Bristol Pod?

Ivo · 2 Oct 2012

Looks like Bristol may finally get the LRT scheme it desperately needs - but not quite how we all thought.

From the BBC

Pod travel plan for Bristol enterprise zone

Automated pods on a guided roadway may be used to transport workers around a multimillion-pound enterprise zone in Bristol.

The city council is considering the plan for the business park close to Bristol Temple Meads station.

Liberal Democrat transport councillor Tim Kent said the pods were one of many options under consideration.

"It's a lot cheaper than a traditional tram and it's good for an area as small as the enterprise zone," he added.

The zone was announced in April by the government and aims to encourage firms, with a business rate discount and simplified planning rules.

The pods would be similar to those in use at Heathrow Airport, which were designed by a firm from Aztec West near Bristol.

Officials from the city council have already visited Heathrow on a fact-finding mission.

It is likely that the cost per journey would be between £2 and £3.

"It obviously wouldn't be a very large system, it would be quite a small system but we think the option is very good and we have been talking with one provider and looking at it as a possibility," Mr Kent added.

Mr Kent said the system would link up with nearby Temple Meads railway station and could eventually run to Cabot Circus shopping centre.

Good on the council for trying, but a pod plan is nowhere near enough. Of course, if it was restricted to the Business Zone, then fine - but then it wouldn't exactly help with the more pressing issue of linking the area to the rest of the city centre, as suggested later in the article, in which case this thing would have to run every 30 seconds to come even close to managing.

If this did happen, I would suggest confining it to the Business Zone - and then providing interchange with a new tram (etc) system to link with the city centre. Yes, this would be expensive, but it would eliminate two serious problems in one go...

I for one would certainly be willing to give it a go though. Sounds like fun.

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SwindonPkwy · 2 Oct 2012

The Pod is a great idea to link Temple Meads with the business zone. As you say, it would be no good for onward travel to Cabot Circus or the city centre, for example.

If Bristol cannot get a full blown tram system funded, how about trolley buses? (correct name?) At least once in the city centre they would be electric powered. I experienced these recently in Geneva.

Ivo · 2 Oct 2012

SwindonPkwy said:
If Bristol cannot get a full blown tram system funded, how about trolley buses? (correct name?) At least once in the city centre they would be electric powered. I experienced these recently in Geneva.

I think the idea there is to see how Leeds get on with them. If they can succeed, then certainly Gloucester Road would be worth a shot.

DaveHarries · 3 Oct 2012

Problem with Bristol City Council (polite name) is that more than 90% of the stuff it comes up with is pure ******** and can be taken with the biggest pinch of salt you can get.

One of their latest ideas is to turn Park Street (in Central Bristol) into an RPZ (Residents Parking Zone) in the hope that everyone will get on the buses or on their bikes. Which, of course, they won't. Soon you will have to pay to park on Sundays too which is bad news for anyone going to the churches in the City Centre.

Dave

SwindonPkwy · 3 Oct 2012

Are they still discussing a congestion charge?

Ivo · 3 Oct 2012

DaveHarries said:
Problem with Bristol City Council (polite name) I think I can guess what the impolite version would be! is that more than 90% of the stuff it comes up with is pure ******** and can be taken with the biggest pinch of salt you can get.

One of their latest ideas is to turn Park Street (in Central Bristol) into an RPZ (Residents Parking Zone) in the hope that everyone will get on the buses or on their bikes. Which, of course, they won't. Soon you will have to pay to park on Sundays too which is bad news for anyone going to the churches in the City Centre.

To be fair, if I was a practicing Christian - and I know very well that I have some of the strongest atheist views on this forum - I wouldn't travel to the city centre to go to church. There are plenty of suburban examples in Bristol. I know that this is only one example, but you can see where I'm coming from - there are plenty of alternatives in a city of its size. Perhaps they should follow Bath's example and introduce a 7-day Park & Ride?

SwindonPkwy said:
Are they still discussing a congestion charge?

This is the first I have heard of such a thing

hock:

jopsuk · 3 Oct 2012

These pod systems are todays "monorail"- that song from the Simpsons needs re-written to be about them...

SwindonPkwy · 3 Oct 2012

Ivo said:
This is the first I have heard of such a thing hock:

IIRC, it was something to do with declassifying the M32 and turning the hard shoulder into a bus lane. Maybe, it appeared in the media but not discussed within the council.

HSTEd · 4 Oct 2012

jopsuk said:
These pod systems are todays "monorail"- that song from the Simpsons needs re-written to be about them...

Well to be fair... a PRT system has been delivered on time and on budget recently, and even the Morgantown system that went enormously over budget still ended up being cheap.

DaveHarries · 5 Oct 2012

Ivo said:
To be fair, if I was a practicing Christian - and I know very well that I have some of the strongest atheist views on this forum - I wouldn't travel to the city centre to go to church. There are plenty of suburban examples in Bristol.

I am aware there are plenty of suburban examples in Bristol: I can see one from my house. However I prefer the music down at the Cathedral, hence my comment about going to the churches in the City Centre. Parking at the Cathedral is somewhat limited and therefore people tend to park on Park Street where there are spaces available. Anyway, Park Street is mostly full of bars: the entrances to the flats are to the rear and obviously BCC hasn't bothered to look into the fact that, all things considered, there are unlikely to be many takers for the RPZ on Park Street.:roll: Lastly, the side roads off Park Street where people live will also be RPZs so the RPZ on Park Street is, I think, pointless.

Anyway, this has gone O/T: back to the topic in hand I think.

Dave

kylemore · 5 Oct 2012

How typically UK!

Absolutely anything rather than just grasping the nettle and getting on with building proper transport systems.

If its not PODS then it's First Group (A bunch of con merchants if ever there was one as we are discovering) punting el-cheapo articulated buses kidding on they're trams etc.

All cheered on by largely ignorant councillors whose only concern is to appear as if they're "doing something".

scandal · 5 Oct 2012

I see that the Workplace Parking Levy has now been abandoned for Bristol, part of me believes that the public and businesses were not convinced that they would be paying for a superior transport system to what they already have (as is the case in Nottingham) with the funding pot for Bristol's WPL for the use of BRT, this does leave, pending the result of BRT2's public inquiry naturally, a large hole in funding strategies for a key spoke of the West of Englands transport strategy, no wonder they're talking about the greater bristol metro and lobbying the DfT for funding. Of course the greater bristol metro to my mind has one fundamental flaw, that Temple Meads is far too much of a distant both physically and psychologically for the majority of people from the city centre attracts of Broadmead, Cabot and Park Street. Until a fully integrated transport hub is established there with a quick, traffic free, rapid transit system into the centre a lot is left to be desired, I just feel sorry for the long term residents of Bristol, never ever seems to get done.

34D · 12 Oct 2012

Does someone have a picture of what a 'pod' might look like? Driverless I assume?

jopsuk · 12 Oct 2012

I'd guess omething similar to the PRT system now connecting Heathrow Terminal 5 to Business parking- this is one of the production cars on a test track site

34D · 13 Oct 2012

jopsuk said:
I'd guess omething similar to the PRT system now connecting Heathrow Terminal 5 to Business parking- this is one of the production cars on a test track site

Now that is cute. Is it driverless?

HSTEd · 13 Oct 2012

34D said:
Now that is cute. Is it driverless?

YEs, runs on a concrete guideway thing.

Since the system is so lightweight viaducts and things can be built far mroe cheaply than almost any of the alternatives.

Its battery powered though unlike the heavier Morgantown system.

Bristol Pod?

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