The guy in charge of the Bristol metro was on the radio this morning. He was asked why the metro sometimes run a hour late and don't stop at quite a few stops.The running hour bit he puts down to the routes run a fair distance on normal roads that are clogged up.The non stopping at stops he has put down to the metro busses full with pax.It seems he blames every body and every thing for the problems. He did say the metro will never run how it should do in its present format.
I use the buses in and around Bristol a lot, several days a week. I do so mainly in connection with my walking that enables me to avoid circular walks or there-and-back-again walks which is the case if I take the car, plus my city walks would be a nightmare if I had to park the car somewhere.
I heard the interview on Radio Bristol and also the phone-in between 9 and 10 when Freeman the MD of First West of England was in the studio on one of his regular sessions answering questions from listeners. I didn't ring in - I never do - but I found his answers interesting especially the doubling in frequency from April of my local bus to town (the 2).
He was particularly talking about the metrobus routes 1 and 3 that use the ring road on the north-eastern edge of the conurbation to access the M32. The ring road inbound has no bus lane and that, coupled with road works at Great Stoke on the edge of Bradley Stoke, is currently causing severe delays in the morning peak with buses taking almost three times as long to cover a 35-minute journey on that stretch of the route.
From the beginning of the month they have put on extra metrobuses on the busiest parts of the routes in peak times but they are also being caught up in the jams.
I know from much experience and not just with the metrobuses that Bristol's chronic traffic conditions can delay buses at any time of the day. It's particularly bad with the cross-city routes. I don't know why they persist with such routes but they have looked again at some and, following public consultation, have decided they are the least worst options.
My local bus, the 2, is a good example. It runs from Stockwood in south-east Bristol along the Wells Road through Knowle and Totterdown, to outside Temple Meads, then Cabot Circus, Broadmead, 'The Centre', Park Street, Whiteladies Road, The Downs, Henleaze, Southmead, Henbury to Cribbs Causeway regional shopping centre on the north-west edge of the conurbation.
The service is operated by double-deckers at 15-minute frequency outside peak and more frequently during the peak periods. It was every 12 minutes outside peak until this month before being reduced, but apparently is to be doubled in frequency from April (logic?). It's a journey of around 16 route miles and even off peak is scheduled to take 94 minutes to cover the journey (you can fly from Bristol to Geneva in less time than that!).
What often happens is that a bus leaves one end of the journey on time but picks up a delay - traffic congestion, road works, drivers having to take money and issue tickets and change (although this is rapidly being overcome with digital tickets and passes), changing drivers en route with the result that people waiting for the next bus get on the delayed one in front. The bus behind doesn't then have to stop so often to pick up or set down passengers and catches the bus in front on this long and tortuous journey.
Off peak, at the south-east end of the route in particular, when buses aren't as busy the driver sometimes has to stop at a bust stop for a minute or two because the bus is ahead of schedule. Then by the time it has negotiated the central areas and often changed drivers it finds itself behind schedule by the time it reaches The Downs and then runs late for the rest of the journey. They keep tinkering with the timetables but never seem to get it right. Other cross-city routes from south to north include the 1, 24, 75 and 76. The 75 is scheduled to take up to 108 minutes just to link the north and south sides of the city and still loses time on occasions.
The bottom line is that Bristol is an ancient city and, despite the best efforts of Hitler and post-war planners, so many of the central roads are still narrow from the pre-internal combustion engine age. Bristol also lacks a decent suburban rail network. There is only the TM-Avonmouth/Severn Beach line plus the local stations on the main line between TM and Parson Street and TM and Parkway. In the days of the Labour Government money was set aside for a tram system but the city council and South Gloucestershire Council argued like 5 year-olds in the school playground as to where the northern terminus should be situated that central government withdrew the funding.
Greater Bristol and the four separate local authorities that run it is another story. Even with WECA having a sort of overriding responsibility, including buses, it has at least one major flaw in that North Somerset Council has been allowed to opt out yet it is a vital part of the Greater Bristol region, or West of England if the word Bristol upsets some people - I know that the former deputy leader of North Somerset Council seemed to have a pathological dislike of the city.
