FOUR TIMES ACROSS THE TAMAR
3 October 2022
ABOVE: Go Cornwall 511 (WF63 LYV), an ADL Enviro 400, forces one of its stablemates, which I am travelling on, into a 200-yard reverse to enable it to pass, on Rame Lane near Cawsand in East Cornwall. All pictures in this article were taken on Tuesday 23rd August 2022.
It’s Day Two of my Cornish adventure. Having cut Day One short due to a bout of food poisoning, I’m still not feeling very well, but I’ve dragged myself to Liskeard’s Barras Street, without much of a plan. At the back of my mind, I think I’m aiming for the 0937 departure on route 11 to Plymouth.
But it’s only just turned 0900. What am I going to do to pass the time? My normal action in these circumstances would be to call in at a coffee shop but, not only do I not feel like doing so, but there isn’t one in evidence anyway!
There’s a Go Cornwall bus on the stand marked “Not in Service”, but the driver is getting into the cab. Will this be an earlier route out of here? It certainly will! It’s going to be a service 75 to Torpoint Ferry. I jump on board.
This is the point at which I realise that I’m not necessarily that ill after all. If I was, I wouldn’t even contemplate getting on a bus if I wasn’t sure where it was going or how long it was going to take to get there!
My gut feeling (ooh, don’t talk about my guts today, please) is that Torpoint Ferry is going to be somewhere that I can progress from, rather than a little village where the only way out is the next bus back on the same route. I’m hoping it will be a link to a ferry into Plymouth.
But getting that finer detail in order to make a quick decision isn’t all that easy. I am able to confirm on a map that Torpoint is indeed just across the water from Plymouth, so at least I am going in broadly the right direction, and the driver confirms that she’s due out in about five minutes. But the 75 doesn’t appear on the Go Cornwall website.
In a flash of inspiration, I have a look at the Plymouth Bus website, and find the route listed there. Even then, the timetable says that the service “does not run in this direction on the provided date”.
It’s Day Two of my Cornish adventure. Having cut Day One short due to a bout of food poisoning, I’m still not feeling very well, but I’ve dragged myself to Liskeard’s Barras Street, without much of a plan. At the back of my mind, I think I’m aiming for the 0937 departure on route 11 to Plymouth.
But it’s only just turned 0900. What am I going to do to pass the time? My normal action in these circumstances would be to call in at a coffee shop but, not only do I not feel like doing so, but there isn’t one in evidence anyway!
There’s a Go Cornwall bus on the stand marked “Not in Service”, but the driver is getting into the cab. Will this be an earlier route out of here? It certainly will! It’s going to be a service 75 to Torpoint Ferry. I jump on board.
This is the point at which I realise that I’m not necessarily that ill after all. If I was, I wouldn’t even contemplate getting on a bus if I wasn’t sure where it was going or how long it was going to take to get there!
My gut feeling (ooh, don’t talk about my guts today, please) is that Torpoint Ferry is going to be somewhere that I can progress from, rather than a little village where the only way out is the next bus back on the same route. I’m hoping it will be a link to a ferry into Plymouth.
But getting that finer detail in order to make a quick decision isn’t all that easy. I am able to confirm on a map that Torpoint is indeed just across the water from Plymouth, so at least I am going in broadly the right direction, and the driver confirms that she’s due out in about five minutes. But the 75 doesn’t appear on the Go Cornwall website.
In a flash of inspiration, I have a look at the Plymouth Bus website, and find the route listed there. Even then, the timetable says that the service “does not run in this direction on the provided date”.
I manage to download a PDF, which finally confirms the details of the service for me. What a palaver! My bus is a shorter E200 MMC – a 9.7m example. I know this because the bus, like most of Go Cornwall’s E200s, has a little sign by the door confirming its length.
I leave Liskeard as the only passenger. The main route out of Liskeard in the direction we need is down the A38 dual carriageway. We head a few miles down here before turning off down the road to Looe (best not to think about loos too much this morning either)! A left turn takes us onto a narrow country lane.
About 200 yards down, just as we are getting to the narrowest section so far, a lorry comes into view the other way. Our driver has no choice but to reverse all the way back to the junction to allow the lorry (and a second one behind it) to pass. Soon after, somewhat ironically, we come to a village called Widegates. Further along, another reverse manoeuvre is necessary as big vehicles meet on these tight country lanes.
