First West of England (Bristol, Bath & The West)

[TheGrandWazoo]

Unless they've gotten rid of it, there is a bus-only right turn into Emma-Chris Way (the station approach road).

No, my mistake - it appears to still be there so it can be served.

Problem with Parkway is it misses out some trains, especially
Anyone coming from a smaller Welsh station into North Bristol.

Which smaller Welsh stations are you thinking of?

How many people a day do you think it will benefit? I'd sooner concentrate the efforts into making Parkway into the proper rail and bus interchange that it should be rather than sending vehicles into a suburban station. Much more benefit for the expenditure.

 

[Dai Corner]

No, my mistake - it appears to still be there so it can be served.


Which smaller Welsh stations are you thinking of?

How many people a day do you think it will benefit? I'd sooner concentrate the efforts into making Parkway into the proper rail and bus interchange that it should be rather than sending vehicles into a suburban station. Much more benefit for the expenditure.

The only Welsh station with trains to Filton Abbey Wood but not Parkway is Severn Tunnel Junction.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The only Welsh station with trains to Filton Abbey Wood but not Parkway is Severn Tunnel Junction.

Thanks for that information.

It's been a pet hate of mine that Parkway is "adequate" as both a physical facility for buses though both it and the pattern of services could be improved. Money could be found for a stonking new car park. Maybe things will change with future metrobus developments.....

 

[Citistar]

Surely anyone coming in from South Wales who wanted to go to that side of Bristol would catch a more frequent London bound train to Parkway?

For the number of people who actually want to use Filton Abbey Wood to connect on to other local transport services, the walk out to the A4174 is hardly a dealbreaker when you consider how much hassle it would be to route buses in there for what would predominantly be no passengers. If it is that much of an issue, but the bus stops on the main road closer to the station approach.

 

[Dai Corner]

Surely anyone coming in from South Wales who wanted to go to that side of Bristol would catch a more frequent London bound train to Parkway?

Actually, at the moment there are 2tph from South Wales to Filton AW but only one to Parkway.

Pre-Covid, there were 2tph to each. Presumably this will be the case again in the near future.

I think it makes sense to have one bus/rail interchange for the area at Parkway though

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Surely anyone coming in from South Wales who wanted to go to that side of Bristol would catch a more frequent London bound train to Parkway?

For the number of people who actually want to use Filton Abbey Wood to connect on to other local transport services, the walk out to the A4174 is hardly a dealbreaker when you consider how much hassle it would be to route buses in there for what would predominantly be no passengers. If it is that much of an issue, but the bus stops on the main road closer to the station approach.

Actually, at the moment there are 2tph from South Wales to Filton AW but only one to Parkway.

Pre-Covid, there were 2tph to each. Presumably this will be the case again in the near future.

I think it makes sense to have one bus/rail interchange for the area at Parkway though

Exactly my thoughts. I don't know how big of an issue it is (as much of the traffic using the station will be for MOD) and for the North Bristol area, Parkway with its range of destinations that can be served (e.g. UWE, Bradley Stoke) would seem more logical, especially with the ability for metrobus to serve Parkway

 

[volvob12]

Surely anyone coming in from South Wales who wanted to go to that side of Bristol would catch a more frequent London bound train to Parkway?

For the number of people who actually want to use Filton Abbey Wood to connect on to other local transport services, the walk out to the A4174 is hardly a dealbreaker when you consider how much hassle it would be to route buses in there for what would predominantly be no passengers. If it is that much of an issue, but the bus stops on the main road closer to the station approach.

Or, via the short footpath link, move the stops on Filton Avenue closer to the entrance of Nutfield Grove. It would be closer than the A4174.

 

[carlberry]

How easy would it be to get services calling at Filton Abbey Wood (Station)?

I'd say Abbey Wood has already had enough money wasted on it by building the bus only road and providing the previous service that ran to it. As others have said Parkway makes far more sense and has good bus/train interchange (indeed so good that, if it was in Wales, the local Councillors would have flogged it off to the BBC by now!)

 

[DaveHarries]

Pre-Covid, there were 2tph to each. Presumably this will be the case again in the near future.

Sorry to go away from the bus topic but, although it is early days yet, the RealTimeTrains website gives 2tph Bristol Parkway to Cardiff Central from 13th December so not too long to wait.

Realtime Trains - Departures from Bristol Parkway

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Things are looking up train-wise with the impending improvements to the Severn Beach line from the same date. Anyway back to buses.

