Random Stuff!

[TheLocalYokel]

They did construct a portion of the route and it looked like it was from thr ashton park and ride to the link road. Irish tinkers have moved in on that bit,so be 1 hell of a mess to clean up at expence.
Did you see where they moved in on the taunton park and ride last weekend the mess they leftand that was only for 5 days.Yoc cant call them gypseys as a true one will never leave any mess, and when they call them gypseys its an insult to a true one.

I did see the Taunton incident on the local tv news. The local authority there said they have a permanent injunction to prevent travellers from literally pitching up on tis site but they still have to obtain a possession order on each occasion which can take time especially at weekends.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol Parkway Station

https://www.networkrailmediacentre....o-mark-official-opening-of-brand-new-platform

On Friday the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, opened a new (additional) platform at Parkway station.

There was an item on the local tv news on the day when, inevitably, he was asked again about the government's decision to axe rail electrification through Bristol and Bath.

Again he came up with the story about using the money saved to improve the suburban rail network in the area. The snag with this explanation is that the money had already been promised for the suburban improvements, although not all of them appear to be going through either as quickly or as comprehensively as was originally suggested (Henbury will be a spur instead of linking up with the Avonmouth-Severn Beach line along the extant Filton-Avonmouth goods line, and the Bristol-Portishead branch is further delayed with the cost a problem). The only thing that is progressing at present is the four-tracking of the Dr Days Junction to Filton section of the line north from Temple Meads towards Parkway (to return to a situation that obtained until the 1960s).

So either Mr Grayling is being economical with the truth because the money saved by axing electrification will either not be used at all for suburban work or, if it is to be, it means the money his governent originally promised was inadequate and they have had to rob Peter to pay Paul.

The first excuse for the electrification axing was that there would be no gain in speed (over diesels) between Temple Meads and east of Bath because the track did not permit it. That this applies to a number of other sections elsewhere on the network that are being electrified was conveniently ignored, as was the fact that the bi-modes when under diesel traction will be spewing out their pollution into the air of two of the most polluted cities in the UK, when the government is committed to phasing out new diesel cars completely.

The government then tried the tack that overhead pylons for electrification would spoil the look of Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was immediately discounted by the Bath Preservation Trust who said they have no concerns over this issue. Anyway, the government had already spent hundreds of millions in the Bath area (including the closure of Bath Spa Station and Box Tunnel for many weeks) in preparation for electrification.

 

[superking]

In the past when I been working in Avonmouth near to the rail line it always struck me funny to see Virgin high speed trains and just about every one else using the line.
Quite a few times in the past they have used the line from Bristol to Avonmouth when they been doing line repairs to warrant diversions through Avonmouth then back towards the main line.
They spent millions of pounds on the spur in the pas as the rail line past Filton was sinking.The line is used mainly for container trains and cars in and out the docks,like wise with the Portishead line.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

In the past when I been working in Avonmouth near to the rail line it always struck me funny to see Virgin high speed trains and just about every one else using the line.
Quite a few times in the past they have used the line from Bristol to Avonmouth when they been doing line repairs to warrant diversions through Avonmouth then back towards the main line.
They spent millions of pounds on the spur in the pas as the rail line past Filton was sinking.The line is used mainly for container trains and cars in and out the docks,like wise with the Portishead line.

Pre-Beeching there was a reasonable suburban rail network around Bristol:

Temple-Meads/Portishead which is now freight-only as far as Royal Portbury Dock as you point out, which is still awaiting as a passenger route along its entire length. It would be a big tourist draw too with its route threading the Avon Gorge via a series of tunnels. Already the TM-Avonmouth route on the north bank of the Avon is regarded as a potential tourist attraction.

Filton/Avonmouth (which runs through the old Filton airfield site) the current freight-only line which it was hoped to restore to passenger services for the whole length but it now looks as though the passenger part will end at Henbury as a spur.

Severn Beach/Pilning Low Level/High Level that linked with the current Bristol/South Wales line and was a continuation of the current Temple Meads/Avonmouth/Severn Beach line.

Taking the last two with the current Temple Meads/Avonmouth via Clifton Down line, a series of loops around the north-west Bristol suburbs was the result. How valuable they would be these days as a sort of metro.

Temple Meads/Frome via Brislington and the North Somerset coalfields.

Temple Meads/Fishponds/Mangotsfield then via Bitton to Bath Green Park (the old Midland Railway line now a cycle path) or north to Yate and the Midlands. (Mangotsfield Station was the inpiration for the pre-war play 'The Ghost Train' (later filmed), written by Arnold Ridley better known as Private Godfrey in Dad's Army and also a previous secretary of Bath Rugby Club).

