the 32 Teignmouth - Willows via Chelston journeys, an hourly service, uses 3 buses, supposedly DLF's but sometimes one or more is an SLF. The 7 other buses, which operate variously around the St Marychurch - Strand - Chelston - Shiphay - Hospital - Willows - Barton - St Marychurch loop, are scheduled for SLFs. On the St Marychurch - Willows via Chelston section buses show 32, whilst between St Marychurch and the Hospital via Barton section buses show 33. Some buses go across the loop at St Marychurch (1 per hour each way at about xx30mins past each hour), some buses terminate at St Marychurch from the Strand direction (2 per hour, xx15 & xx45) and some buses terminate at St Marychurch from the Barton direction (1 per hour xx00) though during the course of the day all 7 buses will do all the different variations in turn!! It is NOT possible to tell whether buses are due to terminate or continue at St Marychurch from EITHER direction, as buses simply show 'St Marychurch'. The working which is habitually a Double deck, at least during school terms as at Feb/March 2009, works as follows.... (timings approx-check timetable) 0828 leaves St M via Barton (as 33), 0945 turns St M from & to Strand (as 32), 1100 turns St M from & to Barton (as 33), 1215 turns St M from & to Strand (as 32), 1330 passes St M from Barton towards Strand (33 to 32), 1430 turns Willows from & to Shiphay, 1530 passes St M from Strand towards Barton (32 to 33), 1552 terminates at Hospital then runs dark to take up service on what would have been the continutation of the same non school day journey, from Torquay Grammar school about 1600, 1645 turns St M from & to Strand (as 32), 1800 finishes at St M via Barton (33). (Crew change is at Strand at 1345 towards Chelston). NOTE that at St Marychurch buses for the Strand (32) leave from the Chilcote Memorial stop, whilst buses for Barton (33) OR Teignmouth (32) leave from the stop in Manor Road - this is the REVERSE of 31/34 buses which leave for Barton from the stop at Chilcote Memorial, or the Strand from Manor Road!!

So, in the last 5 years the 12 has gone from SLF's to DDs and now DLFs... here is the middle one of those, illustrated at it's Brixham terminus, "Town Square", with the photographer standing in front of what was the rear entrance to Brixham Bus Garage/Bus Station in years gone by... if you ever visit here, you can tell which couple of buildings have been built where the bus station was, as they are distinctly more modern than the rest of the row! Buses used to leave the bus station turning right into the road in front, an area which has now been pedestrianised. Note that now in 2009 12A and 66 journeys from Brixham leave from 'Bolton Cross', 2mins away around the corner, near to Jackz Mexican Restaurant, whilst local buses on the 17, 22 and 24 leave from a stop about 20 yards to the left of the photographer.

A rare sight in the far South West is a brand new vehicle - most DD services being provided by elderly Bristol VRs and hand-me-down ex London Titans and Metrobuses. First Red Bus has several DLFs for the 1 and 2 services in North Devon, though not enough, you'll note, to provide the whole allocation.... This via circa 2002/3 is from when the 1 was running through to Ilfracombe, but it has since beenn split once again as 3 Ilfracome- Barnstaple and 1 Westward Ho - Barnstaple or 2 Appledore - Barnstaple.

A selection of 4 ex-London vehicles new and old in both new and old Stagecoach liveries in Exeter Bus Station yard... These NVs show the new use in Devon of full traditional London style blinds complete with 'via' points which is to be applauded - as the older Titans demonstrate, this idea had never previously been adopted.

Several London NV Olympian DDs were shipped out to Stagecoach Devon for 'trials'.. they show off the then new Stagecoach cream and sweeps livery for DD vehicles whilst performing on the Exeter - Willand 54 shortly after arrival in Devon. You'll notice the London style blind displays complete with 'via' points have been kept on these vehicles, as compared to previous Titan type DDs on which only the destination display is used with a number on it also. 

Optare and Dart SLFs on both Barnstaple Town Service12 and the more rural 71, before both were lost or surrendered to Stagecoach who now (in 2008) have a sizeable presence in the town compared to none only a few years ago. These examples seen at the relatively new (at that time) Barnstaple Bus Station.

Here is one of the articulated coaches which took up service on the Exeter - Plymouth X38 from 9th April 2001, but only lasted a couple of years before being replaced by standard coaches again.. A new departure bay was built for their use in the lower part of Exeter Bus Station for them as they were too long to use the bays on the ordinary higher deck, but this is now where the Megabus goes from....

Stagecoach Devon had threatened to withdraw the Exeter Park and Ride 2, which operates between the new £800,000 Honiton Road County council car park site at Sowton and Paris Street in the city centre from 12th Feb 2001. So much for this 'Travel Solution' then, it is now A Devon CC Contract, with double decks, as the park and ride is right near the new Met Office HQ.

A Bike Bus on Devon County Council Route B1 - elderly SD Leyland Nationals, which have been specially modified to carry up to 8 push bikes as well as 'foot' passengers. This short lived service operated Tues-Sun during the summmer months back in 2000 at least, seen at Okehampton Station to which trains returned on Sundays after more than 25 years since the 'regular' service was withdrawn in 1971.

Before the service became Stagecoach's 51 and 315, First operated the 345 and 315, this mostly with SDs between Hatherleigh and Exeter. The slip of paper in the window would suggest this jaunt is rare enough to not feature Hatherleigh on it's blinds.

There was the regular DD performer on First version of the 315 North - South service across Devon, between Exeter and Barnstaple probably the newest non low floor double decker in the First Red Bus fleet at the time!! Generally to be seen on the 0900 and 1400 departures from Barnstaple, 1140 & 1710 from Exeter, especially Saturdays. Here it is, at the midpoint - Dolton, Square, a point not served since about 2004 due to problems with Parked Cars blocking the buses access to turn. First curtailed the service on the outskirts of the village to turn at Barfield Road, and Stagecoach continued the tradition when they took over the 315, otherwise via mostly the same route.

Over the period 2000 to 2002 many local services in Torbay and Paignton were recast, or lost altogether, leaving many traditional bus roads now unserved. In 2000 this was put down to a chronic shortage of drivers.... The 25 was one of Torquay's casualties....