Behind the scenes of buses in the West.
One aspect of transport planning which i find unintelligible is the reluctance to attempt small solutions to a problem instead of the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut which seems most favoured by the British public sector. An example recently began construction nearby on the A39 at Marksbury (Google StreetView link / B&NES rationale). Due… Continue reading Small solutions
Bath and North East Somerset Council are currently surveying for opinions on their Transport Strategy for the Chew Valley area, which is Citistar's bread and butter. We're based there and carry a lot of passengers around there over the course of each week. If you fancy a read, the documents are here. Their proposals for… Continue reading Rip it up and start again
Modern technology has given us many benefits, such as being able to see where road issues are causing delays. The photo below shows the GoogleMaps Traffic results for the Monday afternoon traffic tailbacks due to a set of roadworks near the Banwell Road junction on the Wellsway in Bath. (Base image, copyright Google) You can… Continue reading Mis- (traffic) -management
One of my pet hates is the gravitas with which clueless commentators upon our industry are given. Sometimes self proclaimed campaigners, sometimes community groups, sometimes structured organisations; give them the opportunity to get a nonsensical press release to the local newsrag and the local media finds it irresistible. Compare this to the disinterest they will… Continue reading Fat Sparrows
Over the past decade, Dial-a-Ride schemes across Bath and North East Somerset have done extraordinary damage to the bus network. These parasitic "charities" are stealing revenue from tax paying, licenced businesses and we're supposed to think this is a good thing. Take a look at the supported bus network in B&NES. Passenger numbers on less… Continue reading Dial-a-Loss
A troubling situation at a local school has recently come to something of a head, which will hopefully lead to some enforcement action being taken. As there may well be legal action being taken, details in this post will be rather sketchy. Outside of the urban sprawl, regular drivers of school coaches get to recognise… Continue reading Black Market Procurement
Some bus services give themselves to a perfectly logical layout. Others evolve in to stability over time. Some just defy any logic and whatever you try to provide over the route ends up being a complete pudding. Yate and Bristol Yate is a dormitory town to Bristol which has grown since the second world war… Continue reading Puddings
Before we begin, this post was written prior to the announcement that Crosville had given notice to resign from providing Weston town services 4 and 4A from the start of September 2017. North Somerset Council are currently seeking a replacement service. Although i've never formally studied urban planning, my interests in how we live stretch… Continue reading Evolution of the Town
I was out driving this morning, covering a coach job for a local operator. At one stage i passed Hartcliffe Morrisons and was waiting at the traffic lights as the CATT Community Bus left the store with a considerable load of pensioners on board. It struck me that these were precisely the sort of people… Continue reading Breaking links
On Tuesday 9th May, BBC Wiltshire dedicated a significant swathe of their breakfast show to discussing bus service cuts, funding and primarily Faresaver's 33/X33 services between Chippenham, Calne and Devizes. Edited highlights are available here, or the whole thing can be found here for the next month or so. There was about 20 minutes of… Continue reading A little more on Avoiding a Crisis
