Stagecoach South West has announced that from Sunday, April 2 residents of Sherford will now have access to up to six buses per hour, connecting them to Plymouth City Centre, as part of a significant redesign of their local network.
The local bus operator has introduced a new service with route 1A connecting Sherford to the city centre, Derriford Hospital and the George Park and Ride. Alongside this, popular interurban routes GOLD and X38 will now serve Sherford and provide new links across Devon.
Development of the new town of Sherford started in August 2015, with the construction of the first 700 homes. Last year, work began on phase 2, seeing work on a further 700 homes underway.
The new local network will provide residents of this growing population access to frequent public transport links, making it much easier to choose a more sustainable option for their journeys. The journey time by bus between Sherford and the city centre is as little as 20 minutes and residents will be able to access unlimited travel from just £3.64 per day with new ticket bundles offered by Stagecoach.
A new range of flexible products is launched to coincide with the changes, meaning customers will be able to save up to 30% on daily unlimited bus travel. The new Flexi tickets offer fantastic savings and put you in full control of your bus ticket.
Just like the popular DayRider tickets, travel is unlimited across the day, and available via the Stagecoach Bus App. When you choose Flexi in bundles of five or 10 you have 12 months to choose which days to use your bus ticket all while saving up to 30% on the cost.
The new bundles come in options of five or 10, the Flexi5 – five DayRiders for the price of four offers you 20% discount, whilst the Flexi10 – 10 DayRiders for the price of seven is a whopping 30% discount. You choose when to use your ticket within 12 months.
The introduction of a brand new service 1A will increase the frequency of buses between Sherford and the city centre from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes, providing an additional journey opportunity every hour and a new direct link between Sherford and Derriford Hospital. Up to six buses per hour will be provided between Sherford and the city centre with Service 1A and the changes to the GOLD and X38.
Service 1A will operate every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday daytime between Sherford and George Park and Ride via the city centre and Derriford Hospital and during the evening and on Sunday and Public Holidays, every 60 minutes between Sherford and the city centre only.
Services 1 and 1A combined will continue to provide a service up to every 10 minutes between the city centre and George Park and Ride via Derriford Hospital. The new service will replace short journeys on Service 1 between Plymouth City Centre and George Park and Ride and Service 2/2A between Plymouth City Centre and Sherford.
The routes of services GOLD and X38 within Plymouth will be amended to operate via Elburton and Sherford using Billacombe Road, Elburton Road and Hercules Road, and no longer operating via the A374. Service X38 will additionally serve Matford Park and Ride in Exeter en route into the city. These changes will see a number of new journey opportunities for the residents of Sherford. The X38 will now link Sherford residents to Ivybridge, Buckfastleigh and the cathedral city of Exeter, whilst the Gold service will provide new connections for Sherford to Ivybridge, Totnes and Paignton.
In addition to these changes, the operator has carried out a project to analyse the data from their specialist Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) software which uses real-time updates from onboard tracking systems. These findings have been fed into the new timetables being introduced to improve the punctuality of their bus services.
Stagecoach wants to make sure that the bus arrives at your stop at the time you’re expecting it.
View the full bus timetable here.
Where can I go and how often does the bus run?
The below shows the bus routes which serve Sherford and where they go. New service 1A is the most frequent service allowing connections to the city centre and Derriford. This is complimented nicely by buses GOLD and X38, all providing links to the city centre but also to a range of other destinations across the region.
Frequency of buses
1A - Sherford to George P&R via city centre and Derriford Hospital. Monday to Friday - 20-30 minutes, Saturday - 20-30 minutes and Sunday - 60 minutes.
X38 - Plymouth to Exeter via Ivybridge and Buckfastleigh - Monday to Friday - 6 trips, Saturday - 5 trips, Sunday - 3 trips
GOLD - Plymouth to Paignton via Ivybridge and Totnes - Monday to Friday - 30 minutes, Saturday - 30 minutes, Sunday - 60 minutes
How much does it cost?
If you’re travelling from Sherford into Plymouth City Centre you can opt to buy a Plymouth Dayrider ticket to have access to unlimited travel across the day. Tickets are available via the mobile app, or on bus. If you fancy grabbing a deal, you can pick up one of the brand new flexi bundles of day tickets via the Stagecoach Bus app, saving you 30% off travel within the Plymouth zone.
- Adult Day - £5.20
- Flexi 5 - £20.80 or £4.16 per day (save 20%)
- Flexi 10 - £36.40 or £3.64 per day (save 30%)
Download the Stagecoach app to buy tickets, track your bus and plan your journey. Discover more by visiting the Stagecoach website.
