not helped by getting my Tesco and Sainsburys muddled up), but no, it just continued, no doubt empty, to the Lizard. Harder to track the 34 on BusTimes as it has two sections but you can see that fleet number 153 did do this. Very poor.
So I had an unexpected hour in Helston. Not that much to see here but not unpleasant. I got the next bus to The Lizard, a very new E200. I expected these to have USB charging points but I couldn’t find any so I asked the driver. There are a couple, but on either side by the disabled seats, you have to sit in these to use them. Not much view from there so I used it only for a quick top-up. Apparently there was a lorry blocking the road at Poldhu Cove so we couldn’t go that way, going instead round an estate in Mullion twice. Also via Ruan Minor and Kuggar before getting to The Lizard. Two other passengers as far as Mullion.
The Lizard was heaving! The green was full of cars and people picnicking, every gift shop and café seemed to be open, masses of people, certainly no social distancing. I walked down to Lizard Point, about 15 minutes each way, worth doing, not quite so many visitors there but still busy. An hour at The Lizard is just right. Luckily the lorry was blocking no more so we came back via Poldhu Cove, that looked really busy on the beach too.
I didn’t want to spend more time in Helston and had just missed the buses to Camborne so I stayed on to Redruth. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the new driver at Sainsburys but he then drove very rapidly and we were soon stopped to wait time because we were early. Going through Helston I saw the E200 numbered 153 which had taken over the missing working, it was in the petrol station by Tesco filling up. It appeared to be running live on the 14.50 from Redruth to The Lizard, again this can be seen in BusTimes – I don’t know whether there were any passengers on board! Not been to Redruth before and I liked the way the pedestrian area was laid out with the tin miner statue.
I still wanted to go to Camborne so I went for the 16.55 First T1 to Camborne. It was clear that the 16.40 had not turned up and the bus that should have been the 16.55 was now running the 16.40 through to Penzance, albeit 15 minutes late. Don’t know why, but it duly turned up 15 minutes late, drove fairly spiritedly but with plenty of stops for passengers getting on and off. Clearly this service is normally pretty busy and then a 30 minute gap would be unacceptable. A few ‘proper’ Tinner buses on the route but an assortment of other ones as well.
Really not much to see in Camborne so I headed back to Truro. Good to see a couple of guys going round the bus to sanitise it when it came in even at this hour. Back at Truro just under 12 hours since I had left.
All the drivers friendly, buses seemed clean and well presented, passengers’ faces duly covered. But black marks for First missing out Helston town centre on the U4, for TfC missing a journey from Helston to the Lizard and to First for a missing T1.
There have been posts recently about public toilets. At 60+ these matter to me too! Truro bus station open all day, certainly at 6.30 am and 6.50 pm. Falmouth pier open. Penryn by the bridge. Helston at the Parade. Three in The Lizard although with queues. So no problem. Not Flushing though – no flushing in Flushing (sorry)!
Having stayed overnight at a Travelodge near Okehampton, first thing Monday I presented myself at Truro bus station. Truro at 6.30 am seemed fairly normal. First journey was the 6.50 U1 to Falmouth which turned up in plenty of time, a green and orange B7TL (ex Leeds?). No issue with buying a day ticket, a few people on board and an uneventful journey to Falmouth. Not much open in Falmouth at 7.45 but I spotted someone with a Costa cup, found the shop and enjoyed a coffee and bacon roll.
Then I took the ferry to Flushing, new territory for me. The ferry arrived with 3 commuters from Flushing and we left at 8.40 with me plus 6 kids and a teacher from Flushing school. Seems some children maybe live in Falmouth and go to school in Flushing, I don’t know how that works in rough weather! Flushing was small but pleasant and great views over the estuary to Falmouth.
Time to use TfC in the form of the OTS 69. BusTimes said it would be 7 minutes late, but it turned up on time. A brand new bus, a Sprinter I think, very smart. I asked for a TfC day ticket but as the road was narrow and the bus blocking it the driver asked me to wait. We continued to Penryn and arrived on time, no passengers, and the driver said he was sure he was able to issue me a day ticket but hadn’t done it before. When I said I was going on other TfC buses later and would buy one anyway if he preferred he seemed relieved. I did ask him if it affected OTS financially if I bought it elsewhere and he said it didn’t.