There were also lines from the Portishead branch at Ashton Gate to Canons Marsh (the area currently occupied by Millennium Square and Anchor Square on Harbourside) and via Wapping Wharf and Redcliffe tunnel to Temple Meads. Both were primarily goods lines but the Wapping Wharf line was occasionally used as a relief line on Sundays for some passenger trains going to the South-West if the main line via Bedminster was occupied for any reason, albeit I don't think such use occurred much after WW2. Part of the Wapping Wharf line from Princes Wharf near M Shed along the former dockside and then by the side of Cumberland Road to Ashton is still used regularly at weekends and public holidays by the standard gauge steam-hauled Bristol Harbour Railway and is extremely popular with tourists and other leisure users.

There were also stations that no longer exist on lines that are still open such as St Annes Park on the TM-Bath Spa line, and at Ashley Hill and Horfield on the line between TM and Filton, which as I mentioned earlier is being restored to four-track up the Filton bank.

With Bristol's horrendous traffic problems and poor public transport provision these lines and stations would be like gold dust if they were still operating.

 

[superking]

There was no forward thought or planning when beeching shut a large amount of rail lines and stations. A lot of things that were closed then would fit in nicely with different routes and places for commuter services and that would have helped not only Bristol but other cities and towns right across the UK.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

There was no forward thought or planning when beeching shut a large amount of rail lines and stations. A lot of things that were closed then would fit in nicely with different routes and places for commuter services and that would have helped not only Bristol but other cities and towns right across the UK.

As with so many things governments, whether national or local, are obsessed with the here and now and don't give true thought to the future results of actions. It's understandable because there is always pressure to reduce costs but this short-termism so often gives future generations major headaches (the resiting of Bristol Airport from Whitchurch to Lulsgate is a sound example - in hindsight and even with some foresight it was obvious that Lulsgate would have as many problems as Whitchurch).

Having closed so many railways in the 1960s the moves now are to open new ones. It's the same with trams. Most towns and cities got rid of their trams in the post-war years; now the same towns and cities are desperate for tram systems to be installed.

 

[Jerry]

Wasn't expecting this but Bristol RFC have changed their name to Bristol Bears.
https://twitter.com/Bristol_RFC/status/985850303055474688?s=19

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Wasn't expecting this but Bristol RFC have changed their name to Bristol Bears.
https://twitter.com/Bristol_RFC/status/985850303055474688?s=19

Lots of supporters are unhappy. The rationale is that it will help to attract a new generation of supporters. Apart from a few years at the beginning of this century when the club became Bristol Shoguns, which was understandable because it came at a time when they were struggling financially and Mitsubishi came along to bail them out, the club has always been plain Bristol. It's like suddenly renaming Liverpool Football Club Liverpool Leopards.

I'm surprised the club didn't sound out supporters before they made the decision. Steve Lansdown, the billionaire club owner, seems to have been persuaded by the marketing people that it's a good idea. He actually spoke today of the birth of a new club. So the tradtional Bristol that many have supported for decades no longer exists. Not only has the club chosen the appellation Bears, it has also replaced the Bristol coat of arms on its shirt badege with a bear. Is the next step the removal of the Bristol name so the club becomes simply Bears? That would make it easy to move as a franchise to any city or town making a better offer for it. We've seen clubs move from one city to another in the USA in major sport and in this country the old Wimbledon FC changed their name and moved to Milton Keynes where they are now the MK Dons, and unofficially amongst many football supporters, The Franchise.

Around the time that Mitsubishi came to the rescue Bristol's finances were in such a state that the owner of Oxford United FC wanted to move Bristol Rugby Club to Oxford.

The new shirts for next season are controversial too; at least the home kit is. Bristol's traditional blue and white hoops have all but disappeared except for tiny white hoops around the sleeves. There is a large area of dark red across the middle of the shirt which might be taken as a move towards the red of the other major constituent of Bristol Sport, viz Bristol City FC, with eventually both round and oval ball teams playing in red. Next season's away kit is an all-over black shirt. How any marketing person came up with that I fail to understand.

 

[Jerry]

Lots of supporters are unhappy.

I can imagine! I don't follow Bristol on twitter but a lot of the Cardiff Blues fans i do follow are gobsmacked by the decision. To me it's very American like and reflects the Americanisation of sport. Not consulting the fans wasn't a wise choice as the club will now get discord going into a new and cricial season for the club. I can see that the marketing side might get to sell some more bear related merchandise but as Cardiff City can attain to going into the top flight with fans not happy isn't good for the club or the fans. Doesn't seem a wise or smart move to me.

Is the next step the removal of the Bristol name so the club becomes simply Bears? That would make it easy to move as a franchise to any city or town making a better offer for it.

