Inadequate bus timetables

[whole diary]

[Eliza]

Has anyone else had my experience of phoning their local bus company to ask for timetable information and being told that a full timetable ie one that lists all the stops and timings is not produced?  The collective mantra is, "It would be impossible/too long/too expensive to list all the stops". 

To put this into context, I tried yesterday to query with Stagecoach South West whether their flagship 12 bus route was missing two stops online, called "Near Grand Hotel", which serves Torquay Railway Station, and "Torre Abbey Meadows".  I was told quite emphatically that no full timetable was published, meaning that the stops could not be queried.

I did pursue it again today and was told that few people ask for the full timetable.  I think that will be quite true, if they have to go through so many hoops!

[ChrisB]

Have you tried Traveline online? You can get what looks to me like full time tables there to print off

[JayMac]

Those stops are listed if you use Traveline South West. I too find it frustrating that bus companies don't provide timetables that list all stops. Particularly when they provide the information to Traveline.

http://www.travelinesw.com/swe/XSLT_TTB_REQUEST?language=en&line=33012&lineVer=1&sup=%20&net=swe&project=y10&outputFormat=0&command=direct&itdLPxx_displayHeader=false&itdLPxx_sessionID=EFA02_51035898&itdLPxx_operatorCodeForTTB=SD

[Eliza]

Thank you ChrisB and bignosemac for directing me to Traveline South West.  I do use it and it has the All Stops feature that I want.  I also look at Google Maps.  The link to the no 12 bus timetable, which bnm provided, looked promising but it's for the outbound (Brixham) journey.  The stops I want are opposite (inbound to Newton Abbot) and they are IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) missing, as regards the 12 bus.  One, if not two, of them were missing last summer.  Do the employees of Stagecoach know but not bother? 

[LiskeardRich]

First Cornwalls Facebook, recently told a customer the bus doesn't serve their road. I felt the need to comment to tell the person asking the question that 2 different routes passed the road. Firsts reasoning they didn't know was its not on any timetable. The problem being someone not local but in Southampton manning the social media without local knowledge to know between timetable point A and B the bus travels along road x,y&z

[chuffed]

I have always found the Stagecoach staff in the travel shop located in Paignton bus station very knowledgeable and helpful. As I recall the 12 runs every 10 minutes throughout the day so you should never have too long to wait !

[bobm]

While researching my recent trip around the country, I found sorting out the handful of buses I planned to catch much more consuming than the 80-odd trains I caught.

Searching on Google often pulled up an out of date timetable which the operator had left lurking on their website and it took time to establish which was the one currently in operation.

In an attempt to have the correct change for the fare, I then contacted the operators concerned to establish the cost or the existence of any rover tickets.  This produced a mixed response.  Some simply never replied, others were just spectacularly wrong.  The best example was in North Wales, where I was quoted ^4.50 for an adult single.  On the day it was ^1.80!

[Eliza]

Thank you, richwarwicker and chuffed, and now bobm, whose frustration with the system seems to echo mine.  It does appear that the person with local knowledge is the best one to approach.  I shall recontact Stagecoach and ask pointedly if there is a mistake in their timetable.  It will be interesting to see if I get a straight answer.

[njt]

A bus company can register a service with a minimal number of stops detailed on the service registration.  The public timetable usually expands this to key points.

The full stop listing on Traveline are generally calculated not provided by bus companies hence the difference in how stops information is displayed.

[Eliza]

Bus timetables are clearly a very rich seam to mine!  Thank you njt for what sounds like an informed comment.

[Eliza]

A happy ending to my annoyance with Stagecoach South West.  The Communications Coordinator emailed me twice today and seemed to agree, without committing herself, that the timetable had managed to lose two bus stops.  She also said that a new website was under construction.

[Rapidash]

Shouldn't  be an issue with the 12, surely? Can't really go wrong with one every ten minutes, or as most days of the week 3 at once due to the Newton Road being the the hell spawn that it is. Even Sauron and Voldemort would hesitate inflicting it on their enemies.

You can't tell that it's my local route at all, eh?

[Eliza]

Don't worry, Rapidash.  It's only on paper that the two bus stops are missing.  The 12 continues to serve both.  (I was in Torquay on Saturday to notice.)  It is a frequent service, with a long route from Newton Abbot to Paignton, which is covered by one PlusBus ticket.

My grouse was that I noticed, when journey planning a year ago, that the stops were missing (IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)) and I attempted to query this with Stagecoach.  It became clear to me that I was in a Catch 22 situation, where they had to look up a detailed timetable to check on the facts, but insisted that they only had a summarised version (of timing points).  Last week, I looked again at their online timetable, found that the two stops were still missing and tried to raise the matter by phoning their main number.  All I got was, "We don't publish a full timetable", and, when I tried to say that they did on their website, was told firmly that, "NO company publishes a full timetable".

I apologise for having, what is called on these pages, a "mini rant" but that was my experience of trying to be a good citizen.