MetroBus

[whole diary]

[martyjon]

I wondered about that. If you did want to go from UWE to Temple Meads for some strange reason, like catching a train, you would need to change buses or walk. There seems to be only one common bus stop, and I haven't seen anything to say you can do it on one ticket. Which you would expect from a groundbreaking integrated transport system, like what the Welsh are getting.

Why not use the UWE to Temple Meads bus from UWE to Temple Meads, the 71, I think, without changing buses and on one single ticket. The First Bus Bristol Inner Zone day ticket will give a days travel within the Inner Zone or at a slightly higher price, the Bristol Rider day ticket which permits travel on any bus operators services in the Inner Zone. At a higher price, the Bristol Outer Zone ticket covers the area from Bath to Weston-Super-Mare. down south to Wells and north to Thornbury and Chipping Sodbury with the Avon Rider ticket covering all operators services in the outer Zone. If it is still marketed, the First day ticket which permitted travel on First Group buses in the Bristol Outer Zone and First Group rail services between Bath and Weston-Super-Mare and to Bristol Parkway and Yate.

[martyjon]

Hello, is there a good reason the M3 doesn't do a loop of the city centre, following the route of the M2, before heading back north? Surely a fast bus between Temple Meads and UWE would be very beneficial and well used.

I like that suggestion but not a loop, just continue to Temple Meads via Prince Street, The Grove, Redcliffe Way and the Temple Mead Gyratory returning the same way but if the higher ups decree it should be a loop then I for one would be "just content" with that.

[Red Squirrel]

Temple Meads Gyratory? That's gone the way of the Tempry Flyover.

[TonyK]

Why not use the UWE to Temple Meads bus from UWE to Temple Meads, the 71, I think, without changing buses and on one single ticket. The First Bus Bristol Inner Zone day ticket will give a days travel within the Inner Zone or at a slightly higher price, the Bristol Rider day ticket which permits travel on any bus operators services in the Inner Zone. At a higher price, the Bristol Outer Zone ticket covers the area from Bath to Weston-Super-Mare. down south to Wells and north to Thornbury and Chipping Sodbury with the Avon Rider ticket covering all operators services in the outer Zone. If it is still marketed, the First day ticket which permitted travel on First Group buses in the Bristol Outer Zone and First Group rail services between Bath and Weston-Super-Mare and to Bristol Parkway and Yate.

But that makes it look as though MetroBust is nothing more than three stand-alone bus routes.

[Red Squirrel]

Went out cycling with one of the offspring this afternoon, and stumbled upon the South Glos Link Road. For the benefit of anyone who is still under the misapprehension that JustaBus is some sort of guided busway, I attach a photo of this. It is astonishingly wide; perhaps the best thing you could say about it is that you could squeeze a couple of tram tracks up the middle of if and hardly notice.

[ellendune]

Went out cycling with one of the offspring this afternoon, and stumbled upon the South Glos Link Road. For the benefit of anyone who is still under the misapprehension that JustaBus is some sort of guided busway, I attach a photo of this. It is astonishingly wide; perhaps the best thing you could say about it is that you could squeeze a couple of tram tracks up the middle of if and hardly notice.

Well you did photograph it where it widens out for the junction.  I am not sure you could squeeze tram tracks further up the hill (especially where it crosses the railway) unless you make it a single track road!

[Red Squirrel]

Ah, well we didn't go that far - Squirrel Jr was complaining about hills. The section from Hambrook Lane to Filton Rd is what I'm talking about, something like 850m of road, which seems like more than a junction fanout.

[Noggin]

I believe that the rough history of that bit of road was:
- Yeah, so we're going to build this link road for buses, cycles, but it's not going to be car-friendly and we only really want to build it so the impoverished folk of south Bristol can access employment, and the environmental impact will be minimal
- (the road is built as a car-friendly bit of ring-road, and jolly useful for the wealthy of Bristol to get to the airport faster)
- Ah, we're not quite ready to run MetroBus on that stretch of road yet (the reality being that First want a subsidy to run on it)
- To make that stretch of the MetroBus economically viable we're going to allow a few thousand houses to be built

[Red Squirrel]

Ah, now I think you're talking about the South Bristol Link Road, but I can see why you might get confused - there are gestational similarities. I was talking about the South Glos Link Road, or, as Google Maps has it now I see, the Stoke Gifford Bypass.

[Bmblbzzz]

Stoke Gifford bypass is probably a more sensible name for it. Unless it's actually a Bradley Stoke bypass, or maybe a Little Stoke bypass.

[Western Pathfinder]

The Bristol Parkway Bypass,if you ask me.😎

[Red Squirrel]

Ah, reminds of Muir and Norden's sketch. To paraphrase, probably quite badly: Time has passed old Stoke Gifford by, and so shall we.

[johnneyw]

After the 'free' travel period where Metrobust and BCC^» (Bristol City Council - about) where publicly and loudly announcing high usage figures on the newly opened route, they seem to have gone very quiet on the figures now that passengers and not local taxpayers are paying for the tickets. Have I missed any announcements? I've tried to keep my ears and eyes open but to no avail so far.

[TonyK]

In one of the necks of the woods most affected by the MetroBust construction, around Frenchay Park Road, opinion is divided. There are some with warm words of praise, usually those living close to a stop, and those others who are worried that their existing bus service may be unfavourably affected should MetroBust soak up the passengers.
Someone who works at the Science Park was heard to say he had been waiting for MetroBust for 4 years. Now, ignoring the fact that the rest of us waited for much longer, I had always thought that the folks at the Science Park wore white coats, had mad hair, skin that never sees sunlight, and were working on trips to Mars, cures for all known illnesses, and a clockwork TV set. If they get so excited by a new bus route, I may have overestimated them.

[stuving]

Stoke Gifford bypass is probably a more sensible name for it. Unless it's actually a Bradley Stoke bypass, or maybe a Little Stoke bypass.

Its official name is Stoke Gifford Transport Link. Its planning application was PT14/0600/R3F (after an initial one in 2013) - that's useful to answer questions about the road layout, since Google haven't had a lad with a phone lurking overhead for a year.

I'm sure Red Squirrel knows why it's so wide really - bus lanes! Plus, there's the rules, about things like central reservations, footpaths, etc. Bus lanes are now easier to see since the late design change to a red surface, but they only use that where it is right beside another lane. Where there is a little bit of hatching in between, the surface reverts to black/grey/road coloured.

What looks like an extravagant swelling of the central hatchery on the run up from Ham Brook to Oxleigh Way is there to push the bus lane plus southbound lane aside to make room for a right-turn lane and two non-refuges (pedestrians being unwelcome on them). Them's the rules, apparently. What isn't obvious is why there are two bus lanes running through the junction at Hambrook Lane (a bridge at grade, in that all lanes of all roads have "ahead only" written on them) but the bus lane stops being exclusive before the junction with Oxleigh Way. 

If they are applying rules about cycle provision I can't fathom what they are. I mean, is the half-width green-painted lane from the bus stop towards Filton Road for cycles? It widens slowly and turns into a (red) bus lane, so ...