Bristol: Airport Road, Rail & Access Issues

[TheLocalYokel]

I was at the airport today and noticed a First Group single decker bus shuttling between the old terminal and Silver Zone with the destination board showing BRS Staff Transport. I assume this is a temporary measure whilst the staff car park is being used for Champions League Final coach parking.

 

[kraktoa]

I was at the airport today and noticed a First Group single decker bus shuttling between the old terminal and Silver Zone with the destination board showing BRS Staff Transport. I assume this is a temporary measure whilst the staff car park is being used for Champions League Final coach parking.

No it is not. All business partners have been moved to the silver zone permanently.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

It's just whilst the champions league is happening.
During normal periods, some have moved, some haven't

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Seen the A3 bus sunday morning leave airport empty. Not the best time of day to operate back to Weston. I don't know the loading to the airport.

Surprise, surprise. I saw an A3 at Weston today with a passenger on board and, wait for it, later in the day one arrived at BRS with about eight passengers. They seemed to be a lad's group of some sort.

A the same time an A2 arrived (it was running late) with four passengers on board. Weston to/from the airport seems an acquired taste.

The A1s were coming in one after the other this afternoon well loaded, and the Bath Air Decker and South West Falcon also seemed to be doing decent business. I didn't see the National Express from Cardiff/Newport when I was there.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A1 Flyer

I was amused this morning when reading a post on a website dedicated to Welsh aviation. The bus from CWL to the city was being discussed and someone made the point about impressive views from it along its journey.

For no reason whatsoever - BRS was not even being mentioned - someone chipped in with the opinion that the views from the Bristol Flyer are awful. Whether they are or not is always subjective, and the view of the city of Bristol laid out below from the top of Barrow Hill on the A38 as well as the view of the Avon Gorge and Suspension Bridge from the A38 in the city are pretty good in my opinion; beyond that the A1 progresses through the back streets and shopping streets of the rather rundown suburb of Bedminster (I sometimes wonder if some people heading for Temple Meads on the Flyer think this is Bristol's main shopping centre) with only St Mary Redcliffe Church and Thomas Chatterton's house (his birthplace and the house is not noticed by 99.9% of bus passengers I would wager) being of any note on the route after that until the historic and impressive Temple Meads station is reached. I think it's impressive anyway, and so do many others it seems - as a structure that is and not necessarily the quality of its train services.

To get back to the reason for my amusement: does anyone using a bus link from an airport to a city really take into account the beauty of the journey before travelling? Furthermore, there are some people seemingly so obsessed with the BRS v CWL thing that they will drag up anything, no matter how inconsequential, that they think is detrimental to the 'other side'.

I don't know if the A1 Flyer will immediately begin to use the MetroBus route due to open later this year between Temple Meads and Ashton Vale, and thereafter via the South Bristol Link to the A38 just outside the city boundary.

 

[Jerry]

I haven't been on either bus service but i have driven the T9 route and mostly it's mundane, you can get good views of the city and the bay when you cross over the fly over going across Cardiff bay but that's about it.

 

[tpm]

the A1 progresses through the back streets and shopping streets of the rather rundown suburb of Bedminster (I sometimes wonder if some people heading for Temple Meads on the Flyer think this is Bristol's main shopping centre)

If it's any relief, I've never heard anyone think that, nor do I know why anyone would think that. I think it's pretty clear that Bedminster is 'suburbs' in my opinion. Not that half of Broadmead is much better, arguably

with only St Mary Redcliffe Church and Thomas Chatterton's house (his birthplace and the house is not noticed by 99.9% of bus passengers I would wager) being of any note on the route after that until the historic and impressive Temple Meads station is reached. I think it's impressive anyway, and so do many others it seems - as a structure that is and not necessarily the quality of its train services.

Perhaps for the historically-minded. Chatterton's house just looks weird and out of place, like some building they forgot to tear down. And only the frontage is really any good, the rest just looks like a cottage from some village in the Cotswolds, helicoptered in. St Mary Redcliffe can look quite majestic from the right angle in the right light, but most of the time it just looks in urgent need of a wash, and it's not exactly flattered by its surroundings (roundabout, Redcliffe Way, and last but not least the ugliest building in the vicinity, the Double Tree Hilton Hotel).

