With the GBBN
GBBN in the Yate / Sodbury area still awaiting completion.
Briefly the GBBN project was to provide bus shelters and RTI displays at each stop on the selected routes of which the then 342 Bristol - Chipping Sodbury was one such route.
I regularly attended the South Gloucestershire Councils Transport Forums held at the Kingswood Council Chamber and moaned about all the bus shelters erected ( flat pack IKEA type assembled in a contractors yard and delivery to site by lorry ) and not connected to an electricty supply despite all the new shelters coming equipped with an electrical box. Usual council foboff, Western Power were contracted to connect and sub-contracted to two divisions, North and South, of which one division would connect and then issue electrical safety certificate whilst other division required certificate before working to connect. I also raised the lack of power to a particular shelter which had the RTI display installed. Inaction from South Gloucestershire Council for at least 3 years until I raised the matter with a Dodington Parish Concil member who raised it at one of their monthly meetings who in turn took it up with SGC who said it was all fine and dandy and was probably a blown fuse till they sent out an electrician who reported back that it wasn't connected to the power supply. Connection was made.
Wearing another hat, I was also a member of the Friends of Yate Station group.
With the inception of WECA, the last meeting of the SG Transport Forum in 2017 was advised that future forums would be hosted by WECA. I attended one at Keynsham which was hi-jacked by protesters against the A4 to A37 link route and JF was given very little time to talk bus services.
Due to the lack of interest in public transport by WECA the Friends of Yate Station agreed to morph the group into The Yate and Surrounding Area Transport Forum. At the reinvigorated groups first meeting in 2018 I raised the saga about the unconnected RTI display as detailed above and then came a revelation that left me gobsmacked. A Dodington Parish Councillor addressed me and the meeting with a statement that SGC were offered a job lot of bus shelters and took up the offer for the GBBN project. He continued to state that at one location a 2 panel shelter was installed where a 3 panel shelter was specified and SGC refused to remove the shelter and install a correctly specified one but would ensure one that conforms to the specified size in the GBBN paperwork.
My brain worked overtime as I imagined a yellow Robin Reliant pulling up at the Badminton Road offices and the occupants piping into the said offices offering a van load of flat pack bus shelters cheep at £250, got 4 more similar loads at the yard, take all 5 loads and there yours for a grand.
Then there was another revelation to come. A member of the Yate forum group addressing me stated that the reason for the incompletion of the GBBN project in South Gloucestershire Councils area is because the Council Officer in charge of the project was retiring and to clear his decks signed project completed certificates and the person taking over from the retiree waves these completion notes and refuses to have any dialogue on the subject. As for GBBN Mk 2, don't hold your breath of SGC has any involvement.
Sorry for the long post but had to vent my frustrations on this subject and it might spur me on to taking the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman.
I was going to summarise from the bits I gathered at the time and since but firstly with what you were saying, I think the problem with the GBBN is it worked well within the confines of Bristol City Council area but this is because at that time it was lead by Bristol city council, and under the old scheme that was limited power over the other areas. With this new version as it comes from WECA I have more confidence there will be changes in South Glos ect as they do have more control over delivering the project.
The whole thing started off the back of the collapse of the Bristol Supertram project in 2004. So after that BCC decided along with First to introduce "Showcase Routes" the first of these were routes 75/76 which basically involved new buses, new bus stop flags, raised curbs and real time screen thingys retrofitted to old stops (Best place to see this is the North Bound Ashley Down Road stop on Gloucester Road as it is still in the condition it was then, a few other bits were added but it really wasn't great, it was just trying to do a bit of a "tart up" with minimal cost, but never the less it was considered successful and onwards the project went.
The second route chosen was the 40's Church Road A420/431 corridors which in my eyes was the first route of the GBBN but it never really was included in the scheme officially. So this included new buses, for the first time new shelters, built out stops, real time, bus lanes, bus priorities, rebuilding of Old Market. I think the split we saw in the 41/42/43 into 40/41/42/43 was part of this scheme, but with this the changes were limited to Bristol, The Kingswood one way system and changes being part of a different scheme.
Then there was the official GBBN 10 routes, which weren't delivered in order but I will list the routes as they were planned.
1) M32 - Was supposed to deliver a new Park & Ride service but all that came of it was the new section of bus lane on the inbound M32, I think in the end they let further changes to Metrobus scheme.
2) A4018 - Involved changes from College Green through to Westbury Village, new buses, new stops, Whiteladies getting redone, the route from Westbury - Cribbs got delayed due to lack of funding, with the scheme (Westbury - Henbury) finally due to go ahead later this year/early next year!
3) A4 - Bristol - Bath, as we know the X39 got new buses, not the best but nevertheless new/newer anyway! Bath Road got redone, but as with other schemes the section outside of Bristol City Council area only saw limited if any improvements, which was the schemes biggest downfall in my opinion.
4) 73 Route - other than a few changes along Filton Avenue, I'm not quite sure if anything really happened on this route, with most changes then either covered by other South Glos schemes (Abbey Wood and Highwood Road) the section through Bradley Stoke then became part of Metrobus!
5) A432 - Bristol - Chipping Sodbury - We got quite big changes up Fishponds Road, new buses for the 48/49. But again very few/no changes past the Bristol City Council boundary!
6) A37 - Bristol - Midsomer Norton - Again the A37 in Bristol saw some improvements, but that was about it for the scheme itself!
7) Bristol Parkway - U.W.E - Emersons Green - Here nothing happened and the plans became part of Metrobus, with said route still awaiting completion.
8) A370 - Bristol - Weston, services increased between Bristol and Weston,
9) A369 - Bristol - Portishead, services increased Bristol to Portishead.
The main bit from these schemes were changes on Hotwells Road.
10) Bath - Radstock - I think there were some changes around Odd Down, but nothing much else.
Since then we had the Metrobus scheme, which again was delivered but watered down from the original ideas, but we finally got improvements through Bradley Stoke, Parkway, Emersons Green as well as a section of the original Showcase route through Bedminster upgraded, mainly I think it was an excuse to build 2 new roads and rebuild Bristol City Centre. If you really look at it M2, takes longer than the 903 did, yes it has provided a better service along Cumberland Road, but now as mentioned we are in a situation where most of the time the bus is diverted! M3 was in a bizare situation where it replaced the X48, then was cut down to half hourly now is back at every 10 mins, but other than a few stops and a bit of bus lane along the Ring Road, nothing really new there! M1 reintroduced faster links from Hengrove - Town that were lost when the 75A was withdrawn. North it provided a new M32 bus junction that shaves a few minutes off the trip to U.W.E, then a new route through Stoke Gifford/Bradley Stoke which all of a sudden is now economical again