Random Stuff!

[Jerry]

It will be interesting to see by how much the traffic will increase by. It may also put pressure on the rail company to increase frequencies and maybe the bus services as well to take into account more people commuting.

 

[superking]

I caught the last bit about a slip road from Southmead onto the M32. The slip road is built fot the metro bus. As I said I only caught a bit of the report but it sounds like a licence to print money. At least first group don't want the money so can only think it goes to Bristol city council.
We must remember first group is operating the metro with no profit just costs to cover operations. Im sure the share holders are happy with that(not).

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It will be interesting to see by how much the traffic will increase by. It may also put pressure on the rail company to increase frequencies and maybe the bus services as well to take into account more people commuting.

Bristol is mainly served by Great Western Railway (First's version). Cross Country just does the long distance South West-Midlands-North-Scotland. Peak hour rail services around Bristol are generally jam-packed and First seemingly is unable to find much more capacity.

First is also the major bus operator for the Bristol area and the only service that operates into Wales is the hourly Bristol country bus station-Cribbs Causeway-Chepstow-Newport. People using the M4 from nearer to Newport via the Second Severn Crossing could then use the M49 to Avonmouth where there is a park and ride service to the city centre which has a dedicated bus lane along much of the A4 Portway. Those using the original Severn Bridge or choosing not to use the M49 have no such facility, hence the major traffic congestion most mornings on the M4 between Almondbury Interchange and the M32 juntion.

I caught the last bit about a slip road from Southmead onto the M32. The slip road is built fot the metro bus. As I said I only caught a bit of the report but it sounds like a licence to print money. At least first group don't want the money so can only think it goes to Bristol city council.
We must remember first group is operating the metro with no profit just costs to cover operations. Im sure the share holders are happy with that(not).

The slip road takes the Metrobus from the M32 into the edge of Stapleton and then to UWE before continuing its journey to Emersons Green. Since May over 9,000 motorists have illegally used the slip road and the 'fine' money has gone to Bristol City Council (First have no claim to it so it's not a case of their not wanting it). So far £180,000 has been collected by the city council.

The picture in the linked newpaper report shows that the exit is very clearly signposted for local buses only. There are advanced signs in the mile approaching the exit too. It seems from local news media interviews with some of those motorists who have used the slip road that they rely on their sat nav which, they say, tells them to exit at that point. Don't they look out of the car window at traffic signs? They are travelling against a no-entry sign for goodness sake. They have the responsibility for driving their car, not the sat nav. It's frightening how some drivers let sat navs almost take over their driving. I've never had a sat nav and prefer to navigate myself using pre-consulted road maps where necessary and taking heed of traffic directions and instructions.

The only real use that I can see for sat navs is their ability to warn of serious delays ahead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-45432593

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Welsh Secretary wants Bristol to join ‘Western Powerhouse’

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/welsh-secretary-wants-bristol-join-1985645

This is back in the news. Some years ago Bristol and Cardiff were talking about more co-operation when the previous Bristol mayor was in office. That seemed to be superseded by a grander plan widening the scope to include a far greater area on both sides of the Severn estuary.

I think many people in South Wales and in South West England are sceptical that it could work in practice. The Bristol area local authorities struggle to co-operate with each other. The thought of them coming together with the wider South West and Wales takes a lot of swallowing.

 

[Jerry]

Welsh Secretary wants Bristol to join ‘Western Powerhouse’

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/welsh-secretary-wants-bristol-join-1985645

This is back in the news. Some years ago Bristol and Cardiff were talking about more co-operation when the previous Bristol mayor was in office. That seemed to be superseded by a grander plan widening the scope to include a far greater area on both sides of the Severn estuary.

I think many people in South Wales and in South West England are sceptical that it could work in practice. The Bristol area local authorities struggle to co-operate with each other. The thought of them coming together with the wider South West and Wales takes a lot of swallowing.

Only way it would work is if Bristol and the South West became a part of Wales under the Welsh government (not going to happen) or got it's own devolved institution.
But the reality is that as Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns should be concerned about Wales not Bristol. Maybe he should be promoting a Wales powerhouse instead.

