Road, Rail & Access Issues

[Aviador]

I like the 'start - stop' initiative but I doubt the 'anti airport lot' will take note.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]New look airport buses hit the road

Festival-goers could be first to ride in new Flyer

The first of a new look fleet of buses will hit the road next week, in time to carry passengers flying into Bristol Airport to attend the Glastonbury Festival. The vehicle is part of a £2 million makeover which will see 12 new buses operating the Bristol Airport Flyer service over the coming weeks.

The Flyer links the Airport to Bristol Temple Meads, Marlborough Street Bus Station and other city centre locations. The service is operated on behalf of Bristol Airport by First and runs every ten minutes at peak times.

Bristol Airport sees an influx of passengers from across the world each June as music fans flock to the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset. The Flyer links festival-goers to onward rail services from Bristol Temple Meads to Castle Cary, and National Express coaches from Marlborough Street Bus Station to the Glastonbury site.

Tickets for travel, including onward rail connections, can be booked in advance online or using the Fast Ticket machine at the Airport. So far this year, advance bookings have been made by passengers from 46 different countries

The new Volvo vehicles, supplied by Wright Bus (which also provides buses to Transport for London), are wheelchair accessible and passengers are able to take their luggage on board with them, providing peace of mind and speeding up the boarding process.

Each bus features leather seats and wood effect flooring, as well as free Wi-Fi access and power points to charge phones and laptops. The new vehicles will also deliver improvements in fuel efficiency and emissions reductions as they are compliant with Euro 5 standards and run on AdBlue, which reduces oxides of nitrogen.[/textarea]

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/news-an ... r-bus.aspx

Saw some of the new buses at Temple Meads railway station this afternoon.

They appear to be very similar to the First Bristol general fleet that are mainly Volvos with Wright bodies, except the Flyer Volvos are configured with leather seats and luggage space takes up a lot of the front offside area of the bus.

They are decked out in Flyer livery, a different livery to that worn by the Flyer coaches and the Volvo livery is not as eye catching.

Whilst at the station I had a chat with the driver of one of the new Volvos and he was lukewarm about them as they are basically buses in Sunday best, as opposed to the Scania and Irizar coaches that have more of a luxury coach feel, albeit the vehicles are showing their age (most six years old at least).

Because of the interior luggage space there are seats for only 37 passengers compared with 50 on the coaches. Having onboard luggage space should speed up boarding as the Flyer coaches have under floor luggage space accessed from outside that requires the driver having to leave his/her (one is a longstanding female Flyer driver) cab to open and close the compartment.

The Flyer fleet now comprises six Volvo buses and six coaches, with the coaches being replaced next year with another batch of Volvos.

 

[Aviador]

It can't be as dull as the LBA buses that serve both Leeds & Bradford

http://davidsnonrailwaypics.fotopic.net/p64541053.html
(link broken due the demise of Fotopic)

 

[TheLocalYokel]

There is a small picture of a Flyer Volvo in new livery in the link to the report.

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/news-an ... r-bus.aspx

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Airport taxis asked to use other roads

Taxis ferrying people to and from Bristol Airport have been using the narrow lanes in Backwell as rat runs, according to Backwell Parish Council.

Councillors claim the cars have been speeding through Church Town, Church Lane and Backwell Hill Road causing a danger to Backwell villagers.

The council has now written to Bristol Airport to ask the taxi firm to use another route rather than take the narrow roads through the village.

Backwell parish councillor Brian Huggins, of Church Town, said: "They taxis use the three roads considerably and the speeds they do are terrible. It's 20mph limit, but most of them do 30-40mph.

"It has made it very dangerous down here. The lanes are very narrow and there are no concrete kerbs all the way up Cheston Coombe. If you have to pull over then you hit the rocks. Several people have had punctures where they've had to pull in because they've met a car on the road."

Council chairman Colin Pope added: "The taxis have been told not to go through Barrow Gurney so instead they go down through Backwell roads that are too narrow.

