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

TheGrandWazoo

TheGrandWazoo

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NorthernSpirit said:
I've seen worse, it'll buff out all it needs is a few replacement windows, the roof being bent back into shape and the tree defender rebolting to the roof and its fresh for service again. In all seriousness you would have though that by now Network Rail would have enlarged the bridge so that there aren't more deroofings at Nailsea and Backwell.
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Unfortunately, that bridge is on 12'6 high whereas standard height clearance is 16'3 so digging down a bit just isn't possible. They could, of course, do a full replacement but that would cost many, many million pounds. It just isn't worth the money to do so.
 
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carlberry

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NorthernSpirit said:
I've seen worse, it'll buff out all it needs is a few replacement windows, the roof being bent back into shape and the tree defender rebolting to the roof and its fresh for service again. In all seriousness you would have though that by now Network Rail would have enlarged the bridge so that there aren't more deroofings at Nailsea and Backwell.
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I suspect Network Rail dont really care. The bridge looks substancial enough to take the hits without major issues. Do they charge the vehicle owner if they have to inspect the damage?
 
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freetoview33

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NorthernSpirit said:
I've seen worse, it'll buff out all it needs is a few replacement windows, the roof being bent back into shape and the tree defender rebolting to the roof and its fresh for service again. In all seriousness you would have though that by now Network Rail would have enlarged the bridge so that there aren't more deroofings at Nailsea and Backwell.
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No one wants to spend money on it. Network rail won't as it no longer causes major disruption to the railway. Would be down to North Somerset Council.
 
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Dai Corner

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freetoview33 said:
You are right Network Rail don't care.
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I lived in the immediate area in the 1970s and even then there was concern about the volume of traffic on Station Road. The last thing NSC would want is removal of the bottleneck and barrier to HGVs.
 
Streamr_MXP

Streamr_MXP

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Paulton
freetoview33 said:
The extra 172 per hour also gets renumbered 171
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That extra 172 seems rather unnecessary, as I see it empty most of the time. It may however be very useful, if a few journeys a day were extended to Midsomer Norton, if they ran it into September. That would help spread the school loads.

In other terms, I had quite an interesting idea. What if First ran a 170/1 circular service, running Bath - Peasdown - Radstock - Midsomer Norton - Paulton - Farmborough - Timsbury - Bath, sharing operations with Arleen, who run the rather unpopular 175 Bath - Peasdown service. (In a similar way to how the 349 is ran). This could then remove the 179, and I'm sure Timsbury bus users would prefer to be able to use First again to Bath, rather than the over priced minibuses. I remember seeing the 179 packed between High Littleton & Bath, before First lost it, and with CT, it runs empty most the time, and so It would be great to return operations to First, with help from Arleen, and would be a more profitable idea. I'm only thinking like an hourly service or so, if that, just giving an extra bus to help out in the peak times, and in general.
 
M803UYA

M803UYA

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Under my stone....
carlberry said:
I suspect Network Rail dont really care. The bridge looks substancial enough to take the hits without major issues. Do they charge the vehicle owner if they have to inspect the damage?
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Vehicle owner is charged for the cost of inspection, and the delay minutes for affected trains and for the cost of rail replacement vehicles. It can run into thousands pretty quickly.
 
Tommy Walters

Tommy Walters

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Streamr_MXP said:
That extra 172 seems rather unnecessary, as I see it empty most of the time. It may however be very useful, if a few journeys a day were extended to Midsomer Norton, if they ran it into September. That would help spread the school loads.

