M1 Metrobus route Hengrove Park to Cribbs Causeway
The final (and third) Metrobus route of the first phase came began operations yesterday. M1 is being operated by Bristol Community Transport on behalf of First West of England (that operates the other two Metrobus in its own right). Bristol Community Transport is part of leading transport social enterprise, HCT Group, and is operating an increasing number of bus routes in the Bristol area. 21 brand new Scania Biogas double deckers with Alexander Dennis bodywork have been acquired to operate M1.
I’ve used Metrobus routes M2 (Ashton Vale to city centre where it operates a loop around the central districts) and M3 (city centre to Emersons Green), so today I tried the M1 service.
I decided to sample the entire route from Hengrove Park (next to South Bristol Hospital) via the central areas to Cribbs Causeway regional shopping centre. The attempt did not get off to the best of starts as the bus I was about to board pulled out ‘Not In Service’ (I’d heard the driver phoning someone saying his relief had not arrived). The service runs at a ten-minute frequency in both directions so I didn’t have long to wait for the next bus.
That was the 1325 departure and we pulled out on time - I was the only passenger at that point. The route turns east along Whitchurch Lane, before turning left along Bamfield past the entrance to the former Whitchurch Airport, and then skirts Knowle West and through Inns Court to Hartcliffe Way. Thereafter the route runs past Parson Street Railway Station and along West and East Streets in Bedminster, Redcliffe Hill and via The Grove (part of Harbourside), ‘The Centre’, Haymarket before entering the M32 motorway.
The part of the route between the city centre and the ring road north of UWE (which is served by M1 and M3 as well as several other routes) replicates the M3 route. M1 turns left from the ring road and climbs the brand new four lane road through Harry Stoke, the edge of Stoke Gifford and on through Bradley Stoke - eventually it will call at Parkway Station but Network Rail is yet to provide access. The final part of the route passes through Patchway, Stoke Lodge and the massive new housing development known as Charlton Hayes on part of the former Filton airfield. We arrived at Cribbs Causeway bus station at 1440, one minute ahead of schedule.
The schedule for the entire journey at this time of day is one hour 16 minutes. At peak times it’s one hour 28 minutes and in the evening one hour seven minutes. Established routes 75 and 76 operate from the south of the city via Hengrove Park to Cribbs Causeway and they continue as normal. As a comparison their journeys take from one hour 58 minutes at peak times to one hour 36 minutes during the day. 75 and 76 are also night buses and during the night the scheduled timings reduce to one hour 22 minutes.
It can be seen that the M1 therefore does save typically at least half an hour over the 75 and 76 but the latter tend to serve more tightly packed suburbs on their routes which only coincide with M1's route through Bedminster and the central areas. They also operate along the lengthy and traffic-logged Gloucester Road.
I found the bus quite comfortable as would be expected of a brand new vehicle. When we reached the bottom of Hartcliffe Way we came up behind the bus that had left before us ‘Not in Service’. It seemed to have resolved its driver problems - judging by the number of drivers at the bus stop on this part of Hartciffe Way it might be a driver change-over station. We followed the other bus through Bedminster and the central districts which meant we picked up few passengers. Once on the motorway it pulled ahead and we clearly had time in hand because we stopped at several bus stops for a minute or two with no one-one boarding or alighting.
The 10-minute frequency is likely to prove problematic to maintain accurately at busy times of the day, and this afternoon we passed two M1 buses 'in convoy' operating southbound. Two more M1 buses left Cribbs Causeway more or less together heading for Hengrove as we arrived. The M1 route like the other two does benefit from having far fewer bus stops than the usual city bus routes, and does not access some 'normal' bus stops along its route.
With all passengers having to have tickets or passes before boarding and with bus lanes appearing at various parts of the route, the M1 made good time compared with the usual city routes. As an example, I returned to Bond Street in the city centre on another M1 bus and we left Cribbs at the same time as a route 2 double decker bus which operates the long cross-city route to Stockwood in the south-east of the city - via Southmead, Henleaze, Downs, Whiteladies Road to the central area en route to its ultimate destination at Stockwood. I remembered the 2’s registration number and it appeared at Union Street (around the corner from Bond Street) 25 minutes after I had got off the M1. The 2 is supposed to operate at a 12-minute frequency but most of the time finds it impossible and it's not unusual for two, sometimes three, buses to bunch up by the time they reach the Wells Road on their 90 minute-plus journey from Cribbs.
The quickest route from the central area to Cribbs is the Severn Express (but it’s only hourly) which operates via M32, M4 and M5, taking under 30 minutes. The M1 takes around 40 minutes and the 1,2, 3, 4, 73 and 75 that all take different routes through the suburbs to Cribbs take at least an hour, some longer, from the central area.
The First West of England MD admits that, as with all city buses, the Metrobuses will still fall foul of Bristol’s horrendous traffic conditions at times and he wants more work done to ensure that buses are further advantaged. The local ITV News spoke to him this evening and he was talking about more Metrobus routes within the next 18 months, but nothing specific was mentioned.
Having used these routes (the M2 several times) I’m cautiously impressed but probably anything is better than Bristol’s usual bus system.
