Bristol Temple Meads Development Plans Unveiled

[whole diary]

[Lee]

Bristol Evening Post article (link below.)
http://thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144913&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231190&home=yes&more_nodeId1=144922&contentPK=19670890

[simonw]

Interesting idea, but I'd have thought it would be better to create a bus interchange in front of Temple Meads, rather than build a multi story car park.

Bristol Temple Meads biggest problem is access. For most people in Bristol it is easier and quicker to get to Bristol Parkway. Improving access to Bristol Temple Meads will require many changes, not just improved parking.

The easiest first step would be to remove all parking directly in front of BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) and create a bus interchange and taxi area. Very few bus's go to/from Temple Meads and this would integrate public transport much better!

[smokey]

I think most Bus companies prefer NOT to intergrate Bus and Rail Services, not unless someone like the council pay them big bucks to do so.

First Buses can't even connect with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) trains,and it's one hell of a lot easier to retime a bus to connect with a train, than retime a train to connect with a bus.

[simonw]

Integration of Bus and Rail services, both operated by First Group, is essential to resolve Bristol's terrible congestion problem.

Integration can be achieved by timing and collocating train and bus services. However I only envisaged collocation. Provided bus services are regular, this should not be an issue.

[Shazz]

I think most Bus companies prefer NOT to intergrate Bus and Rail Services, not unless someone like the council pay them big bucks to do so.

First Buses can't even connect with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) trains,and it's one hell of a lot easier to retime a bus to connect with a train, than retime a train to connect with a bus.

For the love of god, stop talking abolute crap.

It's in the bus operators and the train operators intrest to integrate the services. becuase as a result, more people will use them.

Take cardiff central for example. It's the "hub" of cardiff's bus and rail services. Buses to everywhere throughout the city are available to everyone within 10 seconds walk from the station entrace. Has the valley lines service suffered? No. Has the bus service suffered? No. More people use the station as a result of it. For a station that has over 7 million passengeres a year, predominantly from the valley lines network (theres only 3 "long ditance" routes from cardiff, so the majority of traffic is local services)

Neither were forced to do it, yet they chose to do it instead. Both have won as a result of this. As public transport useage has gone through the roof here. As a result there is very little congestion, meaning the bus services get even better, and get new stock fairly regularly. (There at least another 40 new buses every 2-3 years being bought).

[simonw]

This is true of many other cities, not just Cardiff.

I am not suggesting the Bristol's main bus depot locates at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)), but that the central area in front of BTM is used to provide frequent bus routes to

• Park and Ride Sites
• Routes to some of the city suburbs
• City Centre Routes

To develop BTM successfully, it must integrate into the city successfully, and be a central transport hub for the city centre.

Adding a car park will help this, but will not achieve this.

[Timmer]

Whatever they decide something needs to be done as its a real problem area for all concerned who use BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)). Good point made about Bristol passengers using Parkway instead which is now a much better station.

[Btline]

I have to say, a lot on this thread is absolute tosh!

(1) What do people mean "timing buses to connect with trains" (or vice versa)?

Ok, there are x number of trains out of Bristol every hour (clue x is a big number!).

There are also many bus routes.

Bus y runs once per hour (typical frequency?). As do many of the other buses.

What train out of x do you want to connect with buses like y? The most important train, ie the London one?

So we have hundreds of buses arriving at the station at the same time to connect with that train!!

Absolute rubbish. If the bus is reasonably frequent (preferably >1 bph), then "connexions" do not really matter. The main focus should be on bus punctuality.

Of course, at Bodmin Parkway, the buses, including the one to Padstow should connect with the train. But this is a different matter. At Bodmin, there are fewer trains and buses.

(2) What is this about First not wanting to connect its trains and buses together in an interchange?

Of course they do! eg Cardiff as above, Cradley Heath in B'ham.

About the actual subject in hand, I think the plans are good. I am not familiar enough with BTMs^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) to know whether the money would be better spent on the actual rail section of the station (eg more platforms, an overbridge etc.).

[grahame]

(2) What is this about First not wanting to connect its trains and buses together in an interchange?

Of course they do! eg Cardiff as above, Cradley Heath in B'ham.

I'm not going to comment on the rest of the post - I'm not a Bristol regular who knows the services well enough.  But I am going to come back on this one and comment that First are very patchy in providing decent interchanges.

For many years, the bus service from Chippenham to Melksham, Trowbridge and Frome left the Bus station in Chippenham at the opposite side of the town - fair enough from 2001 to 2006 when there was a train service worth talking about, I suppose.   But then when First cut the train service back in 2006 so that there are no longer any peak or daytime trains, it was only after a lot of nagging that the sent some buses - oh - just the first three journeys a day into Chippenham, and the last few back at night - via Chippenham railway station. And it took a further 9 months to get the bus stop signs at Chippenham Station updated to show the new service.

We know it's working, somewhat; the buses aren't particularly busy and most of the 120000 journeys that went by rail down the corridor have been lost to the TransWilts / 234 bus all together, but the taxi drivers at Chippenham station grumble at the loss of lucrative Melksham fares.   

And it seems pretty daft that one of the three buses and one of the two remaining trains run within 10 minutes of each other.  I call that duplication, and not connection!

[Btline]

You are right of course, but that's First for you. They operate the buses in my area, and they are the worst I have ever seen!

They are dirty, slow, less frequent than advertised. Do not run to the timetable. Expensive! Every "timetable" change, they axe a few more buses in the evenings/mornings.

Many of the drivers are nice though!

And thankfully, First buses have not been painted in "dynamic lines" yet!

[smokey]

And First Buses love to run services parallel to Train services, Like Truro-Falmouth, Bath-Bristol, etc, even when the Trains are First Group operated.
 Might do better all round to run bus that serve towns that trains don't.