That is what London Wasps did, they dropped the London and moved to Coventry but i can't see that happening with Bristol considering the money that has been spent on Ashton Gate especially with installing safe standing.

Next season's away kit is an all-over black shirt. How any marketing person came up with that I fail to understand.

They probably think playing in all black will make them play and be as popular as the All Blacks!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I think you've hit the nail on the head with the American comment. For some reason many people in this country believe that whatever America does we should copy.

Even in marketing where Americans are admittedly very good they don't have a monopoly of the best ideas. In British club sport tradition is hugely important and perhaps Americans don't understand that.

I remember that when Cardiff City's Malaysian owner bought the club he changed the traditional blue shirts (that gave the club its famous nickname The Bluebirds for heaven's sake) to red. There was uproar amongst the supporters and understandably so. He wouldn't budge for a while but after a year or two accepted his mistake (that tradition thing again) and restored the blue shirts.

I'm amazed that Steve Lansdown has been persuaded to call the club Bristol Bears. He is a self-made local billionaire (the co-founder of the eponymous Hargreaves Lansdown financial services and stockbroking company, now a FTSE 100 company and still Bristol-based) who seems very conservative (note the small c) in all his dealings. Being a local man he is usually sensitive to local traditions.

 

[Jerry]

I'm amazed that Steve Lansdown has been persuaded to call the club Bristol Bears.

It definitely has surprised people. I think he's looking at the Premiership and looking at the teams they'll be playing next year and most have some sort of 'franchise' stlye names at the end. Leicester Tigers, Newcastle Falcons, Worcester Warriors, Sale Sharks, Northampton Saints, Exeter Chiefs, Wasps, London Irish (probably the team they'll replace) Saracens and Harlequins all are more franchise sounding than Gloucester RFC and Bath RFC. It's like he doesn't want Bristol to seem different. I doubt though he would even consider doing anything remotely similar to the football club.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It definitely has surprised people. I think he's looking at the Premiership and looking at the teams they'll be playing next year and most have some sort of 'franchise' stlye names at the end. Leicester Tigers, Newcastle Falcons, Worcester Warriors, Sale Sharks, Northampton Saints, Exeter Chiefs, Wasps, London Irish (probably the team they'll replace) Saracens and Harlequins all are more franchise sounding than Gloucester RFC and Bath RFC. It's like he doesn't want Bristol to seem different. I doubt though he would even consider doing anything remotely similar to the football club.

I don't think he would with Bristol City.

I saw the local ITV News early this evening and they covered the Bristol Bears story. The reporter said there are rumours that Bath will call itself Bath Romans and Gloucester something - it might have been Leopards but I've forgotten. Neither Bath nor Gloucester would comment.

Many football clubs added names to their town or city identity such as City, United, Town, Rangers, Wanderers, Rovers etc, but most go back into the days when football was beginning as an organised and codified sport. There were no marketing gurus then. Obviously where a city has two clubs they have to be separately identifiable but even here it's not always the case: Liverpool and Everton are stand-alone names even though they are both Liverpool clubs.

County cricket clubs adopt appellations when in 20:20 mode: Gloucester Gladiators; Notts Outlaws; Somerset Sabres. Warwickshire were Warwickshire Bears (that name again!) in 20:20 cricket until a year or two ago when they changed to Birmingham Bears. They remain Warwickshire CCC in other forms of cricket.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Metrobus

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/three-years-after-metrobus-m2-1462952

At long last after lies and misinformation for the delay to the M2 route (Ashton-Temple Meads) - should have opened last November - the real reason is now revealed. The bus wheels don't fit the guided bus way.

I was walking in Ashton this afternoon and saw a Metrobus double-decker on the guided busway section with hi-viz workers surrounding it. I thought it was some sort of practice to enable familarity with the guided busway. The linked newspaper report has a picture of the very bus I saw today in situ.

Words fail me. The ineptitude is staggering. Nearly 200 years ago Brunel could engineer a 120-mile railway line so perfect that it needed virtually no alteration in the 1970s when the HSTs went into service. Yet today our engineers cannot even design and construct a guided busway that is less than two miles long to enable buses to drive along it. Saying it's a scandal is mild criticism. How much more public money is now going to be wasted to put things right?

The Airport Flyer will also use this route including the guided busway section.

 

[superking]

Bristol metro delay again.
You can make this up. They don't know if the guided tracks are too close on the guide wheels on the busses too wide.Yet another few months of delays while they try and get the metro buses to fit the rails.No doubt with a lot of cost.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

South West overlooked ........yet again

I was going to post this in the Sports Section of this website but unfortunately few people seem to vist that part of the site so the subject might receive more views here from people with an interest in the South West.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is to begin a new 20:20 cricket competition in 2020 based on the success of such ventures in India, Australia and other countries where the competitions have proved extremely popular and lucrative. As in those countries the teams will be city-based rather than county cricket teams, the traditional unit of top class cricket in this country.

