BusAndTrainUser Verify

Tuesday 23rd April 2024

Welcome to another investigation into a sensational public transport headline from the mainstream media.

Way back on 11th October last year BBC News carried a story stating “more than 500 people have signed a petition to save a bus stop in Cornwall set to be removed due to safety concerns”.

It was a bus stop I knew (and loved) well – the terminal point for buses serving the picturesque fishing community of Fowey where, according to the BBC “the area has been used as a pick-up point for passengers in Fowey for more than 100 years” which was one aspect of the story that definitely rang true; but the rest of the story all seemed a bit odd to me, so it’s been sitting in my “must verify this in a blog, one day” pending file for months ….. until today.

The story stated residents are opposed to the stop’s move because “an alternative stop on Hanson Drive .…. being in a less safe location with no shelter, seating or live travel updates”.

One resident Gretchen Viehmann said the stop had a “natural logic” as “a terminus for the bus services” and she was not sure why it had “suddenly become an issue“.

Gretchen is no stranger to the media. She’s Head of Documentary & Editorial Photography at Falmouth University and has been the Director of Photography for both the New York Post and the New York Daily News.

The story was followed up on 19th October with an explanation from Richard Stevens, managing director of Go Cornwall who said the change to the terminus arrangement was “not made lightly” but “safety considerations” including “numerous incidents since 2020 involving near misses and more seriously crushing the bench outside the pub on multiple occasions.”

That must be some crushed bench.

Even more dramatic “the final occasion there were people sitting on the bench. This is an unacceptable risk,” Richard unsurprisingly added.

When reading these stories last October something didn’t seem right to me. Firstly, the summer 2023 timetable for Go Cornwall’s hourly route 25 showed the terminal point had been moved to a new site at the town’s Readymoney car park (that really is it’s name) from April that year, so the BBC news story in October was somewhat dated and its references to “Go Cornwall is set to remove the stop in Fowey from January” (2024) wide of the mark – by nine months.

Secondly, to add to the intrigue, First Kernow’s hourly route 24 which also serves Fowey continued to turn round outside the Safe Harbour Hotel, and still does to this day, and, I assume people continue to sit on the bench.

I finally managed to find the time to pop down to Cornwall and visit the delightful Safe Harbour Hotel terminal point in Fowey last Thursday to establish whether Safe Harbour really is safe and have a look at that alternative “less safe” stop without “shelter, seating or live travel updates“.

I travelled to Fowey on Go Cornwall’s long hourly route 25 which links Newquay with St Austell, Par and Fowey and planned to return on First Kernow’s route 24 which also links the town with Par and St Austell albeit using a more direct route as far as Par.

Here’s a map to show the location of the controversial terminus point outside the Safe Harbour Hotel as well as the extended route followed by Go Cornwall’s buses for the past 12 months to the replacement terminus at Readymoney car park.

Two things may strike you from the map. Firstly the short distance from the Safe Harbour Hotel bus stop to the alleged “less safe” bus stop from where route 25 now continues its route along Hanson Drive, illustrated more clearly in the following map in red.

It’s 160 yards.

And secondly the thought that quite a few houses along the 0.6 mile route extension along Hanson Drive and Tower Park might benefit from the four bus stops along that road now served by the 25.

And indeed that is the case. Residents no longer have a lengthy walk to the Safe Harbour Hotel terminus. Here are all the houses now better served, highlighted by Google’s satellite.

Quite apart from any safety concerns at the Safe Harbour Hotel, an extension of the route seems like a very good idea for residents wanting to access St Austell for example. There is a Fowey Town Bus which connects the car park with the “town centre”.

It even has its own Facebook page…

… and is particularly popular with tourists arriving by car in the summer.

I alighted from the bus on route 25 at the bus stop just before where Hanson Drive starts, along with the other four passengers on the bus, which then continued with no-one on to Readymoney car park.

The above maps don’t convey the steep and narrow incline of the road leading down to the Safe Harbour Hotel so here are a few photographs to illustrate the scene. The first shows the bus on route 25 continuing on to Hanson Drive at the point where buses on route 24 turn left through the ‘No Motor Vehicles except for access’ signs and immediately turn right in front of the white building.

Buses then take the narrow left hand fork marked “Town – Esplanade”.

To arrive alongside the Safe Harbour Hotel.

The bus can’t go any further, and the controversial bus stop is marked with a flag on the No Motor Vehicles pole together with a timetable case and yellow markings on the road immediately outside the hotel.

As you can see, not only are there two benches outside the hotel (one of which looks rather new), which the bus reverses in front of to reach the yellow road marking bus stop, someone was enjoying a pint in the afternoon sunshine while someone else had parked their mobility scooter outside.

It’s a lovely spot, especially on a beautiful sunny afternoon. One of the quietest and most peaceful bus termini you could find.

But is it safe?

There’s no doubt the First Kernow bus driver I witnessed was well experienced in how to enact the reverse manoeuvre. He pulled over to his right as he passed the hotel.

Then reversed hard left to reach the bus stop marking.

The man on the bench didn’t flinch. And a passenger waiting for the bus knew to wait by the bus stop pole/flag rather than by the road marking.

She was joined by another passenger and boarded the bus – the driver having conveniently lined the door up with the road junction.

Whereas route 24 used to run hourly from Fowey via St Austell to Mevagissey and the Lost Gardens of Heligan…

… this summer’s timetable has seen the route split in St Austell with the Fowey leg (still numbered 24) reduced to a 90 minute frequency with only seven journeys a day.

Safe Harbour Hotel’s terminus has therefore gone from 29 bus reversing manoeuvres a day up until April 2023 (including one at midnight) on both routes 24 and 25 down to just seven now.

But is it safe? If it’s not, then even one dangerous reversing manoeuvre is one too many.

The use of reversing horns and the fitting of rear cameras, giving bus drivers a clear view of what they’re reversing into, would certainly be essential aids I’d insist on to ensure risks are minimised.

Take a look at the video below and see what you think.

And yes, I nearly did get run over in the process.

And finally, as for that alternative “less safe” bus stop that’s 160 yards away “with no shelter, seating or live travel updates” – here it is with a passenger boarding as I left Fowey’s Safe Harbour Hotel on route 24. I’m sure I can see a bus shelter complete with a seat.

And I must have failed to spot the real time sign (giving “live travel updates”) at the Safe Harbour terminus. Some chance. There wasn’t even a mobile signal.

Sadly I suspect there’s no place for nostalgia for a bygone era of idyllic bus turning arrangements at termini in beautiful Cornish coastal locations like Fowey when it comes to today’s risk averse culture and I suspect this terminus, even with its reduced number of buses, is on borrowed time.

Let’s hope the BBC report on any future developments both accurately and in a timely fashion.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS

Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.