"I'm amazed by the amount of cars going up and down Backwell Hill Road. They should be going through Brockley Combe."

"We've asked the airport to ask the taxi drivers not to use the roads as a rat run."

The parish council has received a letter back from Robert Sinclair, chief executive of Bristol Airport, confirming that he has spoken to the manager of the taxi company who is due to speak to the drivers to encourage them to avoid Church Town, Church Lane and Backwell Hill Road where possible.[/textarea]

link: http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/conte ... 3A03%3A590

So it's all right for the villagers, many of whom have moved in to the expanded villages in recent times thus making the basic problem worse, to use the narrow lanes but not the airport taxis.

No wonder some of the car drivers are worried. I'm fairly often out in these lanes walking around and part of the entertainment is watching some of the locals trying to take their vehicles through a narrow but perfectly accessible gap. You would think that some were driving a bus such is their appalling judgement as to the width of their vehicles.

And when some of them have to reverse because of an oncoming vehicle.........................that's usually good for five minutes' entertainment

 

[News Guru]

Re: Road works near Bristol airport

[textarea]Roadworks near Bristol Airport

Passengers driving to Bristol Airport over the next five weeks have been advised to allow extra time for their journey due to road works. The works, which includes drainage and kerb repairs, resurfacing of the road and footpath, and clearing verges, are on the A38 near Bristol Airport at Lulsgate Bottom, and motorists in the area are warned to expect delays.

From today until 13 March there will be two lanes open to traffic, which will change as the work moves. There will also be a speed limit of 30 mph. From 14 March there will be closures of Downside Road and West Lane junctions, and traffic will be limited going along the main route following resurfacing.

In order to keep the main road open 'convoy working' will be used. This involves leading the traffic through designated lanes at a speed limit of 10 mph.

Source[/textarea]

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Electrification of rail line to Bristol

The government has now approved the electrification of the rail line from Paddington to Bristol.

Both routes will be electrified - the original one via Bath to Temple Meads and the newer (or least old) one via Badminton to Parkway (and on to Cardiff). The line between Temple Meads and Parkway will also be electrified.

The timetable is to have the electrified line up and running within about seven years from now.

At present the central station at Temple Meads sees Paddington departures and arrivals via Bath every 30 minutes as does Parkway where Paddington/South Wales trains using the Badminton route stop.

The plan upon electrification is to have Paddington trains leaving and departing Temple Meads every 15 minutes, two per hour via Bath and two per hour via Parkway and then on via the Badminton line.

Electrification will speed up London-Bristol journeys by about 20 minutes, meaning that Parkway could be reached in about 70-75 minutes and Temple Meads in 80-85 minutes.

This could have either a positive or a negative effect on BRS.

It wll make access to London, and thus LHR, quicker and more frequent from more of Bristol, though connections in the London area will still be needed to reach the airport, but conversely the quicker and additional trains to Temple Meads might boost the Flyer bus/coach to Bristol Airport. The Flyer is now almost an on-demand service as it operates at 10-minute frequencies from very early morning until mid evening before reducing to 20-minute and less than that throughout the night.

 

[Aviador]

Bristol airport doesn't have any domestic routes to any of the London airports so I wouldn't have thought it would make a huge difference to users of Bristol airport. As you say it might however make London Heathrow or London Gatwick airports a more viable option for long haul flights in the future.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Protest as rural roads near Nailsea used as rat-run from M5 to Bristol Airport

Nearly the total population of West End packed a Nailsea Town Council meeting on Wednesday night to call for urgent traffic calming measures on its country lanes.

More than 50 people attended the meeting at the Holy Trinity Centre.

Councillors were told of 25 tonne articulated vehicles hurtling through the hamlet and of the fears of parents for their children walking along the narrow roads without footpaths.

The lanes were so dangerous that children had to be bused to school and residents trying to tend their front gardens encased themselves in temporary fences for safety, the meeting heard.