Dave

 

[freetoview33]

The benefits were listed as this:

The cost of providing a bus link between Nutfield Grove and Emma Chris Way were said to be £150,000 a few years back. (Including new stops)
It would allow buses (70 and 73 at the moment) to serve Abbey Wood station without any time penalty, thus hopefully increasing usage of said services.
It should also make them more reliable by removing the heavily congested Filton Avenue junction from the route and also allow for removal of part of the bus lane on Filton Avenue, which should cause traffic to flow a bit better as well.
First were very keen on this idea the only obstacle was South Glos Council.

 

[Citistar]

The benefits were listed as this:

The cost of providing a bus link between Nutfield Grove and Emma Chris Way were said to be £150,000 a few years back. (Including new stops)
It would allow buses (70 and 73 at the moment) to serve Abbey Wood station without any time penalty, thus hopefully increasing usage of said services.
It should also make them more reliable by removing the heavily congested Filton Avenue junction from the route and also allow for removal of part of the bus lane on Filton Avenue, which should cause traffic to flow a bit better as well.
First were very keen on this idea the only obstacle was South Glos Council.

Whilst that seems quite a nice idea in principle, I'm sure there would be objections from residents on Nutfield Grove being subjected to buses "thundering past" their houses day and night, plus the new parking restrictions which would be required.

 

[freetoview33]

Whilst that seems quite a nice idea in principle, I'm sure there would be objections from residents on Nutfield Grove being subjected to buses "thundering past" their houses day and night, plus the new parking restrictions which would be required.

It wouldn't directly pass the front of any houses and most of the section is double yellows anyway except for an extremely small section (3 cars)

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

It wouldn't directly pass the front of any houses and most of the section is double yellows anyway except for an extremely small section (3 cars)

That's slightly misleading. It would pass 2 bungalows and the side of 6 houses. Whilst a fair chunk is double yellows, a lot of it isn't and people clearly do park their cars and the section without any restrictions is more like 5/6 cars and that's not including the stretches with single yellows.

I agree it would be good in principle and it might be advantageous but don't underestimate the views of the local residents.

 

[Dai Corner]

It wouldn't directly pass the front of any houses and most of the section is double yellows anyway except for an extremely small section (3 cars)

There are houses sideways on to the road though. Bus passengers would have a nice view into their back gardens. I'd probably object to that.


Edit: TGW beat me it it!

 

[rcro]

My experience of Filton station and the road up to it is that both are pretty dead - the vast majority of people going in and out of the station use the east entrance. A change in route would lose more custom from the stop by the ring road (next nearest stop for north Filton is quite a walk away at Filton roundabout or the college on Gloucester Road) than it would ever gain from the station.

I do struggle to see who would actually find it useful based on current services. Horfield to Rogiet? Everywhere else already has buses to Parkway - and Parkway is a far better station with heated indoor waiting rooms, toilets, more trains etc.

 

[DaveHarries]

Whilst that seems quite a nice idea in principle, I'm sure there would be objections from residents on Nutfield Grove being subjected to buses "thundering past" their houses day and night

To which my answer would be to have no buses using the link after, say, 2100: outside of those times, when there might be less usage of the stop(s) at the station, buses could follow the same route as at present and being numbered 70A / 73A at those times so allow customers to tell them apart.

Speaking of bus lanes on Filton Avenue I fail to understand why there is still a bus lane on the northern part of Filton Avenue between Conygre Grove and the A4174: it seems rather pointless to have that there when no bus route (AFAIK although Google says the 3C covers it but I think that was a Wessex Connect route) covers that part of Filton Avenue. I know CityLine - there's a blast from the past - had a route along there (71, IIRC?) but now it seems to me almost as if SGC are keeping it there for fun.

Dave

 

[-Colly405-]

To which my answer would be to have no buses using the link after, say, 2100: outside of those times, when there might be less usage of the stop(s) at the station, buses could follow the same route as at present and being numbered 70A / 73A at those times so allow customers to tell them apart.

Speaking of bus lanes on Filton Avenue I fail to understand why there is still a bus lane on the northern part of Filton Avenue between Conygre Grove and the A4174: it seems rather pointless to have that there when no bus route (AFAIK although Google says the 3C covers it but I think that was a Wessex Connect route) covers that part of Filton Avenue. I know CityLine - there's a blast from the past - had a route along there (71, IIRC?) but now it seems to me almost as if SGC are keeping it there for fun.

Dave

The 3C was a Stagecoach West Covid casualty (along with the 3A) that hasn't (yet?) restarted - they adjusted the 3X but stopped these two routes. The 3C was twice daily in each direction (peak flow to Aztec West).

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

My experience of Filton station and the road up to it is that both are pretty dead - the vast majority of people going in and out of the station use the east entrance. A change in route would lose more custom from the stop by the ring road (next nearest stop for north Filton is quite a walk away at Filton roundabout or the college on Gloucester Road) than it would ever gain from the station.

