Was that the 23 that was in effect an extension of the 22 beyond Westbury to Avonmouth (which I think sort-of replaced the 528 and 530)?
Correct. From my local stop it was once possible to have a choice of 3 of the following routes:
- 23 (Avonmouth - Rookery Farm, via. Westbury, which interworked with the 528 & 530)
- 42 (Lawrence Weston - Cherry Gardens)
- 43 (Cribbs Causeway - Park Estate) (I remember when this started from Westbury and was numbered as Service 40 before the opening of The Mall @ Cribbs)
- 528 (Avonmouth - Bedminster Down, via. City Centre & Temple Meads: one of the morning trips to Avonmouth became the 23 on arrival at Avonmouth)
were the daytime ones. The 528 was the fastest route into Broadmead (approx. 20 minutes) which was a huge help in getting the morning bus to Weston College: they used to run a minibus on it before the introduction of the 23 and the journey I got on at 0730 was always full & standing so I was amazed when the route, along with the 530, was withdrawn for being "unviable". It was always well used on Mondays to Friday evenings as well as all day Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays as well. In the evenings you had the 43, 528 & 530 which gave 4bph between them on common sections of route although again I would always use the 528 & 530 for being the faster routes.
But now from my local stop we have 1 route: service 4 (Cribbs Causeway - Broadmead): 2bph daytime Mondays to Saturdays with hourly evenings, Sundays & Bank Holidays and about as useful, to use a cartoon quote from when I was younger, as a sack of wet mice. Given the council's plans to keep cars out of the City Centre completely we need more buses, not fewer: I would welcome the return of the 28 between Avonmouth and the City Centre on the same route as of old.
Dave