A brief wander round Penryn village centre and then walked down to the bridge. From here I got the First U4 to Porthleven. A town I had passed through but never stopped at and which looked worth at least 38 minutes of my time. The U4 had a few passengers, my bus was an E400 but the other U4s were elderly Tridents. There were notices about the main street in Helston being closed – indeed the published timetable even now shows buses not going via the Blue Anchor between 10.00 and 16.00. But the road isn’t closed and we went down it, delayed by a waste collection vehicle, a few minutes late in Helston but on time by Porthleven.
I dare say this is not true on a wild westerly windswept day, but on Monday Porthleven was delightful. Scenic to walk either side of the harbour with views along the coast when you have done so. I thoroughly recommend it. I then got the next U4 back to Helston. As we passed the boating lake the next U4 to Penzance was sitting at the stop clearly having not gone through the town centre. Its passengers, well four of them, were at the Blue Anchor stop with no idea what had happened to their bus. Very poor.
Now time to go on TfC as in Go Cornwall. The plan was to get the next 34 to The Lizard and it turned up about 11.35 from Redruth, but only showed Helston. The driver confirmed he was not going to the Lizard and told the four passengers waiting for this bus that we should wait at the Blue Anchor. So we waited and waited. BusTimes showed nothing, the TfC App showed “error” when I clicked on the departure time. So I thought I’d ring them once it was 10 minutes late to see how useful they were. A very helpful guy in Plymouth, but his computer was slow and it was clear that he had no more access to any useful information than I had on BusTimes and the App. He could see the one in from Redruth had stopped at Sainsburys but then didn’t know where it was, he asked people, nobody knew. Clearly no actual contact with the depot operating it, Then he said that it had appeared on the system and had left Sainsbury’s 11 minutes late. I thought he meant it would then come to pick us up (not helped by getting my Tesco and Sainsburys muddled up), but no, it just continued, no doubt empty, to the Lizard. Harder to track the 34 on BusTimes as it has two sections but you can see that fleet number 153 did do this. Very poor.
So I had an unexpected hour in Helston. Not that much to see here but not unpleasant. I got the next bus to The Lizard, a very new E200. I expected these to have USB charging points but I couldn’t find any so I asked the driver. There are a couple, but on either side by the disabled seats, you have to sit in these to use them. Not much view from there so I used it only for a quick top-up. Apparently there was a lorry blocking the road at Poldhu Cove so we couldn’t go that way, going instead round an estate in Mullion twice. Also via Ruan Minor and Kuggar before getting to The Lizard. Two other passengers as far as Mullion.
The Lizard was heaving! The green was full of cars and people picnicking, every gift shop and café seemed to be open, masses of people, certainly no social distancing. I walked down to Lizard Point, about 15 minutes each way, worth doing, not quite so many visitors there but still busy. An hour at The Lizard is just right. Luckily the lorry was blocking no more so we came back via Poldhu Cove, that looked really busy on the beach too.
I didn’t want to spend more time in Helston and had just missed the buses to Camborne so I stayed on to Redruth. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the new driver at Sainsburys but he then drove very rapidly and we were soon stopped to wait time because we were early. Going through Helston I saw the E200 numbered 153 which had taken over the missing working, it was in the petrol station by Tesco filling up. It appeared to be running live on the 14.50 from Redruth to The Lizard, again this can be seen in BusTimes – I don’t know whether there were any passengers on board! Not been to Redruth before and I liked the way the pedestrian area was laid out with the tin miner statue.
I still wanted to go to Camborne so I went for the 16.55 First T1 to Camborne. It was clear that the 16.40 had not turned up and the bus that should have been the 16.55 was now running the 16.40 through to Penzance, albeit 15 minutes late. Don’t know why, but it duly turned up 15 minutes late, drove fairly spiritedly but with plenty of stops for passengers getting on and off. Clearly this service is normally pretty busy and then a 30 minute gap would be unacceptable. A few ‘proper’ Tinner buses on the route but an assortment of other ones as well.
Really not much to see in Camborne so I headed back to Truro. Good to see a couple of guys going round the bus to sanitise it when it came in even at this hour. Back at Truro just under 12 hours since I had left.
All the drivers friendly, buses seemed clean and well presented, passengers’ faces duly covered. But black marks for First missing out Helston town centre on the U4, for TfC missing a journey from Helston to the Lizard and to First for a missing T1.
There have been posts recently about public toilets. At 60+ these matter to me too! Truro bus station open all day, certainly at 6.30 am and 6.50 pm. Falmouth pier open. Penryn by the bridge. Helston at the Parade. Three in The Lizard although with queues. So no problem. Not Flushing though – no flushing in Flushing (sorry)!
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