I do struggle to see who would actually find it useful based on current services. Horfield to Rogiet? Everywhere else already has buses to Parkway - and Parkway is a far better station with heated indoor waiting rooms, toilets, more trains etc.

I can almost imagine the next line will be that Filton station is only quiet because it isn't served by the bus! It seems that this is a solution looking for a problem, and that it would make more sense to have Parkway as the northern bus/rail hub and improve provision there, rather than have two sub-optimal locations.

"Cutting the corner" for local buses may have some merit but not certain that the local residents will be so pleased, even with time restrictions that then add a layer of complexity onto timetables and stops etc.

As for Filton Avenue bus lane, I doubt SGC are even aware of the issue rather than keeping it for fun. However, I'd certainly be happy to see it removed if it meant that they did have more bus only lanes and better enforcement where they are needed.

 

[Citistar]

To which my answer would be to have no buses using the link after, say, 2100: outside of those times, when there might be less usage of the stop(s) at the station, buses could follow the same route as at present and being numbered 70A / 73A at those times so allow customers to tell them apart.

WECA (West of England Combined Authority) policy is that services do the same route all the time, and route number suffixes are definitely against policy. First have also shown no interest in having services doing different routes at different times of the day, preferring to do the same thing all day, every day regardless of how illogical it is.

 

[carlberry]

To which my answer would be to have no buses using the link after, say, 2100: outside of those times, when there might be less usage of the stop(s) at the station, buses could follow the same route as at present and being numbered 70A / 73A at those times so allow customers to tell them apart.

So we have additional complexity in the numbers and buses randomly following two different routes, sometimes using the stops near the station and sometimes the stops by the shops just to confuse people just so buses can drive past a station that hardly anybody wants to go to!

 

[NJ51]

Travelling around the Wills / Hartcliffe roundabout at around 12.30 today I passed 66935 WX55UAB operating on service 93. I thought that these 2005 B7RLEs had all been withdrawn , and the tracker shows that this was its first outing since 18th June .

 

[83G/84D]

I saw a Bath Unibus branded E400MMC heading down the M5 motorway around the Exeter area yesterday late afternoon. I was wondering if anyone knew why?

 

[Marcus Fryer]

I saw a Bath Unibus branded E400MMC heading down the M5 motorway around the Exeter area yesterday late afternoon. I was wondering if anyone knew why?

Are you sure it was a Bath one and not a Bristol one? The bus tracker shows 33491 as taking a trip down to Exeter St Davids yesterday afternoon, arriving there about 18:20. Also shows 33496 making the same journey about 3 hours earlier and 33497 plus 33498 about 2 hours later. All were on service ‘444’, which usually signifies a rail replacement service, perhaps positioning moves for something over this weekend? All the Bath ones seem to have stayed in the Bath area.

 

[volvob12]

Are you sure it was a Bath one and not a Bristol one? The bus tracker shows 33491 as taking a trip down to Exeter St Davids yesterday afternoon, arriving there about 18:20. Also shows 33496 making the same journey about 3 hours earlier and 33497 plus 33498 about 2 hours later. All were on service ‘444’, which usually signifies a rail replacement service, perhaps positioning moves for something over this weekend? All the Bath ones seem to have stayed in the Bath area.

It’s Let’s Rock Exeter at Powderham Castle today and First have operated the shuttle bus for the last few years.

‘444’ is the code for Bristol based drivers/buses on ‘Special Events’ and ‘555’ is for Bath, it of course doesn’t have any significance on what’s actually on the LED display.

Lets Rock Exeter - Let's Rock Exeter

Lets ROck Ipswich is coming to Trinity park on the 10th of Septemebr 2022, the BIGGEST retro acts live, make sure you keep checking back for the line up!

letsrockexeter.com

We are pleased to confirm that First will once again be providing the shuttle bus service for Let’s Rock Exeter in 2021.

Tickets for this service must be pre-booked.

There is one route which is as follows:

EXETER ST DAVIDS RAILWAY STATION > EXETER CENTRAL STATION > EXETER CITY CENTRE, CHEEKE STREET > COUNTESS WEAR ROUNDABOUT > POWDERHAM CASTLE

The service will run every 15 mins from 0900-1300 and then every 30 mins until 1400. Return trips from Powderham Castle run every 30 mins from 1730-2030 and then frequently until 2330

 

[Callum15632]

It’s Let’s Rock Exeter at Powderham Castle today and First have operated the shuttle bus for the last few years.

‘444’ is the code for Bristol based drivers/buses on ‘Special Events’ and ‘555’ is for Bath, it of course doesn’t have any significance on what’s actually on the LED display.

