MetroBus

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

... 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...

I knows that, and you knows that, but the map we were talking about shows two buildings on King St - the Old Vic, and the Theatre Royal. I was trying to be funny. The younger Squirrels keep telling me that this is an aspiration that I should abandon.

[martyjon]

This is not really MetroBus and I sincerely apologise for this and I hope all readers will see the "funny side" of this post.

After alighting from MetroBus this morning I alighted and walking to my clients office and I noticed a "HASHTAG" on the edges of the coping slabs topping a low wall and I thought I'll get a shot of that going home but unfortunately the speed of the Bristol Council today saw just the last few characters to be pressure washed off.

The HASHTAG

#joinusinamasspissintothecityhallmoatasaprotestagainstmarvinsmassclosureofthecityspisshouses

[martyjon]

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?

Travelled into town yesterday and today, first two days of pay to travel.

A number of roadside I Points still to be installed, those that are DO work although there is a software fault which flags up ERROR and restarts with an intermediate screen. The error screen which I saw was an attempt by a mother to buy a child, a student and an adult weekly tickets. The mother tried again requesting a child, a student and an adult day ticket, failed again, the bus had arrived, they boarded and bus driver attempted same transaction for day tickets which failed again so transaction was done as one day ticket at a time for each ticket with three contactless transactions, three tickets and three receipt slips.

Another transaction I saw fail was a party of four of which the two children were severely disabled and in wheelchairs, the girl about 15 and the boy about 8. The female panicked but the driver showed great compassion, patience and assistance while the mother took it slowly and successfully obtained the tickets and they boarded the bus and for the drivers actions I today commended him to a First Bus inspector at the city centre stop.

Today coming home two teenage females were trying their luck with the I Point unsuccessfully and the bus arrived, they despaired at the driver that they couldn't get tickets and again this driver showed patience and told them to try again, he would wait and if they still couldn't do it he would issue them tickets on the bus. At this point I stepped forward and advised them and hey presto the tickets were dispensed so tomorrow I will again commend that driver to First Bus.

The drivers I have experienced are all very pleasant and helpful.

My MetroBus insider remarked to me that the I Point software, after I mentioned to him that there seems to be a fault on it, remarked that London Transport replaced the same software 5 years ago, not surprised, this is Bristol.

Did hear a disquieting remark today, remarker said she had heard that parking charges at the P & R are to be introduced in September, one I'll have to follow up.

One funny on this mornings journey along the 2+ lane on the ring road, the bus pulled up at the Hambrook stop when a passenger behind me exclaimed, "Oh look theres a tailors dummy in that cars front passengers seat, and yes there was strapped in using the seat belt but it was only from the waist level upwards. Had that driver taken a leaf out of Noel Edmunds book who used to drive into Bristol using the bus lanes to record the Deal Or No Deal program in his "taxi" with a tailors mannequin in the back.

Usage now punters gotta pay, well I have not seen anyone refused boarding due to being full nor anyone retreat back down from the upper deck through lack of seating up top and available seating on the lower deck when leaving the last stop inbound before the city central areal both yesterday and today but from my journeys yesterday and today numbers are down. 

[johnneyw]

Tried Metrobust today, here is my tale. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Started at Cabot Circus for the 14.22 to the end of the line and back. Got there 10 minutes early, just as well as needed five attempts for the card reader to work.
The ipoint counted the minutes down until it showed 'due'. It continued to show due and due and due and, well you get it. 20 mins 'due' later it finally arrived with it's following sevice due at the same time, already showing a few minutes late.
And so onto the bus, only half full and probably half of that was due to the fact that two buses should come by then instead of one. The journey went on toward the motorway like, well, like other buses do. No traffic light priority and only the slightly harder seats to distract me.
The motorway part of the journey was much like other motorway bus journeys from other services using that stretch but it did labour a little on the uphill stretch. The motorway exit road was taken at a crawl, probably for the best looking at the slope and the bends on what looked like a go cart track.
We passed various stops along the route. None got on and the few that got off looked like they had a bit of a walk to the nearest buildings of any description. The route continued without any traffic light priority, just like for any bus.
Finally reached the end of the line, technically 20 minutes late. Caught the nearly empty return service which had now tangled up with the following service which had by now caught up with it. This caused a bit of a bus jam at UWE where the bus that should have been 20 minutes behind us was now ahead and while it waited there, held us up further.
More of the same back to the Centre where progress was just like any other bus but sped up by the benefit of not having anyone get off or on.
Disembarked at the Centre to swap thoughts with my brother who came with me to form some sort of opinion on it. We both agreed that the best bits where underwhelming but the overriding thought was "Bristol, what have you done"?

[TonyK]

This is not really MetroBus and I sincerely apologise for this and I hope all readers will see the "funny side" of this post.

After alighting from MetroBus this morning I alighted and walking to my clients office and I noticed a "HASHTAG" on the edges of the coping slabs topping a low wall and I thought I'll get a shot of that going home but unfortunately the speed of the Bristol Council today saw just the last few characters to be pressure washed off.

The HASHTAG

#joinusinamasspissintothecityhallmoatasaprotestagainstmarvinsmassclosureofthecityspisshouses

#MeToo!

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?

It's not much of aa park and ride - maybe 40 spaces? Given that there is only one stop in Lyde Green, I can see those being used by local residents rather than out of town visitors.

The ipoint counted the minutes down until it showed 'due'. It continued to show due and due and due and, well you get it. 20 mins 'due' later it finally arrived with it's following sevice due at the same time, already showing a few minutes late.

Eureka! I've figured it out! The software is incorrectly set to Italian, and the display is telling you there are two coming.

The motorway exit road was taken at a crawl, probably for the best looking at the slope and the bends on what looked like a go cart track.
We passed various stops along the route.

