General Discussion
I have received confirmation from Stagecoach that they will no longer be visiting Dawlish Warren from May 27th. They will be changing the route of the number 2 bus so that it goes directly from Dawlish to Starcross. At present there are up to 3 buses per hour operating in the village going in either direction. The replacement timetable will be a different bus operating one collection per hour from Dawlish Warren. Anyone concerned about the change should contact Stagecoach (contact details on their website). This may have a significant impact on the elderly, disabled and non-driver local population who rely on the bus service to reach the region's hospitals, shopping centres and attractions.
Dawlish Warren will be served by new extended Torquay - Dawlish - Dawlish Warren Service 11
and Service B Dawlish Warren via Marsh Barton to Exeter
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Service 2 will no longer run via Dawlish Warren. It currently runs from Exeter Road via Warren Road and Mount Pleasant Road, turns at the Beach Road Car Park then goes back the same way to Exeter Road.
To replace Service 2 in Dawlish Warren Stagecoach are extending Service 11 (Torquay - Teignmouth) to Dawish Warren. In addition, they are commercially extending certain Service B journeys beyond Exminster to Dawlish Warren, via the same route as the current Service 2.
Dawlish Warren thereby retains direct links to Exeter, Dawlish and Teignmouth and gains a direct link to Torquay. Passengers for Newton Abbot, however, will need to change in Dawlish.
The County Council-supported Service 187 (Dawlish Community Transport) from Dawlish Warren via Cockwood to Dawlish is not affected by these changes
Seems to be an improvement, gives Dawlish a direct connection with Torquay and two routes to Exeter one of them through Marsh Barton.
Stagecoach 2 service currently runs three times per hour during the daytime serving the needs of people doing a school run, reaching employment and attending regional hospital appointments. The new timetable for B will schedule one direct bus per hour going out of the village. The 187 Rosie bus operates a very limited service of one pick up and one drop off in the village per day. This maybe helpful to elderly and disabled people wanting to get to the shops, but not for passengers such as myself and my children who need public transport earlier in the morning and in the late afternoon.
I have seen the timetable, although it has not been officially published yet. Lots of people who are dependent on the bus here in the Warren are not aware of the changes. The bus has been a lifeline to people like me who do a lot of hospital visiting up at RDE, or need to get children to school. There are no signs on the bus stop to alert them and not everyone would check the Stagecoach website. To go from 2-5 direct buses per hour in both directions down to one per hour that goes to Exeter will no doubt impact on the community.
From 27 May a number of changes to routes 2, 11 and B to provide an improved service for the majority of passengers.
Route 2 will become a faster, more reliable connection to Exeter and Newton Abbot. To achieve this most journeys will no longer make the sizeable deviation to Dawlish Warren, with new routes from Exeter and Torquay to start and finish there instead. The time saved will offer a faster journey into Exeter and more time for recovery in the event of delays and congestion etc.
Route 11 will be increased in frequency and extended from Teignmouth to Dawlish and Dawlish Warren. Residents and visitors to Dawlish Warren will benefit from a half hourly service to Dawlish and an hourly service will run through to Torquay seven days a week, summer and winter. There will also be late evening journeys for people wishing to have an evening out in either Torquay or Dawlish.
Route B will be extended to include a half hour service to Kenton, Starcross, Shutterton and an hourly service to Dawlish or Dawlish Warren, providing residents in these areas with new connections to Marsh Barton, Exeter City Centre and Exeter Business Park. This new timetable will also incorporate the current route 10 journeys through from Teignmouth.
New service 2A will provide an hourly link between Exeter and Dawlish Warren on Sundays and Bank Holidays, plus two early morning journeys during the week to maintain commuter connections for the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. At other times access to the RD&E will be possible either by using the B and the 11 to connect onto the 2 or by using the B to travel into Exeter city centre and transferring onto the high frequency H and 57 bus routes. Through tickets will be available for all of these journeys.
Timetables for all services will be available shortly.
I know! The original post gives people the impression there will be no more buses which is not the case. As you see the new service to Marsh Barton and to the City Centre plus the new service to Torquay. People wishing to travel to or from Dawlish/Exeter will find it more attractive than the existing longer journey via the Warren..
...and people living in Dawlish Warren will be left with one direct bus to Exeter per hour (Bus B), with no direct service to Newton Abbot anymore. There will be no Stagecoach 2 bus operating in Dawlish Warren from May 27th. Lots of elderly and disabled people here, as well as young families who need a decent bus service to get from A to B during the daytime.
Oh dear ..
