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

[Tommy Walters]

37396 has collided with scaffolding in Oldfield Park on the 1 this lunchtime. (Bath Chronicle)

The trouble with this is it will plague any attempts to get the 1 deckered permanently! The residents of Coronation Avenue are already somewhat reluctant to have deckers on the U2, as shown by the brief period when the U2 went to singles!

 

[carlberry]

SE do you mean SEV service? SEV is due to finish on 14 June with no replacement service atm.

It hasnt served Cribbs for quite a few months.

 

[Whiteway215]

The trouble with this is it will plague any attempts to get the 1 deckered permanently! The residents of Coronation Avenue are already somewhat reluctant to have deckers on the U2, as shown by the brief period when the U2 went to singles!

It is a very tight double corner and apparently it happened as it met a bus coming the other way.

 

[freetoview33]

SE do you mean SEV service? SEV is due to finish on 14 June with no replacement service atm.

It hasnt served Cribbs for quite a few months.

I did mean the Severn Express when it did serve Cribbs Causeway

 

[Tommy Walters]

It is a very tight double corner and apparently it happened as it met a bus coming the other way.

Not only is it very tight, it is very blind as well with all the houses there!

 

[Private Baxter]

At the moment off peak (midday departures) journey times from Cribbs to Town are

SE 25 mins (To Bus Station) When it ran
M1 32 mins (To The Centre)
T2 35 mins (To Bus Station)
1 42 mins (To Horsefair)
75 47 mins (To Broad Quay)
2 49 mins (To Horsefair)
4 52 mins (To Union Street)
3 61 mins (To Union Street)
73 62 mins (To Haymarket)

That's great, thank you very much for the run down! I was very wrong about the 4 then. Although I did suspect the 3 and 73 to be the slowest.

 

[matt_splat]

I liked the First West of England service update for this. The 1 was unable to travel its normal route to Moorland Road and was diverted via Wellsway and Englishcombe Lane. Englishcombe Lane hasn’t seen a bus service since Oct 1980 when the 15/215 City Centre to Whiteway Cemetery (Haycombe) was taken off as part of the Market Analysis Project (MAP) changes at that time.

Englishcombe Lane has had the 768 and i think Bath Bus Companies U6 may have used it as well

 

[Whiteway215]

Englishcombe Lane has had the 768 and i think Bath Bus Companies U6 may have used it as well

You are absolutely correct. Apologies.

 

[cnjb8]

I'm a bit confused, did the Severn Express serve Cribbs to get passengers who were reluctant to pay the toll? Is it because it is not serving Cribbs that it has become unviable to Stagecoach?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I'm a bit confused, did the Severn Express serve Cribbs to get passengers who were reluctant to pay the toll? Is it because it is not serving Cribbs that it has become unviable to Stagecoach?

When First ran it, most journeys served Cribbs save some peak hour runs. That continued when Stagecoach took the route on. As you can imagine, a fair bit of the Cribbs trade are pass holders.

However, the diversion into Cribbs also undermined the reliability of the service, hence why it was rerouted by Stagecoach. However, what has knackered the service is the decline in peak hours, regular fare paying passengers now the tolls have gone.

 

[ValleyLines142]

When First ran it, most journeys served Cribbs save some peak hour runs. That continued when Stagecoach took the route on. As you can imagine, a fair bit of the Cribbs trade are pass holders.

However, the diversion into Cribbs also undermined the reliability of the service, hence why it was rerouted by Stagecoach. However, what has knackered the service is the decline in peak hours, regular fare paying passengers now the tolls have gone.

Didn't travel it on it when Stagecoach took over but when First had it (33488-33490 days) it would be known for the late morning departures from Chepstow to be full.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Didn't travel it on it when Stagecoach took over but when First had it (33488-33490 days) it would be known for the late morning departures from Chepstow to be full.

May have been the case but how often and how much revenue if its mainly concessionary passes. Clearly not enough revenue for it to be sustainable for two businesses.

 

[ValleyLines142]

May have been the case but how often and how much revenue if its mainly concessionary passes. Clearly not enough revenue for it to be sustainable for two businesses.

That's it. Think I was probably the only full fare paying passenger!

 

[Tommy Walters]

And after yesterday's incident the Bath 1 is already back to running E200s!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There are Olympia liveried Enviros at Wells again, (33831/3), having caught 33833 today so I wonder if Bath are trying to get their Uni MMCs back? Meanwhile 33834/7 have been seen in Bath, a few weeks ago now, repainted, though still haven't made their way to Wells for some reason. 33836 is the only repainted 14 reg Enviro at Wells.

Yeah, I was surprised to see 33831 at Farington (near the farm shop) the other day when out on my bike. I think the more pressing move will be the Bristol e400mmcs back to LH (if they haven't gone already). Certainly, the interim timetables, SORN and furloughing of staff, the social distance requirements etc have seen many strange allocations and workings and the B9s hanging on at Wells is just another one of those.

 

[Tommy Walters]

Yeah, I was surprised to see 33831 at Farington (near the farm shop) the other day when out on my bike. I think the more pressing move will be the Bristol e400mmcs back to LH (if they haven't gone already). Certainly, the interim timetables, SORN and furloughing of staff, the social distance requirements etc have seen many strange allocations and workings and the B9s hanging on at Wells is just another one of those.