Lets Rock Exeter - Let's Rock Exeter

Lets ROck Ipswich is coming to Trinity park on the 10th of Septemebr 2022, the BIGGEST retro acts live, make sure you keep checking back for the line up!

letsrockexeter.com

Where were the buses last night? Did they go back to Bristol or stay in Exeter overnight?

Are you sure it was a Bath one and not a Bristol one? The bus tracker shows 33491 as taking a trip down to Exeter St Davids yesterday afternoon, arriving there about 18:20. Also shows 33496 making the same journey about 3 hours earlier and 33497 plus 33498 about 2 hours later. All were on service ‘444’, which usually signifies a rail replacement service, perhaps positioning moves for something over this weekend? All the Bath ones seem to have stayed in the Bath area.

There was 36822 YT67 XKF that came from Bath yesterday to Exeter St David's but there wasn't any Bath Unibus Enviro 400 MMCs though.

 

[83G/84D]

Are you sure it was a Bath one and not a Bristol one? The bus tracker shows 33491 as taking a trip down to Exeter St Davids yesterday afternoon, arriving there about 18:20. Also shows 33496 making the same journey about 3 hours earlier and 33497 plus 33498 about 2 hours later. All were on service ‘444’, which usually signifies a rail replacement service, perhaps positioning moves for something over this weekend? All the Bath ones seem to have stayed in the Bath area.

Thanks, it may have been Bristol as I got a brief glimpse as I was driving in the opposite direction.

 

[volvob12]

Yeah, I get that. just seems not a particularly well-targeted campaign sending it to Stoke Gifford / Great Stoke, when the 75 is miles away and most of its key traffic destinations are also served more frequently by the much closer m1. Sure they could've spent any Bradley Stoke / Stoke Gifford budget on other areas closer to the routes that don't have as good a service already.

Could they have done a Cityline 73 for Bradley Stoke? The BS30 area have had Cityline East leaflets through, which surprisingly, (admittedly was a quick glance) didn’t show the 17.

 

[-Colly405-]

Could they have done a Cityline 73 for Bradley Stoke? The BS30 area have had Cityline East leaflets through, which surprisingly, (admittedly was a quick glance) didn’t show the 17.

Bradley Stoke would benefit more from a combined 73/m1/T1 drop, IMHO. At half-hourly, the 73 isn't really frequent enough to warrant massive publicity...

 

[Private Baxter]

Wells depot are apparently holding an open day next weekend, with a tour of the depot and brief talk on its history and services. I am unfortunately unable to attend; will any body else be?

 

[Volvodart]

100 years of buses operating in Wells​

https://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/19581541.100-years-buses-operating-wells/By Phil Hill @GazettePHillChief reporter

FIRST West of England’s Wells bus depot will hold an open day on Saturday, September 25, to celebrate two centenaries.
The event will not only mark 100 years of buses running in England’s smallest city, but also nearly 100 years since the depot first opened.
Buses started operating in Wells in August 1920 while the depot, on Priory Road, opened in January 1922.
First West of England is celebrating both events on the same day after the pandemic meant last year’s centenary couldn’t be marked.

The buses are essential to the city, connecting Wells to Bristol, Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Shepton Mallet and Glastonbury.
They include the Mendip Xplorer 376, 11th on the list of the most beautiful bus routes in the UK in a Bus Users UK poll in 2018.
The open day, which is open to everyone, will run from 10am to 2pm at the depot.
Visitors will get to see vintage buses in action and even take a short ride, meet the depot team, hear from local historians, and take away a treat to remember the day.

Today the depot has a close-knit staff of more than 60 people keeping more than 25 buses operating in and around Wells.
Ollie Edwards, operations supervisor, has been working at the depot for 17 years.
He said: “There’s a real family feel among the colleagues here.
"Wells is a place for which everyone at the depot has fond feelings.
"There is something special about doing work that supports the local community, whether that is driving buses to get people to work, to the shops, or answering questions from tourists.
"It’s brilliant to think that we are a part of a depot that has been doing the same tasks for the past 100 years, even if the technology has moved on a bit."
Over the past century, a host of different services and bus routes have come and gone.
The old double de-clutch buses with tiny wing mirrors have been replaced by vehicles with modern technology.
Today’s buses are mainly ultra-clean diesel to Euro VI standard with fully automated ticketing systems.


Rob Sanderson, operations manager, said: “We are using this milestone as an opportunity to connect with those with fantastic memories of the buses in Wells and inviting people to drop into our open day and find out more.
“We really appreciate the vibrant community spirit and history of Wells. Our local people are what makes our work so enjoyable. We’re hoping to gather and share these memories as we move into our second century of operating.”