Farmers had difficultly moving their animals from one field to another and horse riders had been hit by passing cars, councillors were told.

The boundary wall of one property had been knocked down five times in the past year and overhead cables were constantly being torn from poles by high-sided vehicles.

The problems had increased in the past two decades with satellite navigation systems directing commercial vehicles from the motorway through the small farming community near Nailsea.

The M5 junction at Clevedon and Bristol Airport expansion were blamed for the increase in traffic.

People coming from all over the south west and Midlands used West End as a shortcut when on route to the airport from the motorway

Julia Miners, of West End Villa, presented the council with a 90-name petition calling for a reduction of the speed and volume of traffic using the narrow rural lanes linking Nailsea to Clevedon.

But North Somerset Council highways manager Frank Cox said his ‘integrated transport works’ budget had been cut by 50 per cent and there was no money for major road improvements.

Bob Williams, of Mendip View, spoke for all 57 homes when he said: “We would like to see the speed and volume of traffic travelling along Netherton Wood Lane, West End Lane, Nailsea Wall and Nailsea Moor Lane reduce significantly and to implement weight and size restrictions except for farm and abattoir access.”

He said cars torn along the lanes at speeds up to 70mph on lanes which measure only 10ft wide in places and parts of Nailsea Wall are on an ancient reed bed which is like ‘riding along on a bouncy castle’.

Mother-of-two small children Kim Ashley said she moved to the hamlet 18 months ago.

She said: “I wouldn’t walk on the lane with my children, it is too dangerous.”

Some of the commercial traffic wrongly headed for the hamlet of West End when its destination is West End Trading Estate, at Blackfriars Road, Nailsea.

Councillor Anne Kemp told of visiting every Nailsea business on the industrial estate to ask if they would voluntarily agree to a name change to stop the confusion but they all cited huge costs and refused.

Cllr Phil Barclay proposed introducing chicanes or speed bumps but was told this didn’t work with agricultural vehicles like milk tankers.

Mr Cox said: “The principle problem is people are ignoring the 7.5 tonne weight restrictions in place at Davis Lane, Kenn, and using Sat Navs to follow the quickest routes.”

The official route for HGVs from the M5 junction 20 to commercial areas at Nailsea is through Tickenham but he accepted that some were cutting past Clevedon Craft Centre, at Moor Lane, to access West End.

Mr Cox said he would contact police to enforce weight restrictions but he believed there was clear signage in place directing traffic to Nailsea via Tickenham.

He added it was certainly the district council’s intention to review speed limits on all its B roads after a similar exercise reviewing speeds on its A roads.

However, the ‘comprehensive spending review’ had put this in jeopardy.

Mr Cox said: “There would only be a review if there was a personal injury accident.”

Mrs Miners asked: “Has some-one got to die before anything gets done?

“Couldn’t we club together and buy our own signage?”

Mr Cox said: “Not as individuals it wouldn’t be appropriate but it is in the power of the town council to implement traffic calming measure but it would have to fit in with the strategy of North Somerset.”

Town council chairman Rod Lees said: “We support the residents of West End and will be asking the Local Action Team to carry out a speed watch and vehicle count in the area as well as asking North Somerset Council to extend the 7.5 tonne access restrictions and implement a 30mph speed limit through West End.”[/textarea]
http://www.nailseapeople.co.uk/news/Pro ... story.html

I do have some sympathy except that most of these people, like in so many other small villages in the area, have moved there in such great numbers in recent decades that many places are now small towns. Nailsea is even more than that and West End is an outer suburb.

As for the assertion that the airport is to blame, this is patent nonsense.

Most people travelling from the south-west to the airport along the M5 would exit two junctions to the south and travel along the A38 which doesn't go within four miles of Nailsea.

Those from the Midlands and South Wales would normally exit the M5 at Avonmouth and, again, would go nowhere near Nailsea.