Likewise Temple Meads Station. It could be gorgeous. It's certainly historic and beautiful in many ways, but currently it just looks pretty run-down and unloved really (hanging flower pots aside), like no one has done any serious work on it since the 60s. Add to that again that it's also being let down by its surroundings (Holiday Inn, the station ramp, temple circus roundabout, island site, old petrol station, the sorting office, luckily they demolished some of the more hideous bits next to the ramp; the car park on plot 6; there is/was a car park in the old shed!!); the ticket office; the roof; the underpass; the platforms outside the main shed). The only redeeming feature in the vicinity is the old beautifully refurbished Bristol&Exeter House. Don't get me wrong, I love Temple Meads, but I also think it's easy to overestimate the first impression an unbiased new arrival to the city might have. I'll get my coat now.

Luckily, things are looking up: The old sorting office will be demolished and replaced with a new university campus; if we're very lucky the arena might still go ahead; there will sooner or later be new entrances to the station, at least a new one towards the Priory plus redevelopment of all the empty plots on that side of the station; temple circus is going away, the island site and free space around it is going to be redeveloped into the Engine Shed 2 + plaza + other things; Temple Meads is about to get a new roof (I believe). Temple Meads is getting a lick of new paint here and there and some 'capacity enhancement measures' apparently. Sadly a full and proper redevelopment of Temple Meads station is not funded yet (as far as I know anyway), but who knows what's in the planning there. The expansion of the Enterprise Zone was given the go-ahead, and I think some of the money raised from the retained business rates was supposed to go towards the redevelopment of the station and area around it. There's apparently an "aspiration" to open up lower levels of the station and open up a new south-north passage with a new entrance towards the new university campus, but again I suspect it's probably not funded yet. Fingers crossed. Not sure what happened to the plan to re-open the original passenger shed and turn it into platforms for the (back then thought electric) trains to London. I reckon it might still on the cards, just waiting for the resignalling project to finish. (I hope someone in the know will correct me if that's no longer the case).

I'm sure in 10 years it it will be beyond recognition (in a good way).

 

[kraktoa]

I always wondered how a £10 open top bus tour of Bristol woul provide any sort of satisfaction to a tourist. Apart from the views around the cumberland basin and the bridge.....what else is there?

As for a Parisian or Bath open top tour......

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Re the last two posts, #247 and #248, I've copied them to the BRS Random Stuff thread and posted responses to both, if anyone wants to continue the discussion.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-could-underground-train-system-222172

West of England Partnership now looking at an underground railway for Bristol with three routes one of which would be to Bristol Airport.

A so-called leaked document to the local rag says that the Partnership accepts that Bristol's street are too narrow and crowded to indefinitely increase bus presence in the years ahead (despite the MetroBus system, the first route of which is due to commence late this year) so they are looking at alternatives.

I don't think an underground system is very likely. Apart from the cost the centre of Bristol is low lying and is always at risk of serious flooding from the waterways. To get beneath them would probably need some serious pumping. The Severn Tunnel still requires continuous after all these years.

As for an airport route, there would need to be a climb of over 500 feet from the centre of the city, unless the airport underground station was sited several hundred feet beneath the surface and accessed by high-speed lifts.

I think BRS is more likely to see a major BA transatlantic presence than be home to an underground station.

 

[tpm]

Well, at least they're thinking big! Looking forward to seeing their ideas in any case.

Other cities seem to manage underground metros near inner city harbours/lakes just fine, surely pumping out a bit of water is the least of challenges

I suspect finding money might be more of an issue. The UK seems reluctant to borrow and invest in infrastructure even when it is paid by investors to borrow money from them (in real terms).

 

[TheLocalYokel]

According to the leaked report the Partnership is also talking about extending the MetroBus system to Bath, Weston and Thornbury. They only have a budget of £30 million a year so where all the money is coming from is anyone's guess. Not from the government - that's for sure.

I wonder whether the leak is deliberate to assess public reaction.

If the disruption around Bristol for the past two years and the next year is anything to go by we can look forward to more years of the same with an extended MetroBus.

Let's see how the MetroBus routes that are going to open bed down before looking to expand the thing - assuming they can find an operator. I think First are going to run the TM-Ashton Vale route

 

[superking]

I don't know if this a new position or some one has left. They have appointed simon earles as planning and sustainability director moving from heathrow. His main task will be planning environment and transport to the airport.Thanks to the Weston mercury as it was a small piece about it.He will be looking into all modes of transport to the airport,even a train link. Best of luck with train link.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I don't know if this a new position or some one has left. They have appointed simon earles as planning and sustainability director moving from heathrow. His main task will be planning environment and transport to the airport.Thanks to the Weston mercury as it was a small piece about it.He will be looking into all modes of transport to the airport,even a train link. Best of luck with train link.

