Metrobus
I tried the Metrobus this afternoon for the first time - route M3, which links the city centre with the north-eastern edge of the conurbation, and is the only one currently in operation although M2 starts next month
I caught the 1340 departure at the route's city centre terminal (Colston Avenue). There are 11 en-route stops plus the terminals at either end.
Because it is school holiday time we made good progress through the central area to the M32. We left the motorway via the bus-only exit which took us to to UWE in 14 minutes - students are currently away of course although there are some summer activities.
After that we drove around the ring road, with new bus lanes in places, to the Bristol & Bath Science Park, followed by a ride through the brand new suburb of Lyde Green - I hadn’t realised how large it already is and there is still much development taking place. We reached the Emersons Green shopping centre at 1412 (a journey time of 32 minutes), two minutes early and we also stopped for two minutes during the journey as we were ahead of time.
There were no more than about 15 passengers in total on the double-decker bus during the entire journey. I asked the driver how busy the route is generally and he told me that passenger numbers are above expectations (which might have been low - my cynicism) and that the previously planned increase in frequency from every 20 minutes to every ten minutes will go ahead.
The Metrobus has the advantage over the city buses of using the motorway and ring road for much of its journey, and passengers have to buy tickets at a machine at the bus stop before boarding, unless like me they have a concessionary card. Apart from Lyde Green (where there is a park and ride facility), Emersons Green and part of Stapleton/Frenchay, the route doesn’t directly serve many well populated suburbs. In university term time UWE might well be a busy stop although there are already a number of city bus routes to the central areas from there.
Early afternoon in the summer holidays might not be the busiest time for the route.
To compare I returned on one of the city bus routes that link Emersons Green with the city centre - the 48 in my case. We departed at 1421 and the double-decker routes via the outer suburb of Downend before travelling along the long Fishponds and Stapleton Roads to Old Market, thence around the central area. It serves the busy and congested suburbs of Fishponds, Eastville and part of Easton. City buses still have the disadvantage of drivers taking money and issuing tickets although more and more passengers are using methods that avoid cash payment. There are also many more bus stops on the 48 route than on the Metrobus.
We arrived at route 48's city centre terminal (Rupert Street) at 1510, on time which is unusual for city buses in Bristol. Rupert Street is about a quarter of a mile from Colston Avenue so for parity I’ll add two minutes to the journey. This means the Metrobus took 32 minutes against the 51 minutes of the city bus.
On a ‘normal’ weekday (ie outside the school holidays) both buses might take a little longer especially the city bus.
So in summary the Metrobus knocked about 20 minutes off the journey but serves a much smaller catchment. The bus was almost new but no more nor less comfortable than city buses of similar vintage. What I particularly dislike about city bus travel is the incessant halting at bus stops so the Metrobus was a pleasant experience with its fewer stops, and I don't think we stopped at more than half of them anyway.
Is the cost of building and running it worthwhile? I’ll reserve judgement on that for a while.
