Go Cornwall Bus app reverts to showing only its own services
3 November 2023

For some time, both First Bus and Go Cornwall Bus have provided apps that can be downloaded on to smartphones. The apps provide a variety of information (see Apps) including real time information about services at bus stops across Cornwall. The First app has always shown all the services at a particular bus stop, whereas the Go Cornwall app showed only services provided by Go Cornwall (or sub contracted services such as those by Travel Cornwall, OTS etc.).

Earlier this year (2023), the Go Cornwall Bus app started to show all services at the stops including those of First Bus.

Now, in November 2023, the app has reverted to showing only Go Cornwall Bus services. Thus, as an example, the 27 service between St Austell and Truro is provided by First on a commercial basis on Monday to Saturday daytimes and by Go Cornwall in the evenings and on Sundays. As a consequence, the Go Cornwall app now shows in the middle of the day the next bus to Truro as the 19:07 service because that is a Go Cornwall Bus, whereas, of course, there are First services every hour until early evening.

See below screenshots of the First Bus and Go Cornwall Bus apps displaying the supposedly real time information for the stop in Grampound at 13:46 in the afternoon.

For comparison of the Go Cornwall Bus app in September, see the screenshot of the display at Probus showing all the services for First and Go Cornwall.  Why Go Cornwall has stopped providing the comprehensive information is something that I cannot fathom.

Whilst the First app shows times for all services, unfortunately, the downside of the First app is that it is not so good at keeping passengers updated with changes to services. The Go Cornwall app does provide better service updates and, if any one of its services is cancelled, it generally deletes it from the real time information feed on its app so that it does not appear as an upcoming bus for a waiting passenger. This cancellation information does not feed through to the data in the First app and so a passenger waiting for a Go Cornwall Bus and using the First app for information would be misled into thinking that the service will turn up when, in fact, it will not.

As a consequence, my advice to passengers is to have available both the First and Go Cornwall apps on their smartphones (if, of course, they own a smartphone) and also to make use of the real time tracking data available through the bustimes.org website, see real time information.

It is somewhat ironic that when AI is being touted as the wonder product that will revolutionise our lives and tell us everything we want to know about anything, a fairly straightforward issue like giving bus passengers reliable information about the bus that they want to catch is still too difficult for the bus operators and the local transport authority!