In other terms, I had quite an interesting idea. What if First ran a 170/1 circular service, running Bath - Peasdown - Radstock - Midsomer Norton - Paulton - Farmborough - Timsbury - Bath, sharing operations with Arleen, who run the rather unpopular 175 Bath - Peasdown service. (In a similar way to how the 349 is ran). This could then remove the 179, and I'm sure Timsbury bus users would prefer to be able to use First again to Bath, rather than the over priced minibuses. I remember seeing the 179 packed between High Littleton & Bath, before First lost it, and with CT, it runs empty most the time, and so It would be great to return operations to First, with help from Arleen, and would be a more profitable idea. I'm only thinking like an hourly service or so, if that, just giving an extra bus to help out in the peak times, and in general.
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That 175 service is really weird. It even extends to Bath uni once a day, but I've never seen anyone use it to get to/from there! Is there a reason why this one trip per day is extended?
 
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Marcus Fryer

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M803UYA said:
Vehicle owner is charged for the cost of inspection, and the delay minutes for affected trains and for the cost of rail replacement vehicles. It can run into thousands pretty quickly.
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According to Railway Gazette International bridge strikes cost Network Rail £13K per incident and £23M annually nationwide.
 
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Marcus Fryer

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47438 had a round trip from Hengrove to Cribbs Causeway on the 75 yesterday afternoon. I saw it arrive at Cribbs. According to the tracker it also had a round trip on the 90 beforehand.
 
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carlberry

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freetoview33 said:
Book my ride is coming.

Trial will start on Brislington p&r
Then some T1 buses that become T1b and 3 in Bath which some will become 3b.

www.bristolpost.co.uk

First Bus launches booking system for space on buses

'Book my bus ride' is being piloted with the Brislington Park & Ride, Bath 3b and Thornbury T1b services
www.bristolpost.co.uk www.bristolpost.co.uk
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I don't understand the need for a new number, other than the hope it'll put other people off from using the services. I'm sure the drivers will be looking forward to all the hassle this is going to cause!

I assume it'll use the ticket machine to active the 'bus full' and tell the driver not to accept anymore passengers, however will they be told how many booked passengers they have at each stop or will they have to stop then ask if any pre-booked passengers are there then refuse to take anybody else? Or two queues at each stop? Given the 15 minutes before departure it's not going to involve a Natex type seating chart!
 
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swifty

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carlberry said:
I don't understand the need for a new number, other than the hope it'll put other people off from using the services. I'm sure the drivers will be looking forward to all the hassle this is going to cause!

I assume it'll use the ticket machine to active the 'bus full' and tell the driver not to accept anymore passengers, however will they be told how many booked passengers they have at each stop or will they have to stop then ask if any pre-booked passengers are there then refuse to take anybody else? Or two queues at each stop? Given the 15 minutes before departure it's not going to involve a Natex type seating chart!
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I can see this working quite well on services like the P&R where everyone boards at one stop in the morning and a few in the evening, but as you say I'm not too convinced it will work very easily on city services for the reasons above.
 
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freetoview33

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swifty said:
I can see this working quite well on services like the P&R where everyone boards at one stop in the morning and a few in the evening, but as you say I'm not too convinced it will work very easily on city services for the reasons above.
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Even then it could delay Park and ride by having to work out who's pre booked and who hasn't
 
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swifty

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freetoview33 said:
Even then it could delay Park and ride by having to work out who's pre booked and who hasn't
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I’m sure it will to begin with but give it a week or so and I really don’t think it will.

All the P&R fleet now have front branding and the advert frames advertise booking.

Set up two separate queues at the car park if needs be, communicate to people getting on that haven’t booked and then load pre booked first at the stops in Bristol.

EDIT - here’s a link to the BBC article with pictures of said branding.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-53530770
 
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WelshBluebird

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So who exactly is expected to stop the bus getting too full before people who have booked jump on? The driver? I can't see that happening!
 
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carlberry

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freetoview33 said:
In the long term I just don't see the point. It's trying to change it from turn up and go to plan in advance and go!
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It's clearly not meant for the long term, just for the period when services are running at 50% capacity. Extra capacity isn't going to arrive so this provides some reassurance for regular users. It's also possible to game it by turning up at a departure point early then deciding to reserve if there's a long queue. I suspect the government cash will run out before the need for a reduced capacity goes away which may leave companies having to ask some serious questions about service provision.
 
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