MetroBus

[whole diary]

[SandTEngineer]

Obviously today's deadlines and profit-driven projects do not have the budget for fancy ironwork, but the simple and free answer would be to invite chosen graffiti artists to paint the concrete walls and embankments before the routes open. Free decoration and a deterrent to future tagging.

Don't agree BMBLBZZZ.  Its vandalism full stop.  Trouble is we do let them get away with it, and so they know they can easily do it again un-contested.  Personally I think it makes our infrastructure look as bad as in France (where they have the same attidude).  Have a trip by train through the PARIS suburbs and you will see what I mean.

[Bmblbzzz]

Is it vandalism if it's done by invitation at specified times and locations? And possibly even running the rough designs past a body for approval, or at least filtering out anything potentially dodgy? The kind of thing that happens at Upfest and some similar events or locations. I'm talking about ending up with a wall full of stuff like this:
Bristol graffiti
which you might not personally like (and I'm not sure I like all of it) but is an improvement on competitive name-scrawling, IMO^▸ (in my opinion) – which is what is going to happen, or rather does happen, otherwise. And there is plenty of evidence that painted surfaces discourage tagging.

[martyjon]

Had a coffee with my Metrobus insider yesterday morning. “What's the latest”, I asked him as if I didn't already know much of which he was going to impart to me.

“M2 is starting in September and is already courting much adverse comment regards the route leaving passengers which have used the Long Ashton Park and Ride service for years to travel to the Hotwells / Anchor Roads and Centre / College Green areas are furious that now they will have to ride almost around the city loop to get to near where they want adding up to 20 minutes  to their morning commute or alight at Wapping Wharf and walk through the area and along the Harbourside to Prince Street Bridge, over it past the Arnolfini and then over Peros Bridge to Millenium Square and through @Bristol to Anchor Road, a time the M2 timetable states is achievable in 9 minutes”. He continued, “yes, 9 minutes if you are a fit road walker but not if you are a fit 20 something female secretary to a Managing Director wearing six inch high heels cautiously negotiating all the sunken railway lines around the M shed and the cobbled streets around the Arnolfini and the @Bristol building not mentioning the occasional need to close the Prince Street bridge to swing it for vessels whose headroom is insufficient to pass under it”. Also DR of Bus Users UK^▸ (United Kingdom) told me that he has had phone calls from no lesser that the PA^▸ (Public Address) of Steve Lansdown he of HL and Bristol Sports asking what DR was doing about the loss of the 903 as many users of the service work at HL and the many nearby financial businesses.

I expressed my view that if, as is stated, the current 903 is subsidised how is it that M2 is going to operate without a subsidy assuming that passenger numbers and hence farebox income remain roughly.static. He laughed and told me that the modelling used to justify the M2 route predicted at least a 20% increase in passenger numbers and thus income. I asked him where those extra 20% of passengers were going to come from, all those sports fans travelling to Ashton Gate for matches who have been told not to use Metrobus because they would'nt have enough vehicles to cope. He rocked with laughter again.

I remarked that there is still no sign of a Sunday service and that overnight parking at the LA P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) is not permitted which will put workers that do night work off from using M2.

His response was, “look, you and I could put our heads together, having read the original legal documents relating to the LA P&R site, prepare a codicil on less than half a sheet of A4 detailing the changes to the original planning permissions that are needed but the rip-off lawyers will insist that it needs a 10 page deed of variation costing £10,000 per page to draft to achieve, its already taken over two years just to process the purchase of the land, I suppose the freehold of the land the LA P&R stands on and still there is no firm date for completion let alone changes to the hours that the site can be used. If it were kids you could grab hold of their hair and bang their heads together and tell them to sort it but with the dodery old bold headed retired idiots thinking they know best you'd have to grab them by the collar and headbutt them together telling them to FWGOWI (? well get on with it).

I think I'll conclude this post here with a promise of a second post detailing the rest of our conversation over our coffee meetup yesterday.

[chuffed]

I suggest Mr Moneybags Lansdown provides a morning and evening boat shuttle across the Floating harbour, at no cost to his employees, instructing his staff to get off Metrobus m2 at the Gas ferry stop. It could operate for an hour before and after office hours.

