MetroBus

[whole diary]

[grahame]

... is now adored by all, who love the speed compared to buses on ordinary roads, and that Bristolians will fall in love with MetroBus as soon as they experience such speed in our gridlocked city ...

I think she may me right.  If you take something that takes an hour is reduced to 40 minutes, you'll get lots of positives - especially by people who don't realise there were other options that could have brought it down to 25 to 30 minutes.    Numbers used are purely illustrational!

[Bmblbzzz]

Beaten by Luton.  And they've got a more famous airport!

[martyjon]

With all the crystal ball gazers forecasting the heavens will be dropping a load of white stuff on us in the next few days I heard last night that snow ploughs cant be used on the guided bit of the metrobus routes. As most snow ploughs available in the area where I reside also double as gritters I said to my informant, 'what with all the millions spent on this project they didn't include the luxury of a sub-surface heating elements to switch on automatically when air temperatures drop to 4 degrees C on the ramps leading up to the Ashton Metrobus flyover ?' 

Incidentally, on mentioned the side swiping of two buses on a test run over the route my informant informed me that parts of the route are having to be re-worked.

The only bit of this project in use, the extended bus lane on the M32, is proving itself but is no good for buses using the bus only access point on the M32 and then getting caught in the daily gridlocked traffic from the Hambrook Junction to the Muller Road exit / flyover.

A neighbour of mine with a daughter at UWE travels with his daughter to UWE and then bus to the Cabot Circus tells me that he cant see how buses will be able to achieve a 20 minute journey time from UWE to the central area when currently on his experience it regularly can take 45 minutes to do the journey, a 5 minute journey time reduction might be possible when most commuters want to travel by using the bus only M32 access point.

[PhilWakely]

... is now adored by all, who love the speed compared to buses on ordinary roads, and that Bristolians will fall in love with MetroBus as soon as they experience such speed in our gridlocked city ...

I think she may me right.  If you take something that takes an hour is reduced to 40 minutes, you'll get lots of positives - especially by people who don't realise there were other options that could have brought it down to 25 to 30 minutes.    Numbers used are purely illustrational!

Is that one of your famous typos grahame, did you not mean illusional in the Metrobust context? 

[TonyK]

With all the crystal ball gazers forecasting the heavens will be dropping a load of white stuff on us in the next few days I heard last night that snow ploughs cant be used on the guided bit of the metrobus routes. As most snow ploughs available in the area where I reside also double as gritters I said to my informant, 'what with all the millions spent on this project they didn't include the luxury of a sub-surface heating elements to switch on automatically when air temperatures drop to 4 degrees C on the ramps leading up to the Ashton Metrobus flyover ?' 

Incidentally, on mentioned the side swiping of two buses on a test run over the route my informant informed me that parts of the route are having to be re-worked.

The only bit of this project in use, the extended bus lane on the M32, is proving itself but is no good for buses using the bus only access point on the M32 and then getting caught in the daily gridlocked traffic from the Hambrook Junction to the Muller Road exit / flyover.

A neighbour of mine with a daughter at UWE travels with his daughter to UWE and then bus to the Cabot Circus tells me that he cant see how buses will be able to achieve a 20 minute journey time from UWE to the central area when currently on his experience it regularly can take 45 minutes to do the journey, a 5 minute journey time reduction might be possible when most commuters want to travel by using the bus only M32 access point.

Snowploughs apparently won't fit in the guided busways. So long as the buses can still move, they should still be able to function. They won't be able to skid off the road, I assume! The theme-park skew bridge is not guided, and will close whenever there is any appreciable snowfall. MetroBust from the Long Ashton Park and Ride will therefore use the A370 over Humpty Dumpty Way. It will be interesting to see how services fare in such circumstances, given that they will have to go around Ashton Vale first before getting stuck on Winterstoke Road with everybody else. If sub-surface heater elements were ever specified, they would have been value-engineered down to a couple of guys with hot water bottles ny now.

I have been on a 47 bus along the M32 bus lane, and it is very good. I wonder how the bus will get across the traffic as it joins at Junction 2 from Muller Road, immediately meeting traffic pulling to the left to exit at J3. I have also seen other buses and taxis hurtle past me as I wait patiently in the car, so the bus lane is without doubt a Good Thing for public transport. Did we really need the other £240 million-worth of MetroBust though? Traffic often backs up to the bus-only slip road. When that happens, MetroBust services will back up with it, quickly turning from one every 10 minutes to 3 every 30 minutes.

Interesting to hear about the reworking on the guided bit. MetroBust and the councils have been strangely quiet on that rather major issue.

[grahame]

I think she may me right.  If you take something that takes an hour is reduced to 40 minutes, you'll get lots of positives - especially by people who don't realise there were other options that could have brought it down to 25 to 30 minutes.    Numbers used are purely illustrational!

Is that one of your famous typos grahame, did you not mean illusional in the Metrobust context? 

What I wrote woz wot I meant ... for wonce!

[Bmblbzzz]

...snip...
Traffic often backs up to the bus-only slip road. When that happens, MetroBust services will back up with it, quickly turning from one every 10 minutes to 3 every 30 minutes.