There was a piece in a Swindon paper about it last month too. The new man does seem to have a pedigree in airport surface access with experience in this at LHR. He is a qualified transport planner and will assume the lead role in the development of the new master plan.

http://swindon-business.net/index.p...ristol-airport-as-it-draws-up-20-year-vision/

South West Falcon

The Falcon seems to go from strength to strength. When it began last year it exceeded Stagecoach's expectations and has since more than doubled the number of passengers with new record numbers established nearly every week.

It's not clear from the newspaper report - see below link - whether this applies to Bristol Airport passenger numbers or the route as a whole that operates 19 return journeys every 24 hours between Plymouth and Bristol calling at major centres en route including BRS.

http://www.devonlive.com/24-7-falco...r-stagecoach/story-30450966-detail/story.html

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The Plymouth area local authorities have published a Joint Local Plan (JLP) that looks at how the area will develop in future years.

A key part of the JLP involves safeguarding the PLH site for five years whilst at the same time strengthening transport links to both Exeter and Bristol airports.

With Stagecoach's South West Falcon bus service operating 19 return journeys every 24 hours seven days a week between Plymouth and Bristol and calling at major centres en route including BRS, it's difficult to see how the BRS transport links from/to the Plymouth area could be improved upon.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

M5 closed -again!

Yet another closure on the M5 today because of another traffic collision - southbound closed from early morning until early evening around Clevedon and Weston. When the local radio gives the traffic bulletins I'm beginning to think they should tell us when it's open with the assumption that it's closed at all other times.

As usual the A370 Bristol-Weston and the A38 from Bristol both southbound were heavily traffic-logged all day with journeys taking 90 minutes to travel between Long Ashton and Congresbury. I came long the A38 from Lulsgate Bottom to Bristol this afternoon and southbound traffic was stop-go, nose to tail all the way back to the South Bristol Link and down the link road towards the A370 and further along the A38 past the Bristol boundary into the city along Bedminster Down.

Airport-bound traffic must have been adversely affected. The airport buses were all over the place.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol's elected mayor, Marvin Rees, seems as bonkers as many thought his predecessor, George 'Red Trousers' Ferguson, was with his residents' car parking areas around the city and cycle lanes built everywhere that took up space on Bristol's already congested and ancient road system.

Marvin has bettered this. He's planning to knock down the Cumberland Basin Flyover system that takes Bristol's traffic to/from North Somerset and to the M5 via the A4 Portway, a route used by many BRS travellers travelling to the airport from Wales and the South Midlands. It's a heavily used road complex.

Mayor Rees wants to use the area for affordable housing and says he will build a new Avon river crossing nearer the Suspension Bridge. Quite where he has in mind is difficult to imagine as there isn't a lot of available space.

There is no indication either as to where the vast amount of money needed to knock down the flyover system would come from. Bristol is in the middle of an austerity period never matched in the city in modern times with tens of millions of pounds having to be shaved from the city budget each year.

The South Bristol Link Road only opened this year and amongst other things it's supposed to ease the passage of travellers from/to the M5 via A4 Portway. A vital part of the route is the Cumberland Basin Flyover System.

Politicians! I know what I'd do with them.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-reacts-marvin-rees-plans-651462

 

[tpm]

Don't think it's bonkers at all. That flyover system is a relic from the 50s (or whenever), it's not a nice entrance to the floating harbour.

I think it could be replaced by a much more space-efficient system without too much sacrifice wrt traffic flows / throughput.

The potential for redevelopment would be enormous and could easily spill over onto Spike Island and the flyover end of Southville.

I'd love to see what they come up with.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

We'll disagree on this then, tpm. The flyover was built in the 1960s and I think it's not unattractive as such structures go.

The trouble with the mayor's 'plan' is that he gives no detail. It's no more than a vague aspiration at present. He wants to use the land currently occupied by the flyover system for affordable housing which means that any new river crossing would have to find new space - he says closer to the Suspension Bridge. I assume he means near the former police mounted and dogs headquarters or the Bedminster Cricket Club area.

All this stemmed from his annual 'State of the City Address'. After the continuing gridlock of the MetroBus works all around the central areas and further out, and many have doubts that the MetroBus will contribute much to solving Bristol's chronic public transport problems, there is understandable scepticism and even cynicism about the mayor's dream. Bristol has not been well served by its local politicians, of all parties, for many decades as I've had the misfortune to experience as a city tax payer.

 

[tpm]

For me it's not about the flyover bridge being attractive or not, but what it does to the area with all the slip lanes and access ramps and junctions.

The way I think about this proposal is: I think myself standing in Queen Square trying to imagine what it was like before they removed the trunk road going straight through it. This is pretty much the state that part of the city is in. Both the Hotwells side and the Southville side, and the end of Spike Island in the middle. Imagine what this area could be like if we could streamline the road system around it a little!