There's a 15 mph speed limit on the outbound slip road off the motorway. It feels like reducing to a crawl, especially with all the other traffic belting past at 80 mph.

We both agreed that the best bits where underwhelming but the overriding thought was "Bristol, what have you done"?

Not just me and Red Squirrel then! It didn't seem like a quarter-billion quids' worth.

[Red Squirrel]

It's not much of aa park and ride - maybe 40 spaces? Given that there is only one stop in Lyde Green, I can see those being used by local residents rather than out of town visitors.

A squizz on Google Maps reveals about 16 disabled spaces and maybe 38 abled, but there looks to be provision to double or maybe treble that. But I'm sure you're right, they're meant to be local spaces for local people; presumably the intent is that they drive 2-300m from their house to the bus stop...

[trainer]

But I'm sure you're right, they're meant to be local spaces for local people; presumably the intent is that they drive 2-300m from their house to the bus stop...

Perhaps a series of feeder bus services would help. 

[martyjon]

Two of my observations about the infrastructure, there are more which when time permits I'll relate on this forum.

Bus activated traffic lights.
I can identify one only instance. Its the pair of signal heads on the Stoke Lane hill where the bus travels in the newly created Stoke Lane Bus Lane and the road narrows before crossing the M32 bridge which has'nt been altered, passengers at the front on the top deck can see the black bitumen diamond shapes sealing the detector loop into the road surface. On two instances the traffic has been so light that the bus I was on pulled straight out into the trafficless main stream without bothering to use the Bus Lane so avoiding following traffic needlessly having to stop.

Lyde Green P&R^▸ (Park and Ride).
In total I would guess there is parking for about 200 cars / small vans in total, there are two areas which are marked out. These two areas are separated by a brook and are connected by a pedestrian bridge very conveniently positioned to lead to the actual bus stop. There are also two overflow areas again separated which is accessed through wooden gates and on first appearance would appear to be grass fields but there is strips of some kind of honeycombed metallic material pressed into the surface to prevent vehicles sinking into the morass during and following inclement weather.
Its termed a P&R but I bet the promoters of this project did not envisage commuters driving their cars to this P&R, extracting a cycle from their cars boot or removing it from the cars cycle carrier and RIDING their bike the last few miles to places like Aztech West, Abbey Wood or UWE daily to "keep in trim". I've seen at least half a dozen folk do this.
A concern I have about this site however is the site is all open so it presents an open invitation to the travelling community to set up, until evicted, a camp on the grassed areas, sort out their junk leaving piles of rubbish for the UA to clear away. We'll see what the future unfolds. 

[Noggin]

Its termed a P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) but I bet the promoters of this project did not envisage commuters driving their cars to this P&R, extracting a cycle from their cars boot or removing it from the cars cycle carrier and RIDING their bike the last few miles to places like Aztech West, Abbey Wood or UWE daily to "keep in trim". I've seen at least half a dozen folk do this.

Not unusual at all. A number of acquaintances have recently moved out of Bristol to north Somerset and frequently do the same thing, not wanting to commute down country lanes, but being quite happy to sail down the Bath Road.

We were in the pub the other night discussing whether there was a market for a rural version of Slide with a bike trailer, or for some kind of secure bike storage container that you could rent in a P+R.

[martyjon]

Well it WAS MetroBust today. Waiting at the P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) stop today a, probably empty, vehicle passed heading for the next and last stop at Emersons Green terminus but was conspicuous in being a red liveried vehicle. Never mind, minutes later it appeared and all appeared fine. The journey seemed to be progressing without incident and the Ring Road traffic was a little bit heavier than on my previous journeys, probably due to a combination of the strong wind and the drizzle issuing from on high. When we arrived at UWE there was another vehicle at the M3 stop with a high-viz jacket wearing mechanic standing with the waiting passengers. Our driver hared off and spoke to the mechanic and returned to our bus and ordered everyone off and join the other bus but was very pleasant about it as his words were something like, "please would you all transfer to the bus in front for the remainder of your journey, I shall be driving" which we all did and this together with the heavier traffic resulted in leaving UWE 17 minutes late and thus picking up passengers for the next service which in theory should have been just 3 minutes behind us thus resulting in standing pax but non were left at any stop. A passenger spoke to the mechanic who said there was a minor fault on the vehicle and they did not want it breaking down on the M32. whilst we were stopped at Stoke Lane, the next stop from UWE, the original vehicle passed us and turned left onto the bus only road to the M32, stopping at the Allotments stop to advise pax of the delay and preceded us on the the M32 where we lost it in the dust. We finally arrived at the City Centre at about 22 minutes behind schedule. Oh well these things do happen. thats life !!!!

[johnneyw]

A fellow passenger, queuing alongside me for the 20 minute late arrival of my inaugural journey was bemoaning the lack of reliability and poor punctuality of the service that she had already experienced.

[Pavement]

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.

[TonyK]

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.

[grahame]

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.

I note that the M3 bus route is not yet complete - it's due to carry on to the south and will server the stations at Bedminster and Parson Street.

Welcome to the forum, Pavement.   

If you suggest that Bedminster and Parson Street are less useful that Temple Meads, I would have to agree.

[TonyK]

My apologies for my awful manners, Pavement, and a very warm, if belated, welcome from me too!

I note that the M3 bus route is not yet complete - it's due to carry on to the south and will server the stations at Bedminster and Parson Street.

Welcome to the forum, Pavement.   

If you suggest that Bedminster and Parson Street are less useful that Temple Meads, I would have to agree.

So a walk from the centre, a walk from Redcliffe, or a train from Parson Street, and I still don't know if you will need a second bus ticket.