MetroBus

[whole diary]

[Bmblbzzz]

Quite some changes.

[SandTEngineer]

Just some ballast, sleepers and rails to install then they are away.....

[Chris from Nailsea]

Edit: I realise I've posted this in the wrong thread - if anymody wishes to move it, that'd be fine by me!

That's quite alright, Red Squirrel - I do understand that your paws may not cope very well with a keyboard, so I've 'moved and merged' your post accordingly. 

CfN. 

[TonyK]

Shock news from the powers that beat MetroBust, as the first operator is announced. It is - drum roll please - First Bus Bristol! Didn't see that one coming, did I?

Here's the link for anyone who wants to read the propaganda. Life's too short to copy it, especially with the Post's new website.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/first-bus-bristol-named-metrobus-123092

[johnneyw]

If only Metrobust ran from anywhere useful to anywhere meaningful it might have a future. Double deckers on guided bus lanes where the interchanges on the Cambridge version have resulted in overturns slightly scares me.

[TonyK]

Never mind that - imagine going over that skew bridge upstairs, at the front. It has to be the first ever scheduled white knuckle ride!

[simonw]

The whole MetroBus project should be cancelled! Total waste of money, but the road improvements (priority bus lanes, Stoke Gifford Link, South Bristol Link) are positive.

Run 10 bus routes that are FREE linking up interchanges across across the whole Bristol/Bath area, and have a small levy on local buses/trains to cover these free bus routes, and implement a tax free annual local train/bus ticket. After all, the government lets you buy a cycle tax free, why not a local public transport ticket?

This will encourage people to use public transport!

[Bmblbzzz]

If only Metrobust ran from anywhere useful to anywhere meaningful it might have a future. Double deckers on guided bus lanes where the interchanges on the Cambridge version have resulted in overturns slightly scares me.

Hadn't heard about the Cambridge overturns. Aren't they single decker there?

[grahame]

Hadn't heard about the Cambridge overturns. Aren't they single decker there?

Single and double.

[chuffed]

I asked trainer how Cambridge guided busway vehicles compared  to a scarlet painted 6 wheeled, diesel engined London transport omnibus. He suggested that they were not the 'transport of delight' he expected as he found them bumpy but faster. As he is staying in Bedford, I asked if he was going to swannee across the Great Ooze, to Flanders.....

[John R]

I asked trainer how Cambridge guided busway vehicles compared  to a scarlet painted 6 wheeled, diesel engined London transport omnibus. He suggested that they were not the 'transport of delight' he expected as he found them bumpy but faster. As he is staying in Bedford, I asked if he was going to swannee across the Great Ooze, to Flanders.....

Are tickets a pound a piece, or did he make a fuss?

[johnneyw]

Bath seems to be looking at an alternative to the bus.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-40366466

Remains to be seen if it's just a PR^▸ (Public Relations) job to be later dismissed as "too expensive" by the road builders.

[grahame]

Bath seems to be looking at an alternative to the bus.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-40366466

Remains to be seen if it's just a PR^▸ (Public Relations) job to be later dismissed as "too expensive" by the road builders.

I do wonder if a tram (vehicles on street) replacing a bus (vehicles on street) would make that much difference in Bath.

Oldish article ... http://transitionbath.org/transportsolution-alternatives-for-north-south-cycling/

During the planning stages of the development of 700 homes on the ex-MOD site at Foxhill in Bath Curo have proposed a number of alternative solutions to the problem of how to encourage cycling at the top of a very steep hill. This is a problem common to much of Bath, which is built on a steep sided valley and has congested roads which are not designed to accommodate both cyclists and vehicular traffic. Cycling along a north-south axis is restricted to the super fit because of the steepness of the hills.

Curo’s suggested solutions to date have included:

A cable car
A vertical passenger and cycle lift from the twin tunnels cycle path
A Trondheim like cycle lift
Racks on the back of public buses

While it is early days and no commitment to any of these solutions has been made by Curo, we set out in this article to examine these options, plus three extra choices of our own suggestion:

Provision of electric bikes for all new homes in Foxhill
A ‘Boris Bikes’ like cycle hire scheme, but with electric bikes
A funicular railway

[Noggin]

Shock news from the powers that beat MetroBust, as the first operator is announced. It is - drum roll please - First Bus Bristol! Didn't see that one coming, did I?

Here's the link for anyone who wants to read the propaganda. Life's too short to copy it, especially with the Post's new website.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/first-bus-bristol-named-metrobus-123092

I think the double-decker bit might be a mistake, I don't believe that they will fit under the Ashton Ave bridge, unless they are a modern twist on the Lodekka

[trainer]

After my fleeting excursion into the Far East () as far as I can see the Cambridge guided busway and the Metrobus scheme are not comparable. Taking over a dead-straight railway bed through the countryside is one thing but the meanderings around and through an urban area of the Greater Bristol scheme, even allowing for some reserved roads, is it's own Creature (as per Ms Shelley's usage in her novel).

One thing I discovered is that giving bus drivers a clear road and powerful vehicles seems to mean heavier acceleration and braking which is much less smooth than a railed vehicle and (on the basis on one trip) somewhat exhilerating as we raced towards a red traffic light, the driver knowing that a green light would show just as the junction was reached. In rail terms I believe it's called an approach signal.  It seems that the purpose of slowing the vehicle almost to a stop does not encourage a gradual reduction in speed, but rather a more 'chicken' style of driving i.e how close to the junction dare we get before the brake foot goes down hard.  At least once we overshot the white line before the lights completed their cycle. I emphasise that this was one driver. I came back on a bus route using conventional roads - it took twice as long.

I'm not sure what to expect from our Brave New World of buses, but I do know one thing - cheaper it may be, but it is not a satisfactory substitute for light rail.