 

[tpm]

Even though there's a considerable number of people who commute from South Wales (esp. Newport area) into Bristol for work, I don't think this whole thing is really a good fit, and it won't be able to compete with the whole 'Northern powerhouse' thing anyway. Westminster doesn't care about 'powerhouses' as a generic concept, it only cares about the Nothern powerhouse, if it cares at all these days. The Western powerhouse would just not be a partnership of equals in any sense: Cardiff and South Wales will always have the political upper hand, status ("capital"), resources, special role. And the distance is too large, and there's just not enough overall cohesion. Besides, it's unclear to me how this whole thing would work in practice. Marketing Bristol - Bath together as a region makes much more sense to me, for example, even if it's much smaller scale.

The West of England and Gloucestershire and Wiltshire seem to be in the process of setting up a shadow sub-national transport body (taking in WSM, Bristol, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Salisbury, Bath, Bristol). That also makes sense to me, but maybe that's just because it'll focus more on the Greater Bristol-Bath area.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I agree with that, tpm.

The old Avon area (which includes Bristol, Bath and a rapidly growing Weston-super-Mare) is a hugely vibrant economic area. I can't see it would have anything to gain by throwing in its lot with South Wales.

I've heard the Oresund region collaboration between Denmark and Sweden cited as a template that a 'Western Powerhouse' could model itself on. Those are separate sovereign states, not two constituent countries (in one of the cases a very small part of its country) within a united kingdom one of which has a devolved government and the other a collection of local authorities.

The Welsh government's vastly greater budget than the combined budgets of the West of England local authorities would skew any sense of equal partnership when push came to shove with any particular event such as, say, a multi-national looking to relocate to Severnside and wanting a big sweetener along the way.

The current West of England combined authority has a budget of a billion pounds, so the Westminster government will say. Well yes, it has, but spread over 30 years at £30 million a year.

There is a government region of South West England which is the largest in area of any English government region with a population over five million people. Clearly someone has just drawn the boundary lines at random on a piece of paper because northern Gloucestershire is as close to the Scottish border as it is to the far south-west of Cornwall (the other end of this government region). Probably Gloucestershire has as much or more likely as little in common with Scotland as it has with Cornwall.

So if the South West government region was turned into some sort of assembly with additional powers, would that help? Not in my view and for two reasons. First, not all of the government region is being considered for the 'Western Powerhouse' (Bournemouth-Poole and Dorset are on the south coast, a completely different area of the country to the Western edge of Britain) and second, it's as certain as anything is that a regional assembly would not be given the tax-raising, borrowing and law-making powers given to devolved Wales and Scotland, so the political and funding inequities would remain.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Metrobus Route M2 Ashton Vale Park and Ride to city centre

Travelling towards Ashton Vale the first is the single track section over the old Ashton Swing Bridge which is no more than 100 yards long. Immediately after this is the longest section running for about a quarter of a mile. The next one is not encountered until well after the high level twisty bridge near the football ground and is about 200 yards long. The final two are at intervals towards the Park and Ride and neither is much longer than 100 yards.

The rest of the dedicated busway has no guides so why do these sections require them? It’s possible that the Ashton Swing Bridge does but the others are on straight or nearly straight bits of busway whereas there are some bends that have no guides at all. The trickiest part of the busway is the twisty bridge which might benefit from guides but it has none.

I don’t know how much the guided sections cost but I do know they were the main reason for the start of the service being put back for nearly a year because they or the buses were of the wrong width, and it cost the incredible amount of £200,000 of public money to put them right.

There is a footpath that runs along the side of the busway between Ashton Vale and Ashton Gate which I walked along on my return to get a measured and closer look at the busway and the guided sections. I could still see no reason why some parts of the busway have guides but others don’t. They actually slow the journey because the buses slow down to enter the guided sections, a bit like some Swiss and other trains do when they enter a rack section.

The above is part of a post I submitted last week regarding the dedicated busway section where there are guided busways for just a limited part of the dedicated busway section of the route which made no sense to me and I could not find out why.

This week I wandered along the dedicated busway section again and encountered a group of people who seemed to be taking a close interest in the busway. I asked the group if anyone could tell me why only part of the busway has guided busways.

