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

TheGrandWazoo · 19 Mar 2019

BPWUser1 said:
Looking at the bustimes.org bus tracker, 35110 is for some reason currently running around as 69509. I was on 35110 yesterday, and can confirm 69509 is not providing a third deck.

The bustimes tracker is full of dubious or patently incorrect information :rolleyes:

It's moderately interesting but you can't really trust it. For instance: there are 11 vehicles (82, 90, 129, 348, 386, 709, 742, 878, 1049, 1078, 1136) of unknown identity - spare Ticketer baseplates from the PVR having to expand?

As well as 35110, 32008 was allegedly operating the 6 round Fairfield Park - now that would be one to see!

Basically, looks like there are plenty of examples where buses are running round with baseplates being swapped over and not reprogrammed.

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ValleyLines142 · 19 Mar 2019

Bath have had a couple of interesting allocations of late. Yesterday, 63075 was on the 5 and 30871 was on the 4. Apparently it goes like a rocket according to my two friends who are drivers at Weston Island.

Bradley · 19 Mar 2019

709 is 35103.

CD · 19 Mar 2019

DanTrainMan185 said:
Bath have had a couple of interesting allocations of late. Yesterday, 63075 was on the 5 and 30871 was on the 4. Apparently it goes like a rocket according to my two friends who are drivers at Weston Island.

Yesterday I rode 30871 on the 4 from the bus station to The Weston for 30877 37 forward to Bitton. Both go really well.

Whiteway215 · 19 Mar 2019

DanTrainMan185 said:
Bath have had a couple of interesting allocations of late. Yesterday, 63075 was on the 5 and 30871 was on the 4. Apparently it goes like a rocket according to my two friends who are drivers at Weston Island.

Would your driver friends know if 30875 is still working?

spw24 · 19 Mar 2019

base plate 1136 was 33666 a couple of weeks ago. it looks as though 30875 is of the road also now of are 32233/4 at Lawrence hill 34 at least has lost its ticket machine.

EnviroExplorer · 19 Mar 2019

spw24 said:
base plate 1136 was 33666 a couple of weeks ago. it looks as though 30875 is of the road also now of are 32233/4 at Lawrence hill 34 at least has lost its ticket machine.

So does anyone know which of the loaned Presidents are still in service? As per the tracker, I can see that 32235/7/8 are in regular service at the moment, though 32229-234 haven’t appeared in service for a while, and of course the last two of those are seemingly now withdrawn. Can anyone confirm status of 32229-232 and 236 for me, maybe they could be some of those random numbers showing up on bustimes? I’m coming down to Bristol this Saturday, hoping to ride both the Volvo and Trident Presidents, amongst others. Cheers

TheGrandWazoo · 19 Mar 2019

EnviroExplorer said:
So does anyone know which of the loaned Presidents are still in service? As per the tracker, I can see that 32235/7/8 are in regular service at the moment, though 32229-234 haven’t appeared in service for a while, and of course the last two of those are seemingly now withdrawn. Can anyone confirm status of 32229-232 and 236 for me, maybe they could be some of those random numbers showing up on bustimes? I’m coming down to Bristol this Saturday, hoping to ride both the Volvo and Trident Presidents, amongst others. Cheers

Again, another illustration of the limitations of the bustimes anorak section. The Bath U2 is not being operated by anything at the moment allegedly! However, I did see two of them working the U2 yesterday - think it was 32230 and 32231 (but I was driving so forgive me) and that's a regular place to find Bath's hired Presidents. Again, I suspect ticket machines have been swapped so some Bath vehicle that is actually VOR may have donated its ticket machine.

EnviroExplorer · 19 Mar 2019

TheGrandWazoo said:
Again, another illustration of the limitations of the bustimes anorak section. The Bath U2 is not being operated by anything at the moment allegedly! However, I did see two of them working the U2 yesterday - think it was 32230 and 32231 (but I was driving so forgive me) and that's a regular place to find Bath's hired Presidents. Again, I suspect ticket machines have been swapped so some Bath vehicle that is actually VOR may have donated its ticket machine.

Any idea of the depot allocations for them please ? Thanks for that info

TheGrandWazoo · 19 Mar 2019

EnviroExplorer said:
Any idea of the depot allocations for them please ? Thanks for that info

Those are Bath ones so working the U2 from the University to Twerton - I tend to see them around Odd Down!

CD · 19 Mar 2019

TheGrandWazoo said:
The bustimes tracker is full of dubious or patently incorrect information It's moderately interesting but you can't really trust it. For instance: there are 11 vehicles (82, 90, 129, 348, 386, 709, 742, 878, 1049, 1078, 1136) of unknown identity - spare Ticketer baseplates from the PVR having to expand?

As well as 35110, 32008 was allegedly operating the 6 round Fairfield Park - now that would be one to see!