Service B will offer you a bus every half hour all day starting at Dawlish Warren to Exeter via Marsh Barton, this is new and not available now..
Service 11 will offfer a bus every half hour to Dawlish and hourly through to Torqoay ..which is not currrently available now.
So together you have four buses from Dawlish Warren an hour to the main Exeter Road...you can use Service 11 or B to catch service 2.
Hope thats clear now ..the new services are not financially supported,
I would have thought people would be pleased with buses in Torquay ..with destination Dawlish Warren...and from Exeter, B going right through the Exeter High Street ... Dawlish Warren, serving the Marsh Barton shops.
So its not the end of the world ..in fact there will be more buses than now along Exeter Road ,,,that should raise a complaint then lol.
1. Bus B will not offer a service every half an hour directly from Dawlish Warren. This has been confirmed by Stagecoach management and Devon County Council in writing. The press release may put a positive spin on things, but the proposed timetable is rather different. Anyone wishing to use the number 2 bus will have to change at the Marine Parade and wait for a connecting service. This is not exactly practical for young families, elderly, disabled or anyone wishing to get somewhere in a hurry.
2. There will be one direct bus per hour from Dawlish Warren to Exeter. This will be bus B.
3. The number 11 bus will call at Dawlish Warren before reaching Dawlish and Teignmouth. This will be a half hourly service. Anyone wishing to go to Newton Abbot will have to change there for another bus.
4. The number 2 bus calls at Dawlish Warren at the moment at times to suit local school runs to Gatehouse, Cockwood and Starcross. This will be abolished under the new B bus timetable which will run one bus at 7.58 and no further service until after 9am.
Having to change buses to make a connection is hardly anything new and as there is also the option of catching a train from Dawlish Warren then there are still plenty more transport options than a lot of villages get, so it might not be as totally convenient as before but it certainly isn't cut off from anywhere. I have been on the number 2 bus plenty of times when it has done the journey to and from Dawlish Warren, from either Teignmouth or Exeter direction and picked up/dropped off no passengers at all. Yet all the passengers have to pay extra fare stages because the bus does that detour down to the Warren. It cannot have been a cost effective section of the route except maybe in the summer months.
And the walking distance from the Warren to Cockwood isn't that far and easily done along the nicely laid out path they have put in along there - far less distance than I walked my children to school. And if Starcross or Gatehouse are too far to walk then there is always the train to Dawlish or Starcross stations and then walk from there, but again I can't see that either of those schools is outside a reasonable walking distance twice a day and far cheaper than catching a bus. Money saved on sunny days could help pay for a taxi if needed in a hurry on rainy days.
DJ - the walk between Dawlish Warren and Cockwood is too far twice a day for small children of 4, 5 or 6 years. The main problem with the route is flooding when it rains, and speeding cars as you have to cross the road a few times to get from A to B dodging boy racers as you go. I am fortunate to have secured a bus pass for my son because he has a qualifying medical condition. Devon County Council will now have to find alternative means of transport at greater cost to them due to the Stagecoach decision.
I think the Warren stop was cost-effective for Stagecoach because they picked up a lot of older passengers using bus passes after 9.30am. They get reimbursed for the fare costs and I give them £6.50 every weekday in fare to escort my son to school. They pick up people going to the region's hospitals and those employed locally so it is a sad loss to the community. They haven't indicated that they have changed the route of number 2 because of cost; it is an efficiency exercise aimed at speeding up the route and attracting more customers from other locations.
The train leaves Dawlish Warren towards Starcross just before 8am, and there is no further service until an hour later. This is not suited to a school run at Starcross or Cockwood. In the other direction, there is a train leaving at 8.10am going to Dawlish. Children are not generally permitted on school premises for insurance purposes until 8.30/8.40.
Stagecoach are well aware of the movement of passengers and as DJ says, I know too that many many journeys go down the Warren and dont set down or pick anyone up. Just high summer its busy but the new services will still cater a service. Plus you will have without a change a direct bus to and from Torquay. I would have thought as you mention the elderly, they surely will find travel direct to the Exeter High Street rather than to the bus station a bonus.
Its as always... swings and roundabouts.
Certainly anyone now, wishing to work at Marsh Barton would have to go into the Bus Station and then out again from the High St on another bus, would take 90 minutes, so people would not do it.
Look at the current Dawlish town service. If anyone remembers before Sainsburys, the town service would only have 6 bus journeys and it ended as early as 3pm. Now it runs regularly from 7am to 7pm!!! ...I realise positive points are never pointed >