One of the group told me that it was down to funding regulations. At my pressing he admitted he was a professional in the industry but denied having any connection with the busway. He told me that without the guided busway sections the busway would have been regarded as a new road and would not have gained central funding, even though it would still have been for the exclusive use of buses.

So in order to gain central funding a huge amount of public money was expended on small lengths of guided busway that have no practical purpose except as a means of generating central funding. I have no idea how much the guided sections cost but I do know that they were installed at an incorrect width and had to be altered at a further cost of £200,000 from the public purse, that also delayed the opening of the route for nearly a year - despite their not being needed at all.

I'm going to ask my MP to tackle the relevant government minister to see if any of this is true. If it is I've no doubt the answer will wrapped in 'governmentese' which will fall short of a truthful answer. Some years ago I received a reply from a Treasury minister via my MP when I enquired about the then government's attitude to devolving air passenger duty to Wales and Scotland. The answer said much but told me nothing: it was waffle at its very best.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-45550549

Plans for £100m indoor arena in Bristol unveiled

This is the next step in the proposal from the Steve Lansdown-owned Bristol Sport Group who want to build a £100 million arena for their Bristol Flyers basketball team who currently play at a sell-out 800-capacity hall at Filton. The 4,000-capacity arena would also double as a convention centre. In addition there would be housing, two hotels and a multi-storey car park.

This arena is separate from the major one planned for the city which is subject of so much controversy.

The applicants have the money and much if not all of the land. The only thing stopping them going ahead would be the attitude of the council towards any objectors.

Bristol Sport have painful memories though. In 2008 Steve Lansdown wanted to build a 30,000-seater stadium in nearby Ashton Vale (capable of expanding to 40,000 if a World Cup was in the offing). He had the money, owned the land and had gained planning consent from the council. Then along came a group of people who said they had used the space for dog walking for over 20 years and applied to have the area designated a Town Green. Their real reason was to stop a football stadium being built next to their homes. The city council made such a mess of the Town Green enquiry process that at a Judicial Review a judge ordered them to begin the process all over again. Several years had elapsed by then so Steve Lansdown said, "Forget it" and redeveloped Ashton Gate instead which is now a very fine stadium but with a seating capacity of only 27,000.

I expect some of the usual suspects will attempt to block this proposal. The city council needs to be determined and forthright in its planning process.

 

[superking]

Not much news about at this time of year.Mostly what news is about is mainly doom and gloom.
I was wondering about the new guy that took over the helm at BRS. Did he start the job and if he did I have not seen any thing any where where he has introduced him self to the media or the local people to the airport.If he hasn't made him self known then we are back to the secret service news from airport.With him introduced to the media etc I think it goes a long way and people think a lot of that.If speaking to the guy on phone or e mail its always nice to know the person and face you are talking to. It goes a long way to make youre self known and get the locals on his side with things happening or could happen at the airport.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Not much news about at this time of year.Mostly what news is about is mainly doom and gloom.
I was wondering about the new guy that took over the helm at BRS. Did he start the job and if he did I have not seen any thing any where where he has introduced him self to the media or the local people to the airport.If he hasn't made him self known then we are back to the secret service news from airport.With him introduced to the media etc I think it goes a long way and people think a lot of that.If speaking to the guy on phone or e mail its always nice to know the person and face you are talking to. It goes a long way to make youre self known and get the locals on his side with things happening or could happen at the airport.

Dave Lees started on 1 August. There is a press release on the BRS website.

https://www.bristolairport.co.uk/ab...a-centre/2018/8/new-ceo-joins-bristol-airport

He was interviewed on the local radio when he started but I've not heard nor read anything from him since in the local news media.

I did a couple of posts in the BRS General thread on 1 and 2 August at the time he began his tenure at BRS.

In the past few years I've found that any communication with the airport even when addressed to the CEO never elicits a reply from him. If I get one at all it's from someone else in the organisation. In the days of Andrew Skipp, John Parkin, and before that the legendary Les Wilson, they would always sign the letters even if they hadn't prepared them.

