MetroBus

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

have a spare vehicle standing by...

Spare vehicle? Yer avin a giraffe..! 

[martyjon]

Sunday 10 June 2018.

Metrobus don't run SUNDAYS.

[Red Squirrel]

Sunday 10 June 2018.

Metrobus don't run SUNDAYS.

Thanks for the timely reminder. Actually, to be completely honest I was not all that tempted to have another go. I've done my time.

[SandTEngineer]

Well, yesterday I travelled back on the A1 Airport Flyer from BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) station to the Airport.  Absolutely no sign anywhere of METROBUS so I don't know what all the fuss is about.....

As an aside, I downloaded the Bristol City Centre A1 Bus map from the Airport Flyer website to check where to pick up the bus at BTM station.  Its shown as Stop Tb https://flyer.bristolairport.co.uk/stops-and-maps.  No such stop onsite.  In fact it picks up way down the station approach road and I had to run to catch it.  Well, the map is dated 2013......   Very helpfull indeed (not).

I have sent an email using the contact page on the website.  Lets see if anything changes?

[Red Squirrel]

Gosh, there's some interesting detail on that map - like the Bristol General Hospital, which closed in 2012, and the ghost of the dual carriageway across Queen Square which closed in 1992. Temple Circus Gyratory doesn't look much like that anymore either, but that's only been a year or so so perhaps we'll forgive that... The Centre has changed quite a bit since 2013 too, there's no stop Cp there now. Then there's the flights of pure fantasy - Queen's Avenue looks like it would be a pretty useful road, if it went where the map shows, and can anyone tell me the difference between the Theatre Royal and the Old Vic? I could go on, but I think I can hear snoring at the back...

[Phantom]

As an aside, I downloaded the Bristol City Centre A1 Bus map from the Airport Flyer website to check where to pick up the bus at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) station.  Its shown as Stop Tb https://flyer.bristolairport.co.uk/stops-and-maps.  No such stop onsite.  In fact it picks up way down the station approach road and I had to run to catch it.  Well, the map is dated 2013......   Very helpfull indeed (not).

The layout got changed last year so to enable more taxis to park up when waiting, previously the taxis were parking up all over the place.
The bus stop was basically where the front of the taxi queue is now.

Before then it was where the number 8 service no goes from, and now it is (like you say) on the incline nearer the main road than the station.
The new stop isn't great considering all the financial investment the buses have had - even a basic shelter would be of use

One good thing is the frequency of the buses, they are in and out constantly so would never have long to wait for a bus to turn up

[johnneyw]

Quick question, there there a park and ride anywhere on the current route?

[martyjon]

Quick question, there there a park and ride anywhere on the current route?

Lyde Green.

[grahame]

Quick question, there there a park and ride anywhere on the current route?

Lyde Green.

Now that free riding is over ... how are passenger numbers holding up and is the ticketing system working?

Over half an hour from the Park and Ride to the City, with over half that time spent on the road in North Bristol before the bus joins the Motorway.  Is that going to be attractive enough?

[bradshaw]

Not sure if this is the right place for this. Please correct if not

This is from the RAIL website today

https://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/funds-provided-for-metrowest?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Red Squirrel]

Couldn't be wronger if you nailed it to a squirrel and called it 'Martin'. You've made the same mistake Bristol City Council made back in 2006; a network of gimicky bus lanes is not the same as a rail-based system:  Try here: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=17915.105 

_{(Edit: Thinks: You're not Mark Bradshaw, are you?)}

[eightf48544]

As a non Bristolian and only knowing the rail network and the motorways of Bristol plus the Avon to Portishead. I wonder if it would be possible for some kind person to include a map of Metrobust. I not really sure what it is and where it goes. Is it like the Cambridge busway.?

[grahame]

.... Metrobust. I not really sure what it is and where it goes. Is it like the Cambridge busway.?

Yes.  Delivered late, over budget and disappointing many.

But now that it's here (or some of it is), we should really look to make the best use of it as a bus with 35 people on is better that 25 cars carrying 1.46 people each!

[Red Squirrel]

Is it like the Cambridge busway.?

No. The Cambridge Busway is a busway; JustaBus, in order of relevance, is some road schemes, a public realm improvement, and a very short busway.

[TonyK]

... can anyone tell me the difference between the Theatre Royal and the Old Vic? I could go on, but I think I can hear snoring at the back...

Similar to the difference between Ashton Gate stadium and Bristol City FC^‡(resolve). The Theatre Royal is the historic building, within which the Bristol Old Vic theatre company has been based since 1946. Similar to MetroBust in that one aspect is a long-running work of dramatic fiction, the other being a bus. Just a bus.

Spare vehicle? Yer avin a giraffe..! 

It is actually in the plan. Each of the three MetroBust routes will have its own special colour of livery for its vehicles, with a number of spares of a fourth colour which can be run on any route. By 'plan', I don't know if they mean something that might actually happen, or an 'aspiration', like the frequent services on the South Bristol Link Road, recently downgraded from plan to aspiration.

Anyway, it's all been very successful, according to the Comical Ali school of spin doctors at MetroBust HQ^▸ (Headquarters), even if, almost 18 months after the South Bristol Link Road opened a way into the southern hinterland, signs at the Wills Roundabout still direct lorries the old way. Although had someone built a railway with the tracks 20 mm out of alignment, like the somewhat misguided busway from Ashton Vale to Somewhere Near Temple Meads, heads would have rolled.

.... Metrobust. I not really sure what it is and where it goes. Is it like the Cambridge busway.?

Yes.  Delivered late, over budget and disappointing many.

But now that it's here (or some of it is), we should really look to make the best use of it as a bus with 35 people on is better that 25 cars carrying 1.46 people each!

And there's the rub! On the day MetroBust opened for business between Keith Emersons Green and the Centre via UWE, the X48 service between Keith Emersons Green and the Centre was withdrawn. The UWE express service was also withdrawn, as it is at the end of every term, but it will be interesting to see how it returns next term, given that MetroBust follows exactly the same route.  The number 5 bus, which follows a somewhat tortured route to the Centre, and will be extended to Bromley Heath to serve those passengers who used to have a frequent express service to town via the X48 (as did I when visiting young FT, N! junior in Fishponds). Win some, loose some, grahame. It has not gone down well with some people who now have the choice of a slower bus, a long walk to a MetroBust stop, or driving to work. In Ashton Vale, tension mounts as the opening of M2 draws near, and the 24 bus service hangs in the balance.