That's a problem to a greater or lesser extent with all bus lanes everywhere, though. Unfortunately.

[simonw]

Bus traffic will always backup when a route traverses the Temple Meads Gyratory as its half way point in its route.

The Cribbs Causeway route to Hengrove route will FAIL. It will not deliver a reliable, frequent service because there are two many strangle points in the route from Newfoundland Rd to Temple Meads.

The people in charge of this route should have split it into three!

• Cribbs CauseWay to Bristol Parkway
• Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads
• Bristol Temple Meads to Hengrove

Integrating Bus and Rail tickets would make this service a success. Not integrating them is a FAIL.

[TonyK]

...snip...
Traffic often backs up to the bus-only slip road. When that happens, MetroBust services will back up with it, quickly turning from one every 10 minutes to 3 every 30 minutes.

That's a problem to a greater or lesser extent with all bus lanes everywhere, though. Unfortunately.

Exactly! So why are we spending a quarter of a billion quid on doing the same old same old, and telling everybody it will work?

[simonw]

I'd suggest that the people in charge want to tick a few boxes in a performance report, without ever having waited for a bus not to turn up, or to arrive late with two of its friends.

[Bmblbzzz]

...snip...
Traffic often backs up to the bus-only slip road. When that happens, MetroBust services will back up with it, quickly turning from one every 10 minutes to 3 every 30 minutes.

That's a problem to a greater or lesser extent with all bus lanes everywhere, though. Unfortunately.

Exactly! So why are we spending a quarter of a billion quid on doing the same old same old, and telling everybody it will work?

Because councils don't have the guts and/or sense to make bus lanes continuous or where there is only room for one lane, to give them priority over the general lane.

[Red Squirrel]

Bus traffic will always backup when a route traverses the Temple Meads Gyratory as its half way point in its route.

You may be right, but the Temple Circus Gyratory is currently undergoing alterations which, among other things, should streamline the traffic flow. We'll see.

The Cribbs Causeway route to Hengrove route will FAIL. It will not deliver a reliable, frequent service because there are two many strangle points in the route from Newfoundland Rd to Temple Meads.

The people in charge of this route should have split it into three!

• Cribbs CauseWay to Bristol Parkway
• Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads
• Bristol Temple Meads to Hengrove

Integrating Bus and Rail tickets would make this service a success. Not integrating them is a FAIL.

When I was a boy I used to catch the No.3 bus, which ran from Whitchurch to Filton Church/Patchway - a broadly similar route. In the early 70's, they chopped it in two, with the 32 doing Whitchurch - Centre and the 73/74 covering Centre - Filton Church/Patchway. Later, cross-city routes were re-instated with the 54 and 55.

My point here is that when there are cross-city routes, it tends to look like a good idea to split them to mitigate delays caused by congestion, but no sooner is that done than the convenience of through journeys starts to look attractive. Sadly, Brexit negotiators aside, you can't have your cake and eat it.

[TonyK]

When I was a boy I used to catch the No.3 bus, which ran from Whitchurch to Filton Church/Patchway - a broadly similar route. In the early 70's, they chopped it in two, with the 32 doing Whitchurch - Centre and the 73/74 covering Centre - Filton Church/Patchway. Later, cross-city routes were re-instated with the 54 and 55.

My point here is that when there are cross-city routes, it tends to look like a good idea to split them to mitigate delays caused by congestion, but no sooner is that done than the convenience of through journeys starts to look attractive. Sadly, Brexit negotiators aside, you can't have your cake and eat it.

A most eloquently put argument for light rail services across the city. Unlike MetroBust, such schemes are not easily "value-engineered". Find the optimum termini, join them taking in any other areas that can be connected without losing time and following rail lines or other segregated routes, and voila! If there is any vacant ground being passed, buy it before starting work, then get some of the cost back from selling to developers.

The obvious flaw is that you are providing infrastructure before new houses are built over any possible alignments. Not the Bristol way at all.

[johnneyw]

Errm, surprise surprise?

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/metrobus-wont-ready-until-least-847650

Well the "at least" delayed (again) Easter start date is looming large and it's all quiet on the Metrobust front.  I always look forward to the next wheeling out of the PR^▸ (Public Relations) dept spokesperson to give us another tale. Tough gig but it was a career choice.

[TonyK]

Well the "at least" delayed (again) Easter start date is looming large and it's all quiet on the Metrobust front.  I always look forward to the next wheeling out of the PR^▸ (Public Relations) dept spokesperson to give us another tale. Tough gig but it was a career choice.

Comical Ali needed a job - any job that matched his skills - after the Iraq war finished.

I have read that the first route to open will be from Emersons Green to the Centre, as the work on the Bromley Heath viaduct is nearing completion, and no further work is needed as it uses ordinary roads / bus lanes until UWE. It was supposed to be the Ashton Vale to Temple Meads, but all has gone quiet there.

Lest we forget, this was originally scheduled to be up and running in 2015. For an Easter opning, they have until April Fools' Day. MetroBust can find some solace in the fact that the Orthodox Easter is 8 April this year, meaning they could at a pinch have 3 weeks to get it under way without looking stupid.