24 hours in Penzance and Truro

Thursday 19th February 2026

I popped down to Cornwall on Tuesday to check out some of the county’s bus network following First Kernow’s withdrawal at the weekend.

Taking over a network of around 80 buses overnight is no mean feat and there are bound to be some teething issues. However Go-Ahead is getting a reputation for smooth mobilisations with Southampton, Bournemouth, Kent Fastrack and indeed Cornwall’s tendered network in 2020 all successfully taken over from previous operators to say nothing of large TfL route tenders and, of course, the Bee Network in Greater Manchester.

First (or perhaps, in this case, it’s more appropriate for me to use the word ‘initial’) impressions on arriving in Penzance at lunch time were positive with the Tourist Information Centre opposite the railway station having supplies of both the comprehensive countywide Bus Times book and a new ‘Travel Guide & Map’ available and on display and this time no inquisition when asking for a copy although I overheard a passenger in Truro bus station yesterday morning requesting two copies (“one for my neighbour”) being advised the “Council has told us to restrict distribution to one per passenger”.

The new folded ‘Travel Guide & Map’ is a numerical listing of the county’s bus routes with the network map spread over both sides.

The map is also in Bus Times spread over the middle four pages.

The other immediate observation that struck me was how smart and consistent the buses looked despite the awful weather throwing up road dirt and spray.

A sea of red livery in either Transport for Cornwall or Plymouth CityBus branding did add potential confusion especially those buses carrying the latter’s “SPARK” additional brand and grey fronts…

… although they’re very comfortable to travel in.

I’d expected to see well worn ex London buses and although I saw and travelled on a couple during my visit these had been converted to single door and I doubt passengers would realise were approaching 15 years old, making for a decent second life outside the Capital.

‘Before’ and ‘after’ comparisons of service provision highlight quite a few reduced frequencies now operated by Go Cornwall Bus but I found these to be more than adequate for numbers travelling and make commercial sense, particularly bearing in mind First Bus struggled with profitability even before Go Cornwall Bus put the competitive knife in last Autumn.

Penzance bus station was in a bit of disarray on Tuesday following recent resurfacing of the departure stands still waiting to be ‘set‘ but there were two large displays showing this week’s new departure times for each service…

… as well as temporary notices showing where buses were departing…

… on the opposite side of the road in the taxi rank…

… although taxi drivers seemed reluctant to use the temporary rank that had been set up for them.

Perhaps not surprising for 2026’s weather it was raining during my visit and everyone was waiting in the bus shelter but keeping a keen eye out for when their bus was screened up and left the layover spaces to then walk across and board in the rain.

First up for my travels was a journey on route 6 to Mousehole to check out the local controversy that’s arisen following Go-Cornwall Bus’s decision to truncate the route at the Old Coastguard Hotel and no longer serve the long standing traditional terminus at the Harbour.

The latter has famously been accessed via a very sharp and narrow turn hitherto always necessitating small size buses – latterly Mercedes Sprinter minibuses, but Bristol LHs in times gone by.

Go Cornwall Bus has pledged to run larger vehicles to ensure there’s enough capacity especially in busy summer months and points out although the frequency has consequently reduced to half hourly (from every 20 minutes) there’ll be more room for everyone to travel on the larger vehicles as well as making for a more financially robust commercial business model for the route.

I was surprised but delighted to see the route being operated by two double deck buses making for a very significant capacity increase and although the change does now mean those wanting to reach the Harbour face a walk to and from the revised terminus it is only around 250 yards and about three minutes walk away.

Hardly a big deal. There are other unserved parts of Mousehole further away.

And even more exciting, I reckon the route would now make for an ideal open-top bus service in the summer. Now that would be a tourist attraction to put Mousehole on the map and generate even more passengers. Perhaps a more appropriate route than Lands End for open tops.

Despite the rain the 13:30 departure from Penzance carried an impressive 23 passengers with around 15 alighting by or in Newlyn and the remainder continuing to Mousehole.

Newlyn makes for very challenging driving conditions for double deck operation but the drivers I travelled with showed amazing patience and skill negotiating the hazards and parked vehicles.

As we approached Mousehole I was surprised to see a crowd of ten passengers waiting to board at the final stop (towards Mousehole Harbour) until I realised the arrangement is for passengers to board before the bus turns for the return journey.

The turn itself is something else. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and am surprised it passed a ‘risk assessment’.

It looked like an incredibly dodgy manoeuvre with the bus turning right into a side road called Parkryn Road (shown on the right in the above photo) before reversing back into the main road called Parade Hill which the driver was doing more or less blind to knowing what traffic may be passing along that road and with no reversing camera images to help (see below photograph).

The other thing I noticed was just how tight the running time is with only 19 minutes allocated for the end to end journey (20 minutes on the return) although there is 21 minutes stand time each hour which is just as well and I reckon will be needed in the summer with double deck loads of passengers and manoeuvrability challenges.

I was so intrigued by the reversing manoeuvre I decided to make a return trip to Mousehole yesterday morning before my planned trips to check it out again and take some more photographs, this time off the bus, for this report.

So I was up bright and early (in the dark) and ready to catch the 07:00 departure from Penzance …. except it didn’t run.

So waited another half hour in the cold for the 07:30 with a driver who was on his first day on route 6.

He had a different approach to turning the bus round, literally, by driving beyond the junction with Parkryn Road and then reversing back (and up – it’s on an incline) into it as he’s about to do in the photograph below.

That seemed a much safer option – to reverse into a side road, except it was still very dodgy due to a low wall on the nearside, as you can see…

… and took two attempts…

… while traffic on the main road patiently waited, even at 07:50.

