‘Go Cornwall’ in Liskeard

Plymouth CityBus takes on Western Greyhound services Liskeard bus routes, which were at risk after Western Greyhound was put up for sale last month, have been saved by Plymouth CityBus. Part of the Go-Ahead Group, Plymouth CityBus will continue to operate under the Western Greyhound timetable in the south east of the area as ‘Go Cornwall Bus’ on routes 572 between Looe and Plymouth, 573 between Looe and Liskeard, 574 between Liskeard and Callington, and the 576 between Plymouth and Bude, via Launceston and Callington. The 593 service will be operated by Go Cornwall Bus between Plymouth and Liskeard and by Western Greyhound from Liskeard to Newquay. Through tickets will be available on this service and accepted throughout the journey as will all existing valid Western Greyhound tickets on the new routes which were issued before Monday 8 December.

Go Cornwall is expected to take over the lease of the depot off Culverwood Road in Liskeard, as well as acquiring nine low-floor Optare Solos.

MD Plymouth CityBus, Richard Stevens, said, ‘We are really delighted to be able to come to an agreement with Western Greyhound to take over these routes and safeguard not only 31 local jobs, but securing vital bus services in South East Cornwall. We have a wealth of experience of running buses in the area and have this year started providing services to The Rame peninsular and into Liskeard, complementing our service between Callington and Tavistock. I would like to personally welcome the staff into the CityBus family and assure them that they are in good hands.’

Director of multi-award winning Western Greyhound, Mark Howarth, commented, ‘We recently put Western Greyhound up for sale and we believe that the deal with Plymouth CityBus for the Liskeard area represents good value for both our employees and for bus users. We started our first operations in south-east Cornwall in August 2004, stepping in when DAC closed down their operations there, and stepped in again when local bus operator Phil Hambley of Pelynt retired. Frequencies have been steadily increased with through services introduced between the Cornish resort of Newquay and Plymouth, and more recently increasing the peak-hour frequency between Liskeard and Plymouth to half-hourly. A network based on connections at Liskeard was developed together with integrated ticketing with First Great Western trains on the Looe Valley corridor. I am delighted that Plymouth CityBus will be able to take this network to the next phase of its development. I would like to publicly thank all our staff who have worked so hard under often extremely difficult circumstances, and I would like to thank the public for their loyal support over the past 10 years.’