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

Saw it on West Street Bedminster heading towards cribbs and about 20 minutes earlier saw a 90 on a unbranded bus

Marcus Fryer said:

35143 was on the 75 this afternoon - 15:46 ex Hengrove and 17:43 ex Cribbs Causeway

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Bath Chronicle reports a service 5 bus clouted a bus shelter in Avon Street Bath yesterday Saturday. 66727 is shown in the picture. Some colourful language used by the press says the shelter 'lays in ruins' and 'the bus believes to have been involved!'

Whiteway215 said:

No I'm sure it was 32543. 32343 was parked at the back of the bus station when I was there.

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32543 is on X39 today.

Whiteway215 said:

Bath Chronicle reports a service 5 bus clouted a bus shelter in Avon Street Bath yesterday Saturday. 66727 is shown in the picture. Some colourful language used by the press says the shelter 'lays in ruins' and 'the bus believes to have been involved!'

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Whilst some of the wording is a bit OTT, the whole shelter will probably have to be replaced (if it hasn't already - I've been away for the last 5 days so haven't passed there since the incident). And of course the fact that had someone could easily have been injured based on the fact people would normally be waiting at the bus stop.

An update on Bath Uni buses at Weston. 32014 not at Bath, was around Weston last week on 1 and 20 and today is on servioce 20. 32007 also on 20 but no sign of 32003 on service or at depot - could this have gone back to Bath?

Westonian said:

An update on Bath Uni buses at Weston. 32014 not at Bath, was around Weston last week on 1 and 20 and today is on servioce 20. 32007 also on 20 but no sign of 32003 on service or at depot - could this have gone back to Bath?

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Thanks for that update. Bustimes says 32003 was on the 20 early yesterday Sunday evening.
So the Uni purplies are 'all going on a summer holiday' apart from 32015 which GW told us was in the very sick bay over the pits.

Been thinking.... 66726 going into Discover livery. That as a spare, dislodging something or a change to PVR?

Did wonder if it might end up in SG Lynx colours, and whether anything else might gain those as well as repainting the last few Barbie Darts and getting the last B9s for Wells.

TheGrandWazoo said:

Been thinking.... 66726 going into Discover livery. That as a spare, dislodging something or a change to PVR?

Did wonder if it might end up in SG Lynx colours, and whether anything else might gain those as well as repainting the last few Barbie Darts and getting the last B9s for Wells.

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Maybe releasing 69448 to go to Leicester?

Whiteway215 said:

Thank you for that AB93. Would you have any knowledge on the state of 32015?

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No idea I’m afraid.

CD said:

Maybe releasing 69448 to go to Leicester?

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Something along those lines unless they do need a Discover spare.

Now the summer is here and the PVR has dropped, you'd expect it to be the time to paint some vehicles. South Glos Lynx has been the softest of soft launches so getting some more in those colours would be good as well as painting the last of the Weston Barbie Darts into Badgerline - I assume that is the plan?

One thing I noticed last night was that 32669 has gained Mendip Explorer fleetnames on its FSE blue livery.

TheGrandWazoo said:

Something along those lines unless they do need a Discover spare.

Now the summer is here and the PVR has dropped, you'd expect it to be the time to paint some vehicles. South Glos Lynx has been the softest of soft launches so getting some more in those colours would be good as well as painting the last of the Weston Barbie Darts into Badgerline - I assume that is the plan?

One thing I noticed last night was that 32669 has gained Mendip Explorer fleetnames on its FSE blue livery.

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From observation it is not often all Discover services are covered by buses in that livery. Short and long Streetlites appear plus B7s in the 6672x series. 66938 is a regular performer. Some time after Discover was introduced I was told 66720 was going to be repainted in the Discover livery. This never happened so perhaps 66726 is a late substitute!

Whiteway215 said:

From observation it is not often all Discover services are covered by buses in that livery. Short and long Streetlites appear plus B7s in the 6672x series. 66938 is a regular performer. Some time after Discover was introduced I was told 66720 was going to be repainted in the Discover livery. This never happened so perhaps 66726 is a late substitute!

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Don't disagree with your observations. I've seen a few Streetlite Max on there plus the occasional Eclipse - 66938 (as you say) is often on there as is 66728 seemingly so perhaps they have decided to have an extra example? It had seemed though they have the minimum number of branded vehicles for other routes (e.g. 5 x Excel Streetlites for the X2/X8 or the ) with plain vehicles (either in fleet livery or mtickets) to "top up" so 66726 in Badgerline colours wouldn't have been a bad substitute anyway! Mind you, it had become rather scuffed though not as bad as 66728/9 which are pretty shabby now (but then again, 66726 was refurbished when last painted).

