Part of a story

This Monday, the BBC aired a Panorama documentary on Britain's Bus Crisis (their words, not mine). It is available to watch on iPlayer here. Richard Bilton followed a number of journeys across the North from Redcar to Blackpool and (spoiler alert) came to the disappointing conclusion that the system isn't working. Lets look at some…

WECA’s Final Solution: A Response

As promised in Ask a Stupid Question, here is our full response to the WECA Bus Strategy Consultation. The consultation (open until Sunday 15/03/20) is still available at TravelWest. Just in case it disappears, the consultation document can also be found here: West-of-England-Bus-Strategy FYI: Consultation headings in bold, direct quotations in italics, responses in plain…

Ask a stupid question

The West of England Combined Authority is currently consulting on a Bus Strategy which is intended to form a grand solution to all of Bristol... sorry, Avon... sorry, the West of England's passenger travel issues over the next two decades. I have major concerns over this document and the accompanying questionnaire. WECA staff have already admitted…

Short Journeys

The following are all stubs of posting ideas that i've had over recent weeks. Rather than put three separate posts with short articles, here they are collected together - two on planning and a short story on filth. Where in the Worle? Although this might be stepping somewhat on the toes of former Brighton &…

Consequences

As bus operators, we can be faced with questions regarding the consequences of our actions. When services are changed, something i am always acutely aware of is the unforeseen loss of links or connections which may appear trivial, but can have a significant impact. As somebody responsible for the consequences of the actions of my…

Fermeture définitive

Apologies for those of you expecting a tirade about some aspect of the bus industry. This post reports upon a different transport obsession of mine, but bear with me as i attempt to make a point. Although it may be considered divisive in these times, a longstanding refrain of transport campaigners is to repeat their…

Minibus Armageddon

No, don't click away. I know what you're thinking. Another rant about community transport, but you'd be wrong. These minibuses are a symptom of a demographic change which few are talking about. Both of our school services (one bus, one closed door contract) serve Chew Valley school and they also have something else in common…

We’ve never used a bus, but we know best!

I wrote a post a couple of years ago bemoaning people who seem to think they can plan a bus service without any knowledge of the industry. Things haven't changed. Aside from Twitter being full of people who think that public ownership will solve everything, recent press activity from the Chew Valley Chamber of Commerce…

Less Expression

First's North Somerset Excel network, previously the Express Yourself network will be undergoing changes from the end of April 2019, which (whilst being referred to in their press release as improvements) will see the loss of: - one direct bus per hour between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol (Currently 4, becomes 3) - one bus per hour…

Solving a failure of The Big Project

Since Metrobus m1 started, there have been a number of moans on the First Bus Bristol: Have Your Say Facebook group regarding broken links since the withdrawal of services 50 and 90 from various parts of Inns Court and Hengrove. Since the splitting of service 36 at Brislington, there is now an extra vehicle working…