Great Western Coffee Shop

http://www.plusbus.info/ (http://www.plusbus.info/)

I use trains to get out & about in Devon & Cornwall and often use buses to complete my journey.
On the buses I'd usually get a point to point fare except in Plymouth where a day ticket is good value.
Day tickets can be a pain as you are tied to an operator unless you are in mid Cornwall where FirstBus & Truronian share ticketing - you can cover a lot of ground and don't have the BOJ problems.
PlusBus is even better for small areas as it (usually) covers all operators, add in a rail card (only way to get a discount on a bus) and with some planning you can really get around without worrying what colour a bus is.
Firstdayplymouth is ^3.20 but Plusbus is ^1.60 with a railcard and you can use any operators bus.
Some areas are so small or only have one operator that it's not worth it BUT....some are huge...Camborne Redruth in Cornwall is great....you can visit the mining areas from the Great Flat Load at Camborne out to the Poldice valley, where Julia Bradbury has just done a Railway Walk, and end the day at  Portreath beach       or Tehidy Country Park.
Best by far is Newton Abbot....^1.30 gets you unlimited travel to Shaldon, Babbacombe, Torquay, Paignton, Brixham, Kingswear. Buckfastleigh....I get up this way a lot to visit Paignton Zoo, Living Coasts, Kents Cavern & Dartmouth for cruises.

PlusBus sometimes won't issue through Avantix i.e. St ives/Redruth....you have to get a normal train CDR and a Redruth to Redruth PlusBus (which is a prohibited fare  ???)...similarly St Ives/Plymouth might need a BOJ before PlusBus will work.

I could get a CDR to Plymouth and a Ride Devon but the 'Ride' tickets don't discount with a rail card plus about as far as I can go in a day is Exmouth and still have time to do anything.

What a fantastic piece of reserch, how long did it take you? Also how are all these schemes publisised so that poor Jo public can use them?

What it points out is how stupidly we organise public transport in the UK and what a complete mess the fare structure is. The problem is that we think that trains and buses should compete.

By contrast have a look at http://www.cvag.de/cgi-bin/click.system?navid=1573&sid=en (http://www.cvag.de/cgi-bin/click.system?navid=1573&sid=en)

If this doesn't work try Googling Chemnitz fare zones and you get the Central Saxony Transport Authority. The website is in English!

The area must be about the same as Cornwall, it gives you all the types of tickets and fare zones. The tickets are valid on all types of transport, trains (except ICE/IC/EC), buses and trams.


 

I'd like a scheme where I could buy this on the bus on the way down to the station, would save me lots of money!

To the best of my knowledge the only rail ticket a bus driver can issue is a county wide bus & rail ranger  :(.