Public Transport in your particular part of the region

[Alexia]

When do I need to consider replacing the track on the Hornby train set I built in 1999?

If you look after it, never. Unless you're losing electrical fidelity or have dead sections.

[Pete]

I see Edinburgh City Council have merged the trams and lothian into a new company called "Transport for Edinburgh" with fancy pants new websites for both the trams and Lothian buses.

Was lovely to see a tram in the wild at the airport the other day, didn't see it moving but you can't ask for everything.

[JAS84]

So, Torquay. The biggest town in the area but the main connections to the rest of the country by road and rail are a few miles away at Newton Abbot, so getting to/from there or on to neighbouring Paignton are the main two priorities for public transport.

Buses are almost exclusively operated by Stagecoach and are very expensive compared to other places I've lived. A £5.10 'dayrider' ticket is usually the cheapest way to travel anywhere if you need a return, with single journey tickets costing even more. Stagecoach will argue this is amazing value when you get unlimited travel that day on the ticket, but I am sure they are blissfully aware that the majority of holders are only going to make a single return journey.

Huh, that's odd, why so expensive? Stagecoach in Hull only charges £2.90 for a Dayrider.

[wells]

One probably covers all Stagecoach services in a wide part of the county, whilst one covers just a city. The state of the local market and competition will also relevant. I would imagine there is more operators in Hull than in Torquay.

In Redditch you can travel all day for about £1.80, but countywide day tickets for Worcestershire come in over the £6 mark. Luckily a single day ticket now exists that can be used across multiple operators within the county. Invaluable now that First have sold up in parts of the county but not in Worcester City.

[JAS84]

You imagine wrong. There used to be, but now Stagecoach does almost all services in Hull and East Yorkshire Motor Services does routes which lead into the East Riding. So Stagecoach pretty much have a monopoly here.

[wells]

You imagine wrong. There used to be, but now Stagecoach does almost all services in Hull and East Yorkshire Motor Services does routes which lead into the East Riding. So Stagecoach pretty much have a monopoly here.

Still pricing will be set on a market by market basis and the poster you were responding to was clearly talking about a ticket that takes him inbetween several towns.

[Alexia]

Perhaps the fact that Torquay's population is dominated by retirees (over 26% are over 60) and will have free bus passes has something to do with it.

[thegeek]

Was lovely to see a tram in the wild at the airport the other day, didn't see it moving but you can't ask for everything.

It was probably just a model.

[AJ]

The buses down here in Reading are excellent. Each bus is colour coded according to the route it operates on so that those who have certain visual impairments can work out where the bus is going just by glancing at it. It also helps when you're absolutely plastered on a Saturday night!



All of the buses are clean and don't smell of piss which is always a bonus, and most of the routes run every 7-10 minutes throughout the day. They have services going through the night too. All reasonably priced with smart ticketing etc.

Really impressive bus company, if there is such a thing!

[Nick Harvey]

It was the bus company in Torquay, if I remember rightly, which was the first to convert to Catholicism and have signs saying "Please let the bus pull out" on the backs of all of them.

I appear to have been talking about it back in 2002.

[Alexia]

We had "Please let the bus out" and thumbs in the mid-90s down our way. Weirdly, Stagecoach and Glyn Williams had differently designed thumbs.