[martyjon]

I suggest Mr Moneybags Lansdown provides a morning and evening boat shuttle across the Floating harbour, at no cost to his employees, instructing his staff to get off Metrobus m2 at the Gas ferry stop. It could operate for an hour before and after office hours.

DR told me that he did suggest to SL's PR^▸ (Public Relations) that SL fund a peak hour P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) service to the Harbourside (Lloyds Building) turning at the Millenium Square Turning Circle.

[chuffed]

The onus is definitely on SL  to come up with a solution,not the employees. It is not as if, they have not been able to see it coming. So to quote your own words in your earlier post, why don't they FWGOWI ?

[Phantom]

The onus is definitely on SL  to come up with a solution,not the employees. It is not as if, they have not been able to see it coming. So to quote your own words in your earlier post, why don't they FWGOWI ?

Why is it up to the majority shareholder to provide transport for his staff?
Is this actually done anywhere else?

Apart from the few hours on a match day there are not that many staff based at Ashton Gate

As for not seeing it coming, am I not correct in saying that one of the routes that was sold as being in this area mysteriously vanished at a very recent press release

[chuffed]

I was not referring to Ashton Gate supporters on Saturdays, but the employees of Hargreaves Lansdown who are by far the majority employer on Harbourside during the week !. Furthermore the section of route most likely to be used by employees of HL is the Long Ashton P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) to Bristol City centre. At the moment the 903 drops right outside HL HQ^▸ (Headquarters). With Metrobus the service will go on the opposite bank and loop around the city centre adding another 20-30 minutes travelling time at both ends of the day. This has been a known known for a long time, and has no connection (literally!) with the apparently vanished stretch from Long Aston P&R to Hengrove.
I am not directly affected by it, so have no axe to grind, but feel that Mr Lansdown should show some understanding and sympathy for his employees who are most affected by this.

[simonw]

Why not run the M2 service in an alternating loop around the city centre?

Why not split proposed the very long M1 route into M1 and M4 and increase the service frequency of these two routes? 

[grahame]

Why not run the M2 service in an alternating loop around the city centre?

1. Is the special infrastructure in there to go both ways around?

2. Which side of the road would you wait (towards the middle of the loop) for the next service to Long Ashton

3. If it was 2-way between Temple Meads and the City Centre, would it abstract traffic from other services?

[simonw]

All good questions, but the P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) bus already does part of this route, so I assumed yes.

[CMRail]

Why not run the M2 service in an alternating loop around the city centre?

Why not split proposed the very long M1 route into M1 and M4 and increase the service frequency of these two routes? 

The road surface is two grey for the precious bus to run over.

[johnneyw]

I am astonished by the claim that Metrobust will be in the council taxpayers interest as the 903's subsidy will come to an end. What on earth do they think the cost to said taxpayers is with what the 30 to 50 million pounds and climbing overspend will be?

[Phantom]

1......... but the employees of Hargreaves Lansdown who are by far the majority employer on Harbourside during the week !.

2....Furthermore the section of route most likely to be used by employees of HL is the Long Ashton P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) to Bristol City centre.

1....But surely these staff are all coming from different points of a compass so how would a designated pick up be of any use?

2... Why would the staff be using the P&R

I'm confused.com

[TonyK]

I am astonished by the claim that Metrobust will be in the council taxpayers interest as the 903's subsidy will come to an end. What on earth do they think the cost to said taxpayers is with what the 30 to 50 million pounds and climbing overspend will be?

It isn't just that. The original finance model for MetroBust had a charge for use of the somewhat useless special busway. That has been dropped to try to make sure that somebody uses it, which is an effective subsidy. First also got cash from some central government fund to buy gas powered buses, and the cost of a gas fuelling station.

The 903 was being subsidised by accident, as Bristol City Council continued to pay the company who opened and closed the gates at the Park and Ride for years after they needed to, according to the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page). The payments stopped around 2 years ago, but threats to stop running the buses appear to have been idle ones.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if Mr Lansdown did make alternative arrangements to bus his staff in from the P&R^▸ (Park and Ride). My guess is that he would be refused access to the bus stop inside the car park. He would be able to charge a fare - after all, his staff have paid £4 per day thus far, so would not be disadvantaged - but he would have to find an operator to do it. It wouldn't bode well for MetroBust, though.