I supposed that's today's corporate approach.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/plans-expand-mall-cribbs-causeway-2062809

Plans to expand The Mall at Cribbs Causeway thrown out by Government

The Mall owners had wanted to spend £300 million to double the size of the Mall but the secretary of state has vetoed the plans. The effect would have been too great on other shopping centres in the region with Broadmead and Cabot Circus in Bristol and Weston-super-Mare particularly feeling the draught.

Cribbs although on the very edge of the Bristol conurbation is in the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire and this authority had previously granted planning permission for the extension. Bristol City Council objected and business leaders and local politicians in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire also expressed fears as to what an expanded Cribbs would do to their shopping centres and high streets.

Government policy now seems against the idea of out-of-town shopping centres. Cribbs was one of the last to be built when it opened 20 years ago.

 

[superking]

Report on tv lunch time saying 100 plus new buses to be put on routes in city. This is extra buses not replacements so they say.
The metro was mentioned as well. The metro buses got unreliable due to metro buses full and running late,all this has started sinse the students started back.Sounds like something else not looked into or planned proper.

 

[tpm]

I suspect that report was based on Marvin Rees's State of the City Address from last night.

I can announce tonight that we are in the process of working towards a Heads of an Agreement that sets out a joint relationship based on long term and sustained public and private investment in the bus system.


Working with our partners in the West of England, the aim of the agreement will be to double bus usage to 20% of all journeys, through:

• Enhanced service frequencies on the core network, doubling the frequency on main routes.
• Greater Service stability through increased enforcement of bus lanes and highway improvements
• Use of new technology to inform where services are most delayed
• Extension of quality and frequency services into less well served areas.

And, a single flat fare zone, covering the whole city. Because of Bristol’s geography, the less affluent parts of the city currently pay more than the wealthier areas to travel to and from the city centre. FirstBus and ourselves have agreed that we will work towards a standard fare across the city, bringing equality to bus travel.

I thought they had put on an additional U3 route to complement the m3 Metrobus route to add capacity between the centre and UWE, but maybe it's still not enough.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Report on tv lunch time saying 100 plus new buses to be put on routes in city. This is extra buses not replacements so they say.
The metro was mentioned as well. The metro buses got unreliable due to metro buses full and running late,all this has started sinse the students started back.Sounds like something else not looked into or planned proper.

I suspect that report was based on Marvin Rees's State of the City Address from last night.I thought they had put on an additional U3 route to complement the m3 Metrobus route to add capacity between the centre and UWE, but maybe it's still not enough.

Apparently the council and First have been in talks about increasing the bus service provision with a flat fare across the city - not quite sure how that works or how much it will be. Some bus routes are cross-city with a 15 mile-plus journey that takes 90 minutes to complete (services 1, 2, 75 and 76 for example) - on a good day when traffic is co-operating. How they balance a 2-stop journey against the full route one I don't know. One will be incredibly cheap or the other incredibly expensive.

Already First is in turmoil in Bristol as it can't recruit enough drivers and hasn't got enough buses. As a short term measure it's brought in drivers from its operations in other parts of the country and has cascaded buses from other parts of the network, hence the rather ancient and oddly painted buses sometimes seen on the streets of Bristol.

Students are also causing problems according to the First West of England MD who said they don't know how to use the buses. I'm not quite sure what he means although a driver told me recently that they are swamping some of the city buses for short journeys meaning passengers travelling further sometimes can't get on. There are the dedicated Uni buses, which are also availble to the public, but unsurprisingly the students get on the first one to come along whether it's a 'normal' bus or a Uni bus. A couple of weeks ago I experienced something of this.

Around 2pm I was waiting by the Cenotaph to catch a bus to Clifton Down station. That stop is served by the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 all of which access Clifton Down (as do the Uni buses). Despite being covered by several routes we had to wait ten minutes for the next bus (a 3). By then 30-40 intending passengers had gathered, mainly students. I was amazed that nearly all of them paid cash to the driver (I'd have thought that this generation would be well 'into' mobile devices with digital tickets). I timed the loading and it took and incredible seven minutes.