TheGrandWazoo said:

Don't disagree with your observations. I've seen a few Streetlite Max on there plus the occasional Eclipse - 66938 (as you say) is often on there as is 66728 seemingly so perhaps they have decided to have an extra example? It had seemed though they have the minimum number of branded vehicles for other routes (e.g. 5 x Excel Streetlites for the X2/X8 or the ) with plain vehicles (either in fleet livery or mtickets) to "top up" so 66726 in Badgerline colours wouldn't have been a bad substitute anyway! Mind you, it had become rather scuffed though not as bad as 66728/9 which are pretty shabby now (but then again, 66726 was refurbished when last painted).

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What I can't understand though is why some buses get numerous repaints, whilst others get nothing. More buses needed for Discover? No problem, get 66726 repainted! Why not 66728, or 66938 which need it a lot more. I wonder if and when 66731 returns, it will transfer to Wells and run in Mendip colours?

Private Baxter said:

What I can't understand though is why some buses get numerous repaints, whilst others get nothing. More buses needed for Discover? No problem, get 66726 repainted! Why not 66728, or 66938 which need it a lot more. I wonder if and when 66731 returns, it will transfer to Wells and run in Mendip colours?

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In terms of 66726, probably because it was refurbished when it gained heritage livery.

It was perhaps more odd when the needed six for the Blue 5 but chose 66881-4 and 66722/7, of which the latter were refurbished.

I do wonder if 66937-43/56 and those 667** excluding 66722/7 were lined up to move elsewhere but the 694** are now needed in Leicester.

TheGrandWazoo said:

In terms of 66726, probably because it was refurbished when it gained heritage livery.

It was perhaps more odd when the needed six for the Blue 5 but chose 66881-4 and 66722/7, of which the latter were refurbished.

I do wonder if 66937-43/56 and those 667** excluding 66722/7 were lined up to move elsewhere but the 694** are now needed in Leicester.

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You're right, of the six selected for the 5, only one (66722) was in need of repaint, though as you say the opportunity was taken to refurbish the pair, which was needed.

You have often speculated that they have been holding fire with barbie ones due to.a possible move, but whether that was ever the plan, doesn't seem to have happened. They seem quite content working the 37, and acting as spare for discover routes though I wonder what the plan is for them

Private Baxter said:

You're right, of the six selected for the 5, only one (66722) was in need of repaint, though as you say the opportunity was taken to refurbish the pair, which was needed.

You have often speculated that they have been holding fire with barbie ones due to.a possible move, but whether that was ever the plan, doesn't seem to have happened. They seem quite content working the 37, and acting as spare for discover routes though I wonder what the plan is for them

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A mere hypothesis as I can’t work out what the plan is!

And we still have the rumoured move of the long StreetLites to Leicester too.

Private Baxter said:

What I can't understand though is why some buses get numerous repaints, whilst others get nothing. More buses needed for Discover? No problem, get 66726 repainted! Why not 66728, or 66938 which need it a lot more. I wonder if and when 66731 returns, it will transfer to Wells and run in Mendip colours?

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I'm wondering now if 66731 is going to be repaired. It doesn't appear to have been touched since it was towed in after its accident. A week ago it was still at the end of Weston Island.

Whiteway215 said:

I'm wondering now if 66731 is going to be repaired. It doesn't appear to have been touched since it was towed in after its accident. A week ago it was still at the end of Weston Island.

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Interesting nothing has so far been done with it. Perhaps not a priority, or maybe awaiting a decision. I vaguely remember the photo post accident, and though seemingly not as bad as 66721 following its accident, still might have been to the extent where repair costs are being weighed.

Just spotted this - lessons learned clearly.

“First West of England’s popular Q Buster buses will return to Bristol this September following a £600,000 investment by the company to keep Bristol moving.

Some twenty extra vehicles, about the same number as during the pilot last December, will be ready to step in on the busiest cross-city routes that suffer from delays caused by sheer weight of traffic. They will be deployed by First’s Control Centre where delay hotspots are identified on the routes, particularly during peak travel times.

The vehicles will be used wherever they are needed but including services 1 and 2 (Cribbs Causeway to Broomhill and Stockwood) and 75 and 76 (Cribbs Causeway to Hengrove) which are amongst the busiest and often suffer from gaps in the network as they get held up crossing the city. Each route will have dedicated supervisors on the street on weekdays from 7am through to 8pm, equipped with tablet computers connected to the Control Centre so they can quickly identify problem hotspots and call up support.