Basically, looks like there are plenty of examples where buses are running round with baseplates being swapped over and not reprogrammed.

It is very useful as a guide although many mistakes creep in. So can never treat it as gospel.
For example 32637s last working is shown as 1725 172 from Bath yesterday. But in fact the service was caped and 32637 went dead to Bath depot. The 1745 174 69437 had over 20 standing when it departed (luckily I had a seat

).

Tommy Walters · 19 Mar 2019

TheGrandWazoo said:
Again, another illustration of the limitations of the bustimes anorak section. The Bath U2 is not being operated by anything at the moment allegedly! However, I did see two of them working the U2 yesterday - think it was 32230 and 32231 (but I was driving so forgive me) and that's a regular place to find Bath's hired Presidents. Again, I suspect ticket machines have been swapped so some Bath vehicle that is actually VOR may have donated its ticket machine.

For some reason the Bath U1/U2/U5/U6 never seem to show anything running on bus times - not particularly helpful if you're a student!!

carlberry · 19 Mar 2019

Tommy Walters said:
For some reason the Bath U1/U2/U5/U6 never seem to show anything running on bus times - not particularly helpful if you're a student!!

The services track on the first website and nextbuses, I suspect any students use those.

-Colly405- · 19 Mar 2019

EnviroExplorer said:
So does anyone know which of the loaned Presidents are still in service? As per the tracker, I can see that 32235/7/8 are in regular service at the moment, though 32229-234 haven’t appeared in service for a while, and of course the last two of those are seemingly now withdrawn. Can anyone confirm status of 32229-232 and 236 for me, maybe they could be some of those random numbers showing up on bustimes? I’m coming down to Bristol this Saturday, hoping to ride both the Volvo and Trident Presidents, amongst others. Cheers

32229 was out on the 75 last Tuesday (12/3)

diffywood · 19 Mar 2019

North somerset changes on first website now for 28th april https://www.firstgroup.com/bristol-...s/quicker-more-direct-and-more-reliable-buses

Whiteway215 · 19 Mar 2019

Just to confirm / add to GW's comments about 32230-2/6. Every time I see a Bath U2, which is very regularly, it's nearly always worked by one of these, especially off peak.

EnviroExplorer · 19 Mar 2019

Whiteway215 said:
Just to confirm / add to GW's comments about 32230-2/6. Every time I see a Bath U2, which is very regularly, it's nearly always worked by one of these, especially off peak.

Thanks, not sure whether I will be visiting Bath so will have to leave those ones ...

freetoview33 · 19 Mar 2019

diffywood said:
North somerset changes on first website now for 28th april https://www.firstgroup.com/bristol-...s/quicker-more-direct-and-more-reliable-buses

So off peak Bristol - Weston buses drop from 5ph to 3ph again.

Bradley · 19 Mar 2019

According to the bus tracker can anyone confirm the following.
Bristol area:
Route 1: 36814
Route 2: 32257
Route 4: 33793 33928
Route 17: 32281 37018
Route 49: 37319
Route 90: 32235
Route 92: 37602
Route 96: 47558

Bath area:
Route 3: 69508
Route 3A: 32343
Route 31: 32553

And also can anyone confirm where 37326, 36830, 47441, 47552, 66942 are as I have not seen them on the tracker for ages.

Can anyone also know when 32669, 32673 will get the tracker installed.

-Colly405- · 19 Mar 2019

I've just seen the generic metrobus red 36806 on the m1, working what could be the 2100 or 2110 from Cribbs.

Presuming this is unusual?

carlberry · 19 Mar 2019

diffywood said:
North somerset changes on first website now for 28th april https://www.firstgroup.com/bristol-...s/quicker-more-direct-and-more-reliable-buses

Unfortunately First have decided to 'improve' their website this evening by taking it offline. Apparently this is to benefit me!

ValleyLines142 · 19 Mar 2019

Whiteway215 said:
Would your driver friends know if 30875 is still working?

I will ask them in the morning, if I remember

EnviroExplorer said:
So does anyone know which of the loaned Presidents are still in service? As per the tracker, I can see that 32235/7/8 are in regular service at the moment, though 32229-234 haven’t appeared in service for a while, and of course the last two of those are seemingly now withdrawn. Can anyone confirm status of 32229-232 and 236 for me, maybe they could be some of those random numbers showing up on bustimes? I’m coming down to Bristol this Saturday, hoping to ride both the Volvo and Trident Presidents, amongst others. Cheers

32232 was on the U1 yesterday.

D2007wsm · 19 Mar 2019

freetoview33 said:
So off peak Bristol - Weston buses drop from 5ph to 3ph again.

No, they drop from 5 (2 X1/2 X2/1 X7) to 4 (3 X1/1 X2) per hour off peak. Off peak with the X1 being E400s and the X2 singles, this should be fine.