Even if some people do leave the M5 at Clevedon (the junction that is supposedly the root of the problems) their most direct route to the airport is not via Nailsea.

Heavy lorries leaving the M5 might be a problem but, again, those heading for Bristol would mostly leave at Avonmouth.

Once again an airport is being used to further a cause of which it bears little if any responsibility.

 

[Aviador]

We've spoken about this so many times LocalYokel haven't we. It seems like wherever there's an airport there's a traffic problem and wherever there's a traffic problem they'll blame it on the airport even where 'normal' local traffic is the cause of the problem in many cases. I recall reading somewhere that regional airports create no more traffic than the average town supermarket, yet councils don't seem to have any problem in passing off planning applications for new supermarkets. The same council's always seem to go against new airport link roads that would bi-pass these local communities. You can't win.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Bristol roadworks suspended due to heavy traffic

Roadworks on the A38 near Bristol Airport have been suspended because of the amount of traffic congestion being caused.

Resurfacing work on the road at Lulsgate began on Monday with traffic managed by "stop" and "go'" boards.

A spokesman for North Somerset Council said lanes would be reopened once the newly-laid surface had cooled.

Different options would then be looked at as to how best to complete the £190,000 scheme, he said.

The scheme, which also includes completing work at Downside Road and West Lane junctions, had been due to continue until Friday.

It was intended that marked vehicles would lead the traffic through the area where contractors are working at 10mph.

The council spokesman said: "Due to large volumes of traffic, North Somerset Council has taken the decision this morning to suspend the resurfacing work."[/textarea]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-13047506

The local authority originally said these road works would last for five weeks and be completed by 18 March.

Each time I've been by in the last two months very little work seems to have gone on.
They then decide to do the bits that would cause the most disruption in the first week of the Easter school holidays with numerous extra people flying out of the airport. You couldn't make it up.

Goodness knows what plan B will turn out to be. They've got to invent one.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol Airport Flyer

The 12-strong Flyer fleet is now composed entirely of Volvo Wright-bodied buses.

Six new vehicles entered service this week, joining six similar vehicles that began operating this time last year.

It means the 50-seat coaches that have been the 'equipment' since the service began over ten years ago (not the same coaches all the time - they weren't that old!) and which, for the past year, have formed half the fleet have now been phased out.

As with the coaches the buses have a distinctive livery, but not the same as the coaches, and the buses feature leather seats and wood effect flooring, as well as free Wi-Fi access and power points to charge phones and laptops.

The service is operated on behalf of the airport by First and enables through journeys by rail from all over the country to/from the airport as well as a similar option using National Express via Bristol Country Bus and Coach Station where the Flyer buses also call.

They run in both directions every day of the week at ten-minute frequencies from around 0500 to around 2000 then at twenty-minute intervals till late evening, with a handful of journeys throughout the night.

Tha advanatage of the buses is in loading because they have internal luggage racks whereas the coaches carried suitcases in compartments beneath the coach floor accessed externally meaning drivers had to leave the vehicles to facilitate luggage loading.

A manned (or womanned) kiosk is situated by the Flyer stop at the airport that sells tickets - a boon at busy times because it removes the onerous and often time-consuming task from the drivers. It's also possible to buy tickets online or as part of a rail or National Express or local Bristol bus journey.

Given the airport has no rail link and is never likely to get one, the Flyer is the next best thing and is very successful.

I've spoken to several drivers and most prefer driving the coaches even though the buses are new.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Passenger numbers are soaring on Bristol Airport’s Flyer bus.

A record 600,000 passengers have used Bristol Airport’s Flyer bus over the past year – ten times the number achieved during its first year of operation in the late 1990s.

The service, run by First in partnership with Bristol Airport, operates between Clifton, the City Centre, Temple Meads station and the airport.

All 12 buses are wheelchair accessible, have free wi-fi and power points for charging laptops and phones, and run every 10 minutes at peak times, substantially reducing connection times with rail and coach services.[/textarea]

For full article activate this link:

http://swindon-business.net/index.php/2 ... flyer-bus/

I often think that the airport undersells the Flyer when it says the service operates every ten minutes at peak times.