On a busy sunny summer’s day this could prove quite a challenge. As it could also on a dark winter’s evening. However I don’t see an alternative and can understand why using larger buses is the best way to make the service viable as well as providing enough capacity to carry everyone waning to travel.

After completing the turn the driver pulled into a lay-by opposite the bus stop where passengers had boarded on Tuesday to wait for the departure time explaining he’s under the impression a bus stop sign is being installed here to make it the official stop.

Despite the bus in front being cancelled and some passengers having to wait half an hour we only carried 11 into Penzance. And more positively the cancelled bus started running on the next round trip at 08:00 from Penzance which we passed on our way back into the town.

It’s interesting another reverse turn manoeuvre that’s caused controversy – the Safe Harbour Hotel in Fowey – like Mousehole Harbour, has now ended with First’s withdrawal and Go Cornwall Bus opting to continue to use Readymoney car park instead, as I reported in April 2024. But that manoeuvre is nothing compared to this new Old Coastguard Hotel arrangement, which is far more dangerous and challenging.

Back in Penzance on Tuesday afternoon, my next planned journey was on the 14:25 route 1A to Lands End. Except when the bus pulled forward the destination blind showed it was only going as far as Newlyn which the driver confirmed was the case. I’d noticed a road closed sign passing through Newlyn on the way to Mousehole which I thought would be impacting routes 1/1A and sure enough the driver confirmed there was a revised timetable and lengthy diversion in place until March.

I couldn’t see any details of the diversion and revised timetable on display in the bus station so called Go Cornwall Bus “Customer Experience” enquiry number in Plymouth and spoke to someone answering the phone as Plymouth Citybus who told me the next departure to Lands End was at 17:30 and ‘there were big problems on the 1 and 1A routes which we’ve just taken over from First Bus’. When I challenged the long gap in service the lady said she’d put me on hold and check with “Network Control” but after ten minutes of being on hold I gave up the idea of a Lands End trip and caught the 14:40 route 18 towards Truro instead.

This route is the Go Cornwall Bus hourly replacement for First’s half hourly route T1 and resurrects the old traditional route number connecting Penzance to the county town as does hourly route 14 from St Ives replacing half hourly route T2 to Truro. Two further journeys each hour between Camborne and Truro make for a 15 minute frequency at the busier eastern end of the route and certainly in the winter season these frequency changes look very sensible.

I alighted in Camborne bus station and was impressed to see Go Cornwall Bus staff have already given the facility a brand makeover with updated signs, departure listings and map.

Camborne will be a useful base for Go Cornwall Bus; the property having been acquired from First Bus along with premises previously acquired at Summercourt and more recently the Truronian coach business and its base in Truro.

Having just missed an hourly departure back to Penzance I opted to use GWR which was obviously much quicker too and gave me time to pursue my Lands End query by email with Go Cornwall Bus with a very prompt reply from Tom who kindly attached a revised temporary timetable for routes 1/1A.

I did suggest it might be an idea to make this available on the Transport for Cornwall/Go Cornwall Bus website rather than the pdf version showing incorrect times which had misled me although I did notice the web based version was showing the temporary times.

First’s erstwhile use of numbers 17 and 17A for two of the routes to St Just have been changed to 4 and 4A by Go Cornwall Bus with the 17 now applying to a reduced half hourly to hourly Penzance to St Ives service which makes sense for the winter season but probably won’t be enough for the summer.

I was a bit puzzled trying to work out which way the buses go between Penzance and St Just and think the network map has transposed the numbers 4 and 4A to indicate which serves which section of route. The map below doesn’t tie in with the timetable.

Over in Truro yesterday morning I travelled on the newly numbered 32A to the busy university campus at Penryn (on its way to Falmouth). This is another frequency reduction from half hourly to hourly for this link although there’s now also a faster route 32 every hour which by-passes both Carnon Downs (which has also had a frequency reduction) and the university campus between Truro and Falmouth.

Unfortunately there’s a 15/45 minute gap in between these two departures though.

There are now four buses an hour (instead of six) between the University and Falmouth with the aforementioned hourly 32A joined by a newly numbered hourly route 3 from Helston (was First’s U4), an hourly 33 from Redruth (was First’s U2) and an hourly ‘short’ 33A shuttling between the campus and Falmouth.

It’s quite a neat timetable and from what I saw the four buses an hour are now very busy with students.

I returned into Truro on a late running route 32A it being the driver’s first day on the route and seemingly getting lost on his way from Falmouth if the tracking on bustimes.org was accurate.

One other change impacting Truro is a reduction in frequency on the former First route 87 to Newquay via Perranporrh from an awkward every 40 minutes to hourly although there’s a handy connection at Perranporth with the hourly route 86 providing a quicker route into Truro making for another sensible change.

I looked out for the 10:27 arrival into Truro on route 87 to capture a photo but the bus didn’t seem to be on the road. So here’s an 85 instead.

All in all, as expected, a few teething problems during the first few days of the new regime but my overall impression coming away after a lunch time to lunch time visit is of a very well executed mobilisation and sensible timetable changes to make for a sustainable future.

There are reports the ex London buses bound for Cornwall are temporarily in service in Plymouth so they can be assessed and refurbished in the coming weeks with short term loans of more modern Plymouth buses to Cornwall providing the initial cover but the final game plan is for the London buses to see out their second life in the county which again makes for sensible utilisation.

Next week will bring fresh challenges with Truro’s bus station closure for four weeks for resurfacing. All bus routes will be diverted to the Fairmantle Street coach park on the other side of M&S with a much smaller footprint and limited facilities. I’m sure the Go Cornwall Bus team will rise to the challenge but passengers are going to find it a challenge too.

Thank goodness it wasn’t this week.

Roger French

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