The main changes for the Excel network are:

X1: Old and proper X1 route straight along the A370 including the Long Ashton bypass
X1X: Weston to Bristol AM Peak and Bristol to Weston PM Peak via the Portway and M5
X2: Basically the old W1 between Bristol and M5 J21 serving Long Ashton, Clverham and Yatton then after the motorway interchange as the current X7 route through West Wick, Weston Village and Locking Castle
X4: Afternoon St Katherine’s school journey going into the school
X5: Serving Sheepway rather than the Portbury Hundred
X6: Not running during the evening and on Sunday
X7: Truncated to terminate at Clevedon Six Ways, but also serving Long Ashton and the Pound Lane area of Nailsea currently served by the X9
X8: Slight route changes around Nailsea and all journeys to be operated by Weston Depot. Also will be an hourly frequency.
X9: Slight route changes around Nailsea and daytime journeys to be operated by Abus with the remainder operated by Weston Depot.

Class 33 · 20 Mar 2019

So the X1X will be the original limited stop X1 route then via Portway and M5. Interesting. Will try to get a ride on that if I can.

Should surely be news about the Bristol changes within the next few days, now that news of the North Somerset changes have been released.

D2007wsm · 20 Mar 2019

Class 33 said:
So the X1X will be the original limited stop X1 route then via Portway and M5. Interesting. Will try to get a ride on that if I can.

Should surely be news about the Bristol changes within the next few days, now that news of the North Somerset changes have been released.

There should be 5 going up from Weston in the morning and 6 going back at night. They’ll run nonstop from St George’s turn in Weston until Hotwells, and should the M5 be screwed they can use an alternative route.

Private Baxter · 20 Mar 2019

D2007wsm said:
No, they drop from 5 (2 X1/2 X2/1 X7) to 4 (3 X1/1 X2) per hour off peak. Off peak with the X1 being E400s and the X2 singles, this should be fine.

The main changes for the Excel network are:

X1: Old and proper X1 route straight along the A370 including the Long Ashton bypass

X1X: Weston to Bristol AM Peak and Bristol to Weston PM Peak via the Portway and M5

X2: Basically the old W1 between Bristol and M5 J21 serving Long Ashton, Clverham and Yatton then after the motorway interchange as the current X7 route through West Wick, Weston Village and Locking Castle

X4: Afternoon St Katherine’s school journey going into the school

X5: Serving Sheepway rather than the Portbury Hundred

X6: Not running during the evening and on Sunday

X7: Truncated to terminate at Clevedon Six Ways, but also serving Long Ashton and the Pound Lane area of Nailsea currently served by the X9

X8: Slight route changes around Nailsea and all journeys to be operated by Weston Depot. Also will be an hourly frequency.

X9: Slight route changes around Nailsea and daytime journeys to be operated by Abus with the remainder operated by Weston Depot.

Thanks for sharing. Not so much changes, aa reversals! Wonder how X6/7/8 will work in practice without a lot of dead running. And streetlites on the X2 perhaps?

Private Baxter · 20 Mar 2019

Had a nice surprise earlier when cycling down Fishponds road, I was passed by old Wells favourite 66104. It was on training duties and appeared in a blue and white livery, not too dissimilar to the old Express Yourself scheme. Nothing to identify it as still being with First, so could have moved on. Any ideas? Either way a lovely surprise!

TheGrandWazoo · 20 Mar 2019

Private Baxter said:
Had a nice surprise earlier when cycling down Fishponds road, I was passed by old Wells favourite 66104. It was on training duties and appeared in a blue and white livery, not too dissimilar to the old Express Yourself scheme. Nothing to identify it as still being with First, so could have moved on. Any ideas? Either way a lovely surprise!

It's a driver trainer for a firm called Truck School based in Paulton who do LGV training and have branched out into PCV training - see it around a bit.

TheGrandWazoo · 20 Mar 2019

Private Baxter said:
Thanks for sharing. Not so much changes, aa reversals! Wonder how X6/7/8 will work in practice without a lot of dead running. And streetlites on the X2 perhaps?

Might be some innovative scheduling with the X1X almost acting as placement journeys with drivers and vehicles in Bristol and so acting as part of the bigger pool. So a driver could be operating an X1X and then do a X6, have a break then do an X3 before returning back to Weston as an X1. Another driver might work an X2, then do an X3, have a break then do an X8 before doing an X1 back to Weston.

The only real dead mileage is from Weston to Clevedon/Nailsea which is little different from operating from Bristol in the old days.

Private Baxter · 20 Mar 2019

TheGrandWazoo said:
It's a driver trainer for a firm called Truck School based in Paulton who do LGV training and have branched out into PCV training - see it around a bit.

Thanks didn't know that! Good to see it still going. Have lost track of which ones are still in tact, although I expect most have been scrapped.

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