Today's Sunday Lost Scenes comes from Liskeard in 2003...
Dennis Dart 125 - L125YOD - Liskeard railway station - 6th August 2003
Plymouth Citybus once operated the route connecting Plymouth and Liskeard by bus. Since I've been an enthusiast (from about 2001), this route has never really prospered as an interurban route or connecting with inner-most Cornwall. I probably expect this is because of the rail service. Plymouth Citybus operated the route as the 77, which I seem to remember being hourly. I'm guessing the main allocation were Darts as pictured above, but I was no expert on Plymouth's buses back then.
This shot can no longer be reproduced. The bus was sold in 2009 to Devon & Cornwall Police, and the Plymouth - Liskeard corridor is operated by Western Greyhound. The livery is also obsolete, and I'm pretty sure there are no buses left in service in this particular version. I may be corrected though. Finally, and possibly the largest change, is that PCB now have new owners in Go Ahead.
Plymouth Citybus took this route on after First withdrew. I think this was around 2000/01. Plymouth Citybus only operated the route for a couple of years I think after a great fanfare of look how wonderful we are for saving this route and that kind of thing. The First route operated every hour from Plymouth to Liskeard and continued 2 hourly to St Austell. We did therefore for just a few years have continued First services across the "St Austell Gap". I agree that the service is always hindered by the rail link but the bus does have the advantage of getting into the centre of Liskeard and serving the newer housing developments on the towns eastern edge which are all a long way from the railway station.
ReplyDelete