MetroBus

[whole diary]

[grahame]

For some reason, they seem to have avoided the obvious metrobuswoe.co.uk and registered metrobusbristol.co.uk, almost acknowledging the existence of Bristol...

If anyone's looking to set up a transport information site for the West or England area, all the domains transportwoe.* that you might want are available  .

[metalrail]

You just literally end up feeling like shaking them all to try and get the message to hit home, at least for starters

Secondly you want at the very least an acknowledgement of the issues raised

Thirdly you want some kind of commitment - and timescale - for the issues to be addressed

And finally (if you can wait that long) you want the issues resolved!

If this new Metrobus system and all of it's various flaws from initial conception to an extremely delayed - and in some cases still not running - service which firstly is unable to run to the initial advertised faster travel times, and secondly at the first price change (after only a few months of running) one of the major selling points of the service - the buy before you board - fails, then it leaves you very little hope for the future of our transport solutions being addressed in any kind of timely manner

[stuving]

While I was looking into this I couldn't help noticing that the uri metrobus.co.uk belongs to the Go-Ahead group who use it for 'ordinary' bus services in Sussex, Surrey and Kent. To distinguish the West of England (WoE) operation, they had to come up with a different name... For some reason, they seem to have avoided the obvious metrobuswoe.co.uk and  registered metrobusbristol.co.uk, almost acknowledging the existence of Bristol...

But there are guided Metrobuses in Crawley, called Fastway! Mind you, there's even less guided busway than in Bristol, and Go-Ahead don't exactly make a big thing about their guidedness - they're just buses serving Gatwick.

[martyjon]

I am told this piccy is of the first vehicle for the m1 metrobus route leaving the factory on its delivery run complete with a trade plate displayed behind the front windscreen.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/122507681@N02/46017650391

[TonyK]

I am told this piccy is of the first vehicle for the m1 metrobus route leaving the factory on its delivery run complete with a trade plate displayed behind the front windscreen.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/122507681@N02/46017650391

Gosh! Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it's a bus.

[patch38]

Blimey - are they expecting people to sit on the roof? What's that handrail for?

[TonyK]

Blimey - are they expecting people to sit on the roof? What's that handrail for?

Most buses in Bristol have them. to deflect tree branches.

Travelwest's spin doctor website says that Bristol Community Transport are spending £7 million on 21 new biogas buses to run the M1. That sounds like an awful lot of cash for a charitable company that currently runs two park and ride sites, the hospital free bus, and a few school services - all under contracts. The M1 is supposed to be a commercial venture, isn't it?

[Red Squirrel]

I am told this piccy is of the first vehicle for the m1 metrobus route leaving the factory on its delivery run complete with a trade plate displayed behind the front windscreen.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/122507681@N02/46017650391

Gosh! Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it's a bus.

Comparing it with this, I can hardly spot any differences:



Image: Public Sector Executive

I do like they way they were going to cover the wheels - makes it look more tram-like, but perhaps impractical for steering... talking of which, where are the not-very-tram-like ikkle guidewheels?

[TonyK]

I do like they way they were going to cover the wheels - makes it look more tram-like, but perhaps impractical for steering... talking of which, where are the not-very-tram-like ikkle guidewheels?

Not needed on the M1, which uses a normal bus-like bus on normal road-like roads to give that promised tram-like feeling.

[martyjon]

Blimey - are they expecting people to sit on the roof? What's that handrail for?

Most buses in Bristol have them. to deflect tree branches.

Travelwest's spin doctor website says that Bristol Community Transport are spending £7 million on 21 new biogas buses to run the M1. That sounds like an awful lot of cash for a charitable company that currently runs two park and ride sites, the hospital free bus, and a few school services - all under contracts. The M1 is supposed to be a commercial venture, isn't it?

This is something I can't get my head round.

The spin doctors said that they would be powered by biogas produced from food and human waste (poo in other words) but they are reputedly powered by CNG^▸ (Compressed Natural Gas) (Compressed Natural Gas).

They are procured by First for use on the m1 route which will be operated by BCT under contract and on behalf of First and as I understand will cause the current U3 City Centre to Frenchay Campus to cease operating. The body near side panel between the lower and upper decks windows does in fact state BCT on the vehicles used on the m3 which I find remarkable as these vehicles should be purely First owned.