A couple of months ago it was announced that the cities would be London (2 teams, one at Lords and one at the Oval), Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Birmingham, Southampton and Cardiff where the respective county cricket grounds in these cities will be the venues. The counties whose grounds will be used will benefit from a substantial financial windfall, leading to fears that the gap between the haves and the have-nots will widen further (already those counties with test grounds enjoy a considerable bounty).

The idea is to widen the appeal of cricket and encourage young people and mothers (a bit sexist that but that's what has been said by the cricket authorities this week) to attend matches. Games will be televised, some on free-to-air television.

The aim is laudable but some large parts of the country have been missed out. Youngsters in those areas will have no team to support so how can many of them be attracted? How can their interest in the venture be piqued? There will be two teams in the North of England, two in the Midlands and two in London. The others are on the South Coast and in South Wales.

This means that the North East, the South West and Eastern England will be left out in the cold. With the latter there is a problem because the area has no first-class crcket county or ground. However, the North East has Durham CCC with its headquarters ground at Chester-le-Street where test cricket has been played, and the South West has two counties: Somerset at Taunton and Gloucestershire at Bristol with both grounds being past venues for international one-day cricket matches.

The South West is a hotbed of cricket yet, as with so many other things, its 5 million-plus population is ignored and yet again we have to look elsewhere in the country if we want to have a slice of the action.

I am an enthusiastic cricket follower and for many years I was a member of Somerset CCC. I am a traditionalist and my first love is what I deem 'proper cricket', ie test matches and four-day county matches. Nevertheless, I recognise that the shorter versions of the game, particularly 20:20, are extremely popular with today's generation of cricket followers. I will only be able to watch the new competition as a disinterested (disinterested but not uninterested) observer with no team to get behind to support and follow.

It beggars believe that a more equitable spread of cities could not have been chosen.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/business/house-prises-bristol-property-compare-1507778

A few weeks ago we discussed the abolition of the Severn Bridge tolls and the effect it might have on population movement. Already many people have moved from the Bristol area to south-east Wales to take advantage of the lower property prices there whilst commuting to Bristol (which will inevitably mean those prices will rise themselves because of the demand).

This trend is likely to continue with Bristol house price rises (already higher than most areas of the UK outside the London area) set for further outperformance over the next few years. The linked article has one example of a two-bedroom terrace house in an inner suburb of south Bristol (one that until a few years ago was very much a 'working class' area) on the market for £420,000.

It's next to impossible for many young people to get their feet on the bottom rung of the housing ladder within the city itself without substantial support from family or other means.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/one-worlds-biggest-aircraft-carriers-1534674

HMS Prince of Wales, nearing completion, has been affiliated with the cities of Bristol and Liverpool. Both cities will be bases for the ship and crew, and there will be two suites on board named after Bristol and Liverpool respectively replete with local memorabilia. They are intended for the use of world leaders and other dignitaries when on board.

The cities were chosen because of their strong naval (actually both are and have been primarily merchant ports), seafaring and engineering history. The huge MoD Procurement Centre at Filton might have helped Bristol's case too.

An event to mark the affiliation with Bristol will be held on the SS Great Britain this Thursday.

When I saw a picture of the take-off ramp I was reminded of the BRS runway. Is that another reason for the link?

 

[superking]

I see a big fire in the south Bristol sports centre. The new part burnt out,but the old part not as bad.Fire fighters expected to be there all night damping down once main fire is out. Well localyokel this cant be all that far from where you reside.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I see a big fire in the south Bristol sports centre. The new part burnt out,but the old part not as bad.Fire fighters expected to be there all night damping down once main fire is out. Well localyokel this cant be all that far from where you reside.

Indeed. I walked past it today at the height of the fire. The buses were all over the place with roads closed and diversions. It's part of the locally famous Imperial cricket ground where I used to watch Somerset play in 40-over league matches and once in a three-day County Championship match. Sadly, much of the cricket pitch area on this huge site was built on for houses years ago but there is still a lot of room for football and rugby pitches, both grass and artificial surfaces.

The pall of black smoke and flames could be seen not only from most parts of Bristol but also from the Mendips above Blagdon as this linked Bristol Post report and pictures show.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk

 

[alphagolf]

Bristol Post

So apparently McDonald's have advised customers that certain stores have buns and breakfast muffins that may contain nuts/peanuts.

Absolutely shocking headlines and quotes from so called customers.

I will let you read the article and make of it what you will.

https://twitter.com/bristollive/status/995638081331126273?s=21