The Copley Arms in Hessenford, Cornwall, on route 75 just beyond Widegates.
There's mist descending as we come to Seaton (not to be confused with the Seaton in East Devon with the Tramway). This Seaton has a stunning beach although it doesn't photograph well in the mist!
In the village of Crafthole, opposite the Finnygook Inn, a 15th Century hostelry, we turn down Finnygook Lane, which is marked as a no through road. We all know that buses can sometimes get around places that other vehicles can't so it's not really a surprise to be going down a no through road!
It's a single-track road, down which we traverse for at least half a mile. At the far end, we reach Portwrinkle Beach - another delightful spot. Here we make a three-point turn, after which we pick up a second passenger (I've been on my own since Liskeard)!
Portwrinkle Beach
The driver advises that we have to wait a short time for another bus and we stop for three or four minutes. My first thought is that this is some form of connecting service (although why one would be needed in a spot such is a mystery).
It turns out not to be a connecting service, but rather another 75, heading out the other way. My assertion that there is a reason for this route having short vehicles is dissipated when I realise that the other one is a 10.8m version!
Go Cornwall 2407 (WA20 DWE) is a 10.8m ADL Enviro200, photographed from another 75 at Portwrinkle Beach. My bus has pulled over to the right-hand side of the road to await this one, hence the odd 'wrong side' pass.
Clearly there is an operational agreement in force here to say that one bus should not leave here until the other one has arrived; so that they don't meet in that very tight approach road. Very sensible; hold that thought.
We leave a few minutes late and head back the way we have come, with the other bus in hot pursuit, all the way back down the single-track lane to the Finnygook Inn. Just beyond, as the Liskeard service heads off in the opposite direction, the third passenger of the trip boards.
This is the start of a gradual turn of fortunes for the bean counters, as the bus gets steadily busier and busier. By the time we reach the outskirts of Torpoint, our load is well into double figures. Most leave in Torpoint Town Centre but three of us sit tight to the Ferry.
Torpoint Ferry, taken from the Cornish side (as it quite literally will be in a minute).
Torpoint Ferry is chargeable for vehicles but free to pedestrians. The crossing only takes a few minutes and we're soon into Devonport.
Crossing the Tamar on the Torpoint Ferry, looking north towards Plymouth
Ferries run every few minutes and it's nice to find a bus waiting for me at the other side (although, as the bus is half-hourly, that may be more by accident than design).
This is the Plymouth Citybus service 34 (Plymouth City Centre to Derriford Hospital). It's the same touch-on, touch-off arrangement as in Cornwall, but it's not the same scheme.
The bus, an ADL Enviro400 City, whisks us into the City Centre in about 14 minutes. There's a strange cross in the middle of the front windscreen, which turns out to be part of a commemorative livery for the Queen's Award for Enterprise. Why won't operators ever learn not to stick things on windows - especially front windows?
I'm heading next onto route 70 to Cremyll. When trying to verify the timings at the stop, I discover that the timetable published here won't apply until 4th September - still 12 days away at this point. And it's completely different, both in terms of timing and of the route number, which becomes 70A!
I've had my eye on this ride for a while, as it has an unusual way of crossing the River Tamar - it drives onto the Torpoint Ferry! The route to the ferry is very different from that of the 34, heading first towards Milehouse (where Plymouth Citybus has its depot) and then into Stoke Village, north-east of Devonport. It's another E400 and this lunchtime departure remains quiet.
We have to sit for a few minutes waiting for a boat to come in so that we can board. Sitting on top of a bus whilst crossing on a ferry is quite surreal. I only know of one other route that uses a ferry (at Sandbanks in Dorset), although I suspect there will be a few more in the highlands and islands of Scotland.
Timetabling has to be relatively loose to accommodate a variable ferry schedule, and, once back on dry land, we stand for a couple of minutes in Torpoint before heading onwards.
The 70 now becomes one of those twisty-turny routes that I find so fascinating. From Torpoint, the ultimate destination of Cremyll is less than a mile-and-a-half's distance as the crow flies, in a south-easterly direction. But you do need wings (or a boat) to take that direct route. We need to travel three-and-a-half miles, westerly then south-westerly, to get to a point where we can even turn towards Cremyll.