The vehicles will be brought in from other parts of the country and extra drivers will also be deployed into the operation.

First West of England Managing Director James Freeman said:

“Our Q Buster buses were a popular and effective addition to the network in the last weeks leading up to Christmas last year as they meant that we could quickly plug any gaps in our timetable caused by traffic congestion, particularly at busy times.



“We’re expecting Bristol’s traffic problems to be worse than ever this Autumn, so we’re planning ahead and investing in the service. We’re bringing the Q Busters back much earlier in the season, starting in September so that we can tackle the big spike in road traffic that we know comes in as the autumn school and University terms set in.



“Buses have a vital role to play in tackling Bristol’s traffic congestion, by giving people a viable and reliable alternative to getting in their car. That’s why we’re making this significant investment to help our customers can get the sort of service they rightly expect from a system that runs smoothly.”



“This is very expensive to do but we think it is well worth it to improve the regularity of services in the city.”

Up to twenty buses and the extra supervision were introduced in December last year in the approach to Christmas. This enhanced investment will come to the city three months earlier this year, in order to avoid the effects of the added congestion after the summer holidays, which has a detrimental effect on the city’s bus service.”

That might explain the York b7s

Excellent news about the Bristol Q Busters from this September.
I wonder if plans are taking shape to deal with the Bath University services to avoid last year's situation?
Could the two York buses 32222/3 be the start of acquiring the extra buses needed?

spw24 said:

That might explain the York b7s

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Sorry Steve I just duplicated your thoughts!

Due to the Premier Inn fire on Cribbs Causeway. The 1,2,3and 4 are terminating at Crow Lane. With Bristol Uni Buses doing shuttles from Henbury to Cribbs Causeway via Southmead and Filton.

The Bristol Q Busters, I wonder if First Leeds's 36217 will make the journey again? Quite a sight seeing that roaming the street of Bristol in December last year. Hopefully if Halifax has anything spare they could send one of the Zest503 B7's? down.

NorthernSpirit said:

The Bristol Q Busters, I wonder if First Leeds's 36217 will make the journey again? Quite a sight seeing that roaming the street of Bristol in December last year. Hopefully if Halifax has anything spare they could send one of the Zest503 B7's? down.

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Seeing as 36216-20 have moved to First Essex at Hadleigh, I’d suggest not

How do Q Busters work in relation to the registering of the service with the traffic commissioner?

Andyh82 said:

How do Q Busters work in relation to the registering of the service with the traffic commissioner?

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Not an issue as it’s a way of ensuring the registration is complied with. Think certain ones were stationed at Cribbs

Loads of short-running at the northern end of Services 1, 2, 3, 4 & 76 in Bristol this afternoon and this evening due to a large fire in a hotel which has closed the A4018 between the junction of Wyck Beck Road and Station Road (Henbury) and Lysander Road. Noted this evening at Blackboy Hill Top between 7:30pm and 7:50pm:

- Enviro400 MMC 33961 to Henbury (Tormarton Crescent) on Service 1
- Enviro400 MMC 33972 to Southmead (Arnside Road) on Service 2
- B7TL / Wright Gemini 32331 to Henbury (Tormarton Crescent) on Service 3
- ALX400 32289 showing to Henbury (Crow Lane) on Service 4

First's website, however, says that the 2 is going to Henbury (Crow Lane) and the 4 to Wyck Beck Road which would be the stop after Crow Lane on that route. Service 76 is normal route to Southmead (Arnside Road) and then diverting via. Filton. First time I think I have seen Enviro400 MMCs signed for short running at the northern end. Thankfully no injuries have been caused by the fire. Service 76 will not run between Henbury and Cribbs Causeway tonight and no info yet as to the state of play when service resumes tomorrow morning.

Dave

One of the purple ALX400s, 32006 I think has had an outing from Weston to Bristol each day so far this week. Parked on the back wall in the Bus Station to act as a spare vehicle for the Excel services should it be needed due to the Extinction Rebellion protests.

D2007wsm said:

One of the purple ALX400s, 32006 I think has had an outing from Weston to Bristol each day so far this week. Parked on the back wall in the Bus Station to act as a spare vehicle for the Excel services should it be needed due to the Extinction Rebellion protests.

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32006 is one of the closed top Coasters so maybe 32003 or 32007 at Bristol as 32014 on service 20.