Aren't the Bristol uni routes run out of Hengrove? With the U1/2 suspended the Uni MMCs as well as 37608/9 are making up the entirety of the 24 allocation at present.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Aren't the Bristol uni routes run out of Hengrove? With the U1/2 suspended the Uni MMCs as well as 37608/9 are making up the entirety of the 24 allocation at present.

They Bristol uni buses are indeed based at Hengrove and are working the 24.

The Bath Uni vehicles have been 376 in the main. I was referring to the shorter wheelbase single door examples of LH from the 1/2 and 48/49 that were working at Wells on the 172-4. With the Bristol services returning to more regular headways (in comparison to the Bath U1), thought the priority might be for the LH vehicles to return home.

 

[cnjb8]

Thank you for the responses

 

[Tommy Walters]

They Bristol uni buses are indeed based at Hengrove and are working the 24.

The Bath Uni vehicles have been 376 in the main. I was referring to the shorter wheelbase single door examples of LH from the 1/2 and 48/49 that were working at Wells on the 172-4. With the Bristol services returning to more regular headways (in comparison to the Bath U1), thought the priority might be for the LH vehicles to return home.

My fault, I completely misread that post . Seems according to bustimes that they've all gone back to LH now. 33926 is the only one that hasn't tracked on a Bristol route as of yet. Having said that, lx12ddo observed two of the 65-plates in Bath depot on Sunday, so the move has been very recent!

Note that the tracker is back up to normal now, with all routes in all areas showing again!

 

[Tommy Walters]

The new 39/X39 timetable from the 14th of June shows that there will be an X39 every 15 minutes as normal and there will also be a 39 running only from Hicks Gate to Bristol every 15 minutes throughout the daytime too.

The timetable suggests that these 39s will (surprisingly) still be run out of Bath depot, as they all start/end their day at the Globe, running light to/from the depot! At least it might put the entire Aquae allocation to good use! I'm surprised though that the shorts to/from Hicks Gate aren't numbered 349 actually!

 

[Tommy Walters]

One more tracker spot: 36814 is now down in Hengrove alongside sister 823. This means all the original Scanias have now left LH!

 

[Buses in Bath]

N.A.T. group have announced they will be taking over the Severn Express from the 15th of June. The route will go through Cribbs Causeway and interestingly Clifton Down as well. Heres the timetable:

https://www.natgroup.co.uk/media/2090/x7-final-timetable.pdf

 

[carlberry]

N.A.T. group have announced they will be taking over the Severn Express from the 15th of June. The route will go through Cribbs Causeway and interestingly Clifton Down as well. Heres the timetable:

https://www.natgroup.co.uk/media/2090/x7-final-timetable.pdf

If road traffic goes back to it's previous levels it'll suffer. And it's good to see to x7s in the bus station again (assuming they're actually going in and not stopping on the road outside). I cant see why they're so insistant on an hourly frequency (off peak) on a service that loses money, every 90 minutes would make it more reliable or every two hours would reduce costs (same PVR however).

 

[matt_splat]

X5 Countdown

Saturday 13th June 2020 will see Stagecoach West depart from North Somerset for the final time of the current era as their stint operating the X5 service between Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Portis…

citistar.wordpress.com

interesting read regarding the X5

 

[freetoview33]

X5 Countdown

Saturday 13th June 2020 will see Stagecoach West depart from North Somerset for the final time of the current era as their stint operating the X5 service between Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Portis…

citistar.wordpress.com

interesting read regarding the X5

It is although as far as I knew the X3X didn't have any proposed stops in Avonmouth (So hardly linking Avonmouth and Portishead as said, and I would guess that NSC council were more meaning the industrial part of Avonmouth and not just the Village and Portway Park & Ride!

 

[freetoview33]

Reported on Facebook 35131 and 35137 have moved from Olive Grove to Hengrove!

 

[D2007wsm]

It is although as far as I knew the X3X didn't have any proposed stops in Avonmouth (So hardly linking Avonmouth and Portishead as said, and I would guess that NSC council were more meaning the industrial part of Avonmouth and not just the Village and Portway Park & Ride!

When the X3x is introduced, it’ll run non-stop from Portbury footbridge until the first stop in Hotwells, the same as the X1x.

 

[freetoview33]

Yeah I found the original April timetable and map in the end.

 

[M803UYA]

X5 Countdown

Saturday 13th June 2020 will see Stagecoach West depart from North Somerset for the final time of the current era as their stint operating the X5 service between Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Portis…

citistar.wordpress.com

interesting read regarding the X5

It is interesting, given the interest Andy has shown in trying to replace the X5 - shame for him NSC aren't interested. I guess, like the blog post suggests, that having a small operator looking to replace the route doesn't fit in with the narrative 'that the commercial operators aren't able to replace the service'....

 

[Robertj21a]

Reported on Facebook 35131 and 35137 have moved from Olive Grove to Hengrove!

These are two of the six that First Leicester was asked to repair when Sheffield couldn't cope.