First West of England (Bristol, Bath & The West)

[Marcus Fryer]

Looks like a driver has gone on autopilot here… bus was supposed to turn around at Staple Hill and has not only continued on to Emerson’s Green uneccessarily, but has even gone to the old terminus in Lyde…

33797 - YX66 WLB

ADL Enviro400 MMC

bustimes.org

Then presumably via the M32 to Easton.

 

[Simon75]

First Bus says sorry after girl, 15, refused child ticket

The girl was wrongly ordered to buy an adult ticket before being allowed to travel

www.stokesentinel.co.uk

First Bus says sorry after girl, 15, refused child ticket​

The girl was wrongly ordered to buy an adult ticket before being allowed to travel



A mum has been left fuming - after her daughter was thrown off a First bus. The 15-year-old had purchased a child's return ticket for passengers aged between five and 15, BristolLive reports.
The rules state that you have to be 16 to purchase a young person's ticket. But the driver refused to let the girl board the return leg of her trip.

The mum said: "When she got on the bus, she scanned her ticket so all good, however the driver turned round to her and said ‘You can’t use that’. When she asked why, he said ‘you’re too old'. As she’s 15, she doesn’t have any ID, for example her driving licence. The driver refused to let her travel. When she told him again that she was 15, he said ‘no you’re not, move out the way so the queue of people behind you can get on'."


The teen was forced to buy an adult ticket before she was allowed to travel. She also told her mum that the same happened to another girl behind her in the queue, who was forced to get off the bus. The angry mum said her daughter felt scared and intimidated by the driver and asked if children need to carry identification to prove their age when using public transport.
A spokesperson for First Bus said: “Our drivers do an amazing job, but their main focus is on getting our customers to their destinations safely. This means they often need to make instant decisions around ticketing, whilst also being vigilant to attempted ticket fraud, which does happen from time to time.

“However, on this occasion, following investigation, the driver should have given the benefit of the doubt to allow the customer to travel on a child ticket. The safety of our customers and staff is always our number one

 

[bathbuses]

47447 and 47442 have appeared in Bath this morning
Doing the 5

 

[Marcus Fryer]

First Bus says sorry after girl, 15, refused child ticket

The girl was wrongly ordered to buy an adult ticket before being allowed to travel

www.stokesentinel.co.uk

Presumably this happened in First Potteries territory?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Presumably this happened in First Potteries territory?

Nope https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/...8.1524237829.1682929905-1818618394.1682929905

 

[Marcus Fryer]

Nope https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/...8.1524237829.1682929905-1818618394.1682929905

Oh. I missed the reference to Bristol Live in the article that was posted above.
In fairness to First West of England, their website states:

We would advise all older children to a get a (free) First Photo ID pass as proof of age. If the driver can't be sure how old they are, and they are not able to produce one of these, they may be required to pay a full adult fare, so it's in their interests to have one.

Children (0-15)

Children under 5 travel free There are no restrictions on the number of children under five who can travel for free with each fare-paying adult, concessionary pass holder or young person.

www.firstbus.co.uk

 

[richw]

We would advise all older children to a get a (free) First Photo ID pass as proof of age. If the driver can't be sure how old they are, and they are not able to produce one of these, they may be required to pay a full adult fare, so it's in their interests to have one.

As an ex First employee, they drum into you never leave a child behind, and if someone claims to be of child age you trust their word….
Also If someone’s a little short put through a manual fare for what they’ve got, is it worth the delay or the argument or worse for the sake of a few pence.
One operator I know of a case where they refused somebody because they were 40p short, driver vs passenger argument. Passenger kicked door glass and it smashed. Result bus out of service and £500 damage to repair. All for the sake of an argument over 40p.
Some drivers go looking for issues I’m sure!

 

[Harold Hill]

Twice in the last few weeks I've stepped forward to pay the fare, in the exact cash, for passengers who otherwise would not have been allowed to board the bus because the driver was unable to give change for notes. Both incidents were along the City Centre to Fishponds route. I've written to the head honcho at First in Bristol but as yet no reply

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

As an ex First employee

You've moved?

 

[richw]

You've moved?

Yes, about 3 weeks ago I left.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Yes, about 3 weeks ago I left.

Best of luck with the new job

 

[Martin2013]

Twice in the last few weeks I've stepped forward to pay the fare, in the exact cash, for passengers who otherwise would not have been allowed to board the bus because the driver was unable to give change for notes. Both incidents were along the City Centre to Fishponds route. I've written to the head honcho at First in Bristol but as yet no reply

Just over a month ago I was on a 48/49 route between Fishponds and The Centre and a passenger got abusive at the driver after being told that his ticket wasn't valid. He refused to get off the bus despite the driver threatening to call the police and twice used racist language directed at the driver. A passenger then came forward, paid the passenger's fare and he was allowed to continue.