After that initial investment, we turn broadly south-eastwards onto a coastal road through Freathy and Whitsand Bay. The scenery here is delightful, and the roads become increasingly narrow for a double-decker bus to traverse. Unfortunately, The View is closed (that's a restaurant - thankfully the view for the rest of us is very much available, although the mist is taking hold). I fail to get any decent pictures, but Google Streetview can always help!
Narrow roads along route 70
Another E400 on a journey towards Plymouth on route 70. Not quite sure where this is!
But we're now some way south of Cremyll, so we need to turn northwards, which we eventually do in order to reach Cawsand.
Remember the operational agreement that I mentioned earlier, to make sure that buses wait so that they don't meet in very tight places? Well, my number 70 stops in a random place on the top of the cliff for about five minutes (there is a "Bus Stand" marking on the road so presumably it's a timing point). The driver does give the impression that he's waiting for something and it's a very narrow road ahead.
He starts the engine but then stops it again and waits a bit longer. Finally, he pulls forward and we're on our way again. And this is the point at which another 70 appears in the other direction. We have no choice but to reverse our steps for about 200 yards to give the other bus room to pass. Should our bus have stayed where it was for a bit longer...?
We take a double-run into Millbrook, south of Saltash and west of Cremyll. More very tight roads, especially King Street in the village centre, before we come to the Millbrook Lake and Dam. Apparently the village used to flood regularly, until a dam was built in 1981. Periodically, the lake is drained to prevent a build-up of midges, and then refilled by the next tide. It's very pretty.
A view across the Millbrook Dam, served on a double-run through Millbrook Village, south of Saltash.
Finally, an hour-and-a-half after we left Plymouth, we reach Cremyll, which is described by Wikipedia as being "about 9 miles by road or 0.5 miles by boat from Plymouth", which says it all really!
Cremyll, photographed from the Ferry
The Cremyll Ferry is for foot passengers only - a much smaller vessel than the Torpoint - and I'm crossing the Tamar for the third time today! The nearest bit of coast on the Devon side is Devil's Point, but we push a little further, past the Mayflower Marina and into a spot called Admiral's Hard.
The Edgcumbe Belle provides the Cremylll Ferry service. In fact, she was built specifically to operate this service.
This boat runs every 30 minutes, and the bus through Admiral's Hard, the 34A at the time of my journey, does too. Unfortunately, the connection isn't good, as I see the bus passing whilst walking down the short road from the ferry, too far away to catch up with. I have no choice but to wait half an hour for the next one.
Back in Plymouth and I'm heading for 'home' (my hotel in Liskeard) via route 11 (Plymouth to Bodmin Parkway - since extended to Padstow). The online Go Cornwall timetable is implying a two-hour gap between 1440 & 1645, on an otherwise hourly service.
No mention of the 11B service at 1545 on the Go Cornwall website, even though the location of an earlier working is clearly visible on the map.
This doesn't ring true, but Traveline is showing the same.
As it's now pretty much halfway between those times, I show up at the stop on Plymouth's Royal Parade to find a large number of others already assembled. Something is expected, surely?
I finally ascertain the existence of a service 11B, at 1545, which follows the 11 as far as Dobwalls, west of Liskeard, before diverting to St Neot instead of Bodmin Parkway. And it's a busy run, with more than 20 passengers leaving Plymouth, and virtually every seat taken by the time we reach the Tamar Bridge.
This is now my fourth Tamar crossing of the day, but the only one involving a bridge rather than a ferry! And the bridge crossing is spectacular - 1099 feet long and suspended about 220 feet above the river. The famous Brunel railway bridge is adjacent.
Once back in Cornwall, we call in at Saltash, where a few people get off but a greater number get on. The bus remains busy all the way to Liskeard's Barras Street, where I expect a few others to leave with me. And they certainly do. The bus empties out - even the driver isn't staying. The bus pulls out a few minutes later with a new driver and a handful of passengers, all of whom have just joined.
Go Cornwall 147 (WJ65 HMA), another 10.8m-long ADL Enviro 200, has just arrived into Liskeard - and emptied out - on its run from Plymouth to St Neot.
And there ends another day, where I have become far more intimately acquainted with the River Tamar, and the various ways of crossing it, than I ever thought possible (only missed out the railway bridge, I think). I've also decided that I don't need to spend any more time in Plymouth this holiday, which is of course why I end up back there the very next morning...