The next stop was College Green where another huge crowd was waiting, again mainly students it seemed. Some were allowed on but by then the bus was full and we sailed past the next three stops with people vainly waiting for a bus.

I asked one of the students who was sitting next to me why there were so many of them and she muttered something about 'classes'. From their direction of travel they were Bristol University students not UWE.

Even if 100 new buses are provided (£280,000 each according to the local radio) where will they find the drivers? If Brexit means that Polish people will be restricted in their access to the UK then that alone will cause huge problems for Bristol's buses given that many of the drivers are from that country.

The U3 is now being run to complement the M2 between the city centre and UWE.

I hope the mayor's words are not just that. So many promises have been made by Bristol's political leaders over the years but few come to fruition.

 

[superking]

I noticed the busses in Weston are in many colours. They have gone back to the badgerline colours when they first started.There is I recon abot 6 different colours the busses in Weston are painted.Not cheap to repaint a bus as so much on them,it makes you wonder where the money is coming from.

 

[tpm]

Apparently the council and First have been in talks about increasing the bus service provision with a flat fare across the city - not quite sure how that works or how much it will be. Some bus routes are cross-city with a 15 mile-plus journey that takes 90 minutes to complete (services 1, 2, 75 and 76 for example) - on a good day when traffic is co-operating. How they balance a 2-stop journey against the full route one I don't know. One will be incredibly cheap or the other incredibly expensive.

What the mayor said is this:

I am also pleased that FirstBus have agreed to work with us towards a standard flat fare, covering the whole city.

which can mean a lot of things. It does not say "has agreed to introduce a standard flat fare" for example.

In the same vein, I'm happy to agree to work with anyone who asks towards world peace. Probably still won't see it in my life time though.

The phrasing also doesn't necessarily exclude a special fare for short journeys. That just wouldn't be a "standard" fare then.

Not really sure what fare structure would be fair or unfair - mostly fare structures just are, and if it had been any other way from the start many would be arguing that changing it to something else would be ludicrous and unfair. The normative power of the factual, I guess.

In many cities a standard ticket is time-limited to e.g. 60 or 90 minutes. In others it's just inner zone (say Bristol city) and outer zone(s) (SouthGlos, BANES, etc.). I only remember multiple inner zones from cities much bigger than Bristol, but can't say I've investigated this in any meaningful way of course.

 

[superking]

One driver that was fined for the use of the metro exit on the M32 challenged the fine and won his case. That means a few thousand drivers that were fined will get their money back.
The council said they will have to change the signs.Well done to that driver.

 

[superking]

I wonder what other news is lurking about that has not surfaced yet.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

One driver that was fined for the use of the metro exit on the M32 challenged the fine and won his case. That means a few thousand drivers that were fined will get their money back.
The council said they will have to change the signs.Well done to that driver.

I have to disagree with you there, superking. The exit is clearly signed as buses only with another clear advance sign down the motorway. It's only drivers who are inept or who take a chance who contravene this regulation. The other week a driver told Radio Bristol he took the exit because his satnav told him to. Who was driving his car? He or his satnav?

The council hasn't said that they will change the signs, merely that they will review them.

This is a link to the Post article that contains pictures of the bus lane exits. How anyone can be confused by them beats me. The fact that so many have says more about the standard of driving than the signs.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-man-wins-appeal-against-2115760

The driver who won his appeal admitted he was distracted by another driver. If he is distracted by other drivers I hope there is no occasion when a young child is in the road.

The city council, not the police, enforces this regulation and it is done under the civil law, hence technically drivers are not fined but are subject of a civil charge. In this instance the driver appealed to a tribunal consisting of one adjudicator and it was disposed of by telephone. The city council didn't even bother to contest it although the signs were put up with DfT approval so there was no meaningful argument for the adjudicator to listen to. Because it's a civil matter the city council keeps the money that errant drivers are charged.

If the police enforce the regulation the matter goes to the magistrates court under the criminal law and guilty people are fined. In that case the fine money goes to the Exchequer and not to the local council or to the local police. At least with criminal law enforcement any appeal goes to a court and not to a single adjudicator even if he/she is a qualified solicitor which is usually the case.