Many would take this to mean for a limited period each day when in fact the Flyer runs every ten minutes in each direction from around 5 in the morning until mid evening. After that it's every 20 minutes with a small number of services through the night.

Because of the peaks and troughs of aircraft schedules so the Flyer buses can be seen nearly empty at times whilst full of people at other times.

The strength of the service though is the fact that they do operate at this high frequency so that passengers know another will not be far away if they just miss one.

With the through ticketing arrangements with the rail companies and National Express the Flyers are especially busy from the central country bus and coach station and from the main central rail station at Temple Meads.

The Flyer is operated by First on behalf of the airport and I understand it is now a profitable venture for the airport that used it initially as evidence that they were good neighbours with a desire to reduce car journeys and also environmentally aware and responsible.

 

[Aviador]

I agree TheLocalYokel in that the regular service must have helped the route to be so successful. More often than not bus services don't operate with enough frequency.

Most passengers just aren't willing to sit around and wait for a bus that may or may not turn up. If you think you may have mist your bus but you know you will only have a short wait before the next bus comes you will more than likely hang on.

It's a very respectable figure 600,000 and the airport should be proud of such an achievement. Many airport buses aren't nearly as busy but they don't have the same frequency which makes all the difference.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The Chancellor announced today in his Autumn Statement that funding was to be provided for two transport schemes that ought to benefit Bristol Airport.

The link road from the A 370 (Bristol-Weston-super-Mare) to the A 38 (Bristol-Taunton/South West which passes BRS) and beyond into the outer suburbs of South Bristol will go ahead. This means that motorists accessing the airport from the M 4, M 49 and M5 from the north will be spared the tortuous journey through the congested suburbs of Ashton and Bedminster or an equally unpleasant journey via country lanes.

It might also encourage companies to set up in the part of South Bristol that the link road will reach knowing they would have much easier access to the airport.

The Bristol Rapid Transport scheme between the central railway station at Temple Meads and the a site near the Long Ashton Park and Ride, mainly on dedicated track, will also go ahead and some reports suggest the Bristol Airport Flyer will be re-routed via the BRT track. It would be a slightly longer journey but, in theory, a quicker one.

 

[Aviador]

That sounds reasonably good. Out of interest, how much is Mr Osborne spending on Bristol and the South West? Out of the 22bn he is spending, he only managed to find £17m for two stations near us. Other than that we've got the pleasure of using older trains and driving on the hard shoulder.

 

[conns757]

Where have you been Local.?

S

 

[TheLocalYokel]

That sounds reasonably good. Out of interest, how much is Mr Osborne spending on Bristol and the South West? Out of the 22bn he is spending, he only managed to find £17m for two stations near us. Other than that we've got the pleasure of using older trains and driving on the hard shoulder.

£63 million in total on the two schemes though the local authorities have to find the other third, something they seem confident of doing.

The BRT is the low end of what was really wanted (a tram) and is something that I believe Leeds may already have - a guided busway.

It's unusual for Bristol to get much government funding as it's invariably regarded as being too self-sufficient financially to need any help, with the result that the city lacks facilties that other cities enjoy, often paid for in part by the likes of Bristol through the business taxes scheme which go into a central pot to be redistributed to so-called deserving areas.

Where have you been Local.?

To Upside Down Land to visit daughter and family who reside near Melbourne.

Been twice now with Emirates both times. What a pity we aren't likely to see them at BRS? Or are we?

Seems a bit quiet at BRS at the moment - quieter even than last winter.

Good to chat to you on here. Best wishes.

 

[conns757]

Ok- sounds good .

No mid east for a while yet.

Come up for a coffe in the ny if you like- mailme

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I didn't really think the Middle East was a likely starter for a bit.

I'll email you early in the New Year.