Reroute of Bus Service 73

Service 73 is a commercial service, operated by Go Cornwall Bus. Therefore, we have requested a response from them- please see below from their Customer Experience Manager:

We do understand that change is not always popular with everyone and your feedback concerning changes to the 73 service which will be operating via Sandplace and not via the holiday parks after the 20th April 2025. The feedback has been noted and fed back to the relevant team for future considerations. 

Whilst we understand that changes can affect different customers in different ways, there is still the 77 service through Widegates as a connection for Liskeard and service 10 still operates the main road through towards the Barbican and past the holiday villages into Looe where you can connect with the 73 from this point for Liskeard as an alternative. As stated due to the poor uptake of the summer uplifted services last season we will not be running them again this year so there is no longer the need for the 73 to operate the longer and less reliable (more congested) route into and out of Looe instead it can now operate the less congested and more direct routing via Sandplace between Looe and Liskeard and that is the reason for the change to this route. 

As you can appreciate, we live in a very dynamic and fast paced changing world and Cornwall is not immune from this, our network has to evolve with the changing demands, which include changing travel habits for both work and leisure use and changing connections that people wish to make across the county. 

Transport for Cornwall, supported by Cornwall Council for the past 5 years, only has a set number of resources to continue to spend on travel services across the county, sadly these are not infinite. For these reasons we have to regularly review our network, passenger numbers and other factors to make sure we are maintaining the best possible value for money and public resources that we can, whilst maintaining essential services and connections for many of our largely rural based communities.  

 We believe that the changes we have made make the best use of resources available, whilst continuing to provide vital connections across the network and across Cornwall as a whole. No community that currently has a bus service is losing a bus a service, there may be alterations to timings etc but one of our key commitments along with Go Cornwall Bus was to maintain these vital links despite any pressures there may be on finances and we are delighted we have been able to achieve this. 

We believe we have been able to put in a network best placed to meet the needs of Cornwall's communities for Summer 2025.

We look forward to continuing to have you as a valued customer on our network and would welcome feedback on your experiences during the Spring and early summer months. 

Kind Regards,

Gemma Hall| Integrated Network and Partnerships Manager

Cornwall Council | Sustainable Growth and Development| Transport Coordination Service

Mobile: 07483 350197

External tel: 0300 1234 222

Email: Gemma.Hall@cornwall.gov.uk

Room 3B Pydar House, Pydar Street, Truro. TR1 1EA.

17th March 2025