When we got off the bus in the Centre the driver suggested that this man was known and that he tried it on every night.

With this in mind I can't believe a 15 year old wasn't allowed to travel because of having the wrong fare yet an aggressive and racist passenger wasn't prevented from doing so.

 

[Whiteway215]

37639 collided with the low Twerton Arch in Bath yesterday evening when working a U5.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

37639 collided with the low Twerton Arch in Bath yesterday evening when working a U5.

Here's the link to the BBC website with a good photo of the incident https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-65489111

Not the first time this has happened with Olympian 39920 L650SEU having been deroofed TWICE at the same location. The second time saw it become a permanent open topper at Weston (later at Weymouth)

 

[Citistar]

I do wonder if the Twerton one way system underneath the railway arches would be better if reversed. Traffic leaving Twerton could come up to the traffic lights at McDonalds and anyone turning to to Twerton would have to make a definite, sharp turn left rather than the gentle sweep that this decker made, apparently with quite some momentum looking at how far under it has gone.

 

[WelshBluebird]

Do we even know why the driver went that way given the U5's route is to continue along Lower Bristol Road rather than turning into Twerton?
I've known in the past some single deckers use Twerton as a cut through if part of Lower Bristol Road is blocked (and vice versa), but I've not seen anything like that reported for this one.

I do wonder if the Twerton one way system underneath the railway arches would be better if reversed. Traffic leaving Twerton could come up to the traffic lights at McDonalds and anyone turning to to Twerton would have to make a definite, sharp turn left rather than the gentle sweep that this decker made, apparently with quite some momentum looking at how far under it has gone.

Linked to the above, one way system changes will do nothing if drivers decide to go off route!
I'd also say the existing turning left is hardly a "gentle sweep", its as obviously a definite left turn as any other is!
Knowing the area well (I lived nearby for pretty much 10 years), there's no way someone could accidentally turn that way unless they were actually wanting to turn left.
The height of the bridge and the height restrictions for traffic are also very obvious to anyone paying any degree of attention.

 

[matt_splat]

Do we even know why the driver went that way given the U5's route is to continue along Lower Bristol Road rather than turning into Twerton?
I've known in the past some single deckers use Twerton as a cut through if part of Lower Bristol Road is blocked (and vice versa), but I've not seen anything like that reported for this one.



Linked to the above, one way system changes will do nothing if drivers decide to go off route!
I'd also say the existing turning left is hardly a "gentle sweep", its as obviously a definite left turn as any other is!
Knowing the area well (I lived nearby for pretty much 10 years), there's no way someone could accidentally turn that way unless they were actually wanting to turn left.
The height of the bridge and the height restrictions for traffic are also very obvious to anyone paying any degree of attention.

If you changed the road layout it would as a driver would have to think before turning

 

[f23]

I wonder if 37639 will be an open top for Cornwall now

 

[CD]

Do we even know why the driver went that way given the U5's route is to continue along Lower Bristol Road rather than turning into Twerton?
I've known in the past some single deckers use Twerton as a cut through if part of Lower Bristol Road is blocked (and vice versa), but I've not seen anything like that reported for this one.



Linked to the above, one way system changes will do nothing if drivers decide to go off route!
I'd also say the existing turning left is hardly a "gentle sweep", its as obviously a definite left turn as any other is!
Knowing the area well (I lived nearby for pretty much 10 years), there's no way someone could accidentally turn that way unless they were actually wanting to turn left.
The height of the bridge and the height restrictions for traffic are also very obvious to anyone paying any degree of attention.

Maybe the driver mistook the U5 for a 5?

 

[sk688]

69501 now in Bath City blue, so can only assume that's the beginning of the end for the Discover branding

 

[Callum15632]

Does anyone know if 47671 still retains any of its City Red branding inside? I know that 47672 does as I got on it today on the 1 to Sand Bay. @stait.john or @Dren Ahmeti do you know if 37642 and 36231 and another Bath City Gemini (not tracking but I saw it on the 17) are permanent transfers to Lawrence Hill or are they temporary from Bath? Also are there any more coming from Bath?