The current m3 / U3 timetable is a combined timetable with the short journeys Centre to UWE only reverting to a m3 route designation after the full Centre to Emersons Green journeys cease around 20:00 weekdays and anyone with a copy of the printed timetable would have every right to assume that it was a First Bus operated service.

The current U3 operated by BCT is currently using Plaxton President buses which carry the flying F First logo but the legals on the back nearside panel quotes BCT as the operator with their Parson Street address and are painted a Royal Bluish colour although I have seen a plain white vehicle on the service whilst on the 76 route I have seen one Royallish Blue vehicle operating.

The bus pictured in my post earlier has apparently arrived at the Avonmouth premises of Scania and I was told that driver training and route familiarisation will start next week with First conducting the training.

I am interested in how long it took to travel from the bus builders Falkirk body shops to Avonmouth and how many refuelling stops had to be made on the delivery run.

Its nearly as complicated or is it more complicated than the status of the Long Ashton Park and Ride site but then this is Bristool where nuffinks ever simpool or bent forewerd.

I wouldn't blame anyone if they thought there are a fair few number of porkies orbiting Bristol at present.

[Red Squirrel]

The spin doctors said that they would be powered by biogas produced from food and human waste (poo in other words) but they are reputedly powered by CNG^▸ (Compressed Natural Gas) (Compressed Natural Gas).

Natural gas and biogas are both principally methane; perhaps the bus doesn't care how it's made and perhaps the gas doesn't know.

I am interested in how long it took to travel from the bus builders Falkirk body shops to Avonmouth and how many refuelling stops had to be made on the delivery run.

How we long for the simple days when they would build a bus chassis in Brislington, put up elementary cardboard screens and (wearing flying helmet, gauntlets and Stadium No.8's) drive to Lowestoft to have the body built, before driving back to Bristol!

[Bmblbzzz]

I am interested in how long it took to travel from the bus builders Falkirk body shops to Avonmouth and how many refuelling stops had to be made on the delivery run.

How we long for the simple days when they would build a bus chassis in Brislington, put up elementary cardboard screens and (wearing flying helmet, gauntlets and Stadium No.8's) drive to Lowestoft to have the body built, before driving back to Bristol!

I once saw that, but not buses, Brislington nor Lowestoft. It was lorry chassis in grey primer being driven by drivers dressed as you describe (I'm presuming "Stadium No.8's" refers to crash helmets) heading west on the A419 through Stroud. About 1984. I've no idea where they had come from or where they were going.

[TonyK]

The spin doctors said that they would be powered by biogas produced from food and human waste (poo in other words) but they are reputedly powered by CNG^▸ (Compressed Natural Gas) (Compressed Natural Gas).

Natural gas and biogas are both principally methane; perhaps the bus doesn't care how it's made and perhaps the gas doesn't know.

The methane produced by the company - such as GENeco at Avonmouth - is pumped into the national gas grid. The consumer, in this case the bus company, signs a contract with the supplier, pays a bit more than the standard tariff, and gets a certificate to say it is green energy. The actual molecules pumped into the bus may have started life deep below the North Sea, or could have been fracked in the US and brought to us by tanker, but the bus company gets a stiffcut. This would not sound like a green accounting procedure if the waste plant stopped producing gas when it had met all of its orders, but it doesn't. It continues to pump the stuff into the grid.

Personally, I very much like the idea of converting waste into power rather than burying it in the countryside or pumping it into a convenient river. I think that if it can be done at a reasonable cost and with true ecological benefits, then all of our organic waste should go the same way, so solving two problems at one go. My slight air of cynicism comes from the application of a layer of eco-babble on top of the fact that the bus will use gas, which is less environmentally damaging than diesel. At least this week. I can also see a day coming when every scrap of waste this country produces is rendered into usable power, and because of the subsidies we begin to ship in huge volumes of poo from China to make more, whilst burning wind turbine blades for additional green power. Similar has already happened, with the use of kiln-dried wood pellets imported from Canada and the US in power stations converted from coal.

[Red Squirrel]

...I'm presuming "Stadium No.8's" refers to crash helmets...

Nearly. Goggles, actually:


Image: Silverstone Auctions

[martyjon]

Am I right, when I was a little boy did the chassis of future Bristol Buses only have to be driven part way across the Bristol area from Brislington to Longwell Green and many of Bristols buses were built at the Longwell Green Coachworks.