STAGECOACH South West has published its full timetable for its new route 6 and 6A service, which replaces the withdrawn Western Greyhound service from Exeter to Okehampton and Launceston.

Western Greyhound gave notice to withdraw its Service 510, which acted as a link between Okehampton, Exeter, Launceston and Wadebridge, on Saturday February 21.

In partnership with Devon County Council, Stagecoach is introducing a new route 6 to combine its existing X9 and X10 services with Western Greyhound's 510 service. The service starts on February 22.

The 6 replaces the direct X9 service to Okehampton that continues to Holsworthy and Bude, while the 6A will serve the villages between Exeter and Okehampton before continuing to Launceston in place of the 510 and X10.

Frequencies on the 6 will remain unchanged, while the 6A will run inbetween these journeys providing four Monday to Saturday journeys between Launceston and Exeter and five between Exeter and Launceston.

This maintains early morning and afternoon peak journeys currently offered by Western Greyhound along with some daytime journeys. In addition, commuter journeys to and from Launceston will now be linked to Bude.

A new Sunday and bank holiday service is also being introduced, albeit with fewer journeys between Okehampton and Exeter than offered by Western Greyhound. A Sunday service is being restored to Bude after cuts made by Western Greyhound last summer.

Stagecoach ticket prices between Okehampton and Exeter were reduced by as much as 23% at the start of 2015 with the extension of the Exeter Dayrider and Megarider Plus zone to include Okehampton.

For the historians, and those wondering why the number 6 was chosen, it was the number used by Devon General for its service to Okehampton between the 1930s and 1970s. As the new timetable consolidates all the services between Exeter and Okehampton into one, Stagecoach decided to bring back the old number.

The new 6/6A timetable is available to view online on Stagecoach's website and will be in print soon.