 

[Private Baxter]

69501 now in Bath City blue, so can only assume that's the beginning of the end for the Discover branding

Was just coming to post about that, as I passed it earlier on the D2. It kind of makes sense to be honest.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Was just coming to post about that, as I passed it earlier on the D2. It kind of makes sense to be honest.

Seems to be the way of it - Unibus has gone in Bath (other than a vinyl on blue livery) and Discover is a shadow of the original concept. Rather like Excel going in Weston in favour of Badgerline - one livery per depot.

One wonders about Bristol as the citylines concept seems dead in the water so will a Bristol livery be introduced.

That said, getting the reliability and operational challenges sorted is a greater priority.

 

[Private Baxter]

Seems to be the way of it - Unibus has gone in Bath (other than a vinyl on blue livery) and Discover is a shadow of the original concept. Rather like Excel going in Weston in favour of Badgerline - one livery per depot.

One wonders about Bristol as the citylines concept seems dead in the water so will a Bristol livery be introduced.

That said, getting the reliability and operational challenges sorted is a greater priority.

First do seem to have a bit of a habit of starting a new scheme, then just moving on to something else, so we now have in Bristol a mis-match of identities, including the older coloured front buses, such as those for the 70, and the more recent City Lines xx scheme, none of which were ever completed. And of course there's plenty of un branded stuff going about.

As for D1/D2, it certainly comes as no surprise and was predicted on here some time ago. Not much left to Discover really!!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

First do seem to have a bit of a habit of starting a new scheme, then just moving on to something else, so we now have in Bristol a mis-match of identities, including the older coloured front buses, such as those for the 70, and the more recent City Lines xx scheme, none of which were ever completed. And of course there's plenty of un branded stuff going about.

As for D1/D2, it certainly comes as no surprise and was predicted on here some time ago. Not much left to Discover really!!

I think there was a plan under the James Freeman era. The First rules of corporate livery etc were relaxed to allow the application of coloured fronts and we did see those on the 70/71, the 17, the 90, the 48/49, the 1/2 and the 3/4 (and one abortive example on the 75/76).

Then you had the relaxation of those rules, where you could lose the Urban scheme altogether. So you had that with Badgerline and Excel, Discover, Unibus, South Glos Lynx, and Bath City etc. I guess that then changed the plan in terms of marketing. For Bristol. they'd have a number of CityLines liveries as shown by the Citylines 3/4 and the sole Citylines 1/2 example painted, either for individual routes and/or groups of services (Citylines East). That may have been rolled out across the fleet but Covid and James Freeman’s retirement have clearly put paid to that.

Under Doug Claringbold, there seems to be a concentration on few brands and liveries. That reflects easing of operational constraints (they might argue they have enough to worry about) as well as just fewer vehicles on fewer routes.

You wonder whether a single Bristol livery might not be part of the plan in future?

 

[Citistar]

Under Doug Claringbold, there seems to be a concentration on few brands and liveries. That reflects easing of operational constraints (they might argue they have enough to worry about) as well as just fewer vehicles on fewer routes.

I think it also has a lot to do with their current scheduling software which generates some of the curious workings (such as Weston vehicles heading up to Kingswood on the 17).

 

[bristol1996]

First do seem to have a bit of a habit of starting a new scheme, then just moving on to something else, so we now have in Bristol a mis-match of identities, including the older coloured front buses, such as those for the 70, and the more recent City Lines xx scheme, none of which were ever completed. And of course there's plenty of un branded stuff going about.

As for D1/D2, it certainly comes as no surprise and was predicted on here some time ago. Not much left to Discover really!!

The whole idea of liveries for set routes has gone now, really. You'll see Citylines buses on 3/4 services when they are supposed to be on solely bridge work and I have seen Badgerline buses on city work.

 

[Private Baxter]

The whole idea of liveries for set routes has gone now, really. You'll see Citylines buses on 3/4 services when they are supposed to be on solely bridge work and I have seen Badgerline buses on city work.

I've kind of lost track of what's doing what these days, but I have seen Badgerline streetdecks work the 17 in Bristol. Have they transferred, or do Weston have a few boards on city work? Nothing seems off the cards at the moment!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I've kind of lost track of what's doing what these days, but I have seen Badgerline streetdecks work the 17 in Bristol. Have they transferred, or do Weston have a few boards on city work? Nothing seems off the cards at the moment!

If you look above, @Citistar has mentioned that it seems that Weston now does some of the 17 boards

 

[Private Baxter]

If you look above, @Citistar has mentioned that it seems that Weston now does some of the 17 boards

Ah yes, thanks!
Having to cover what they can with what they've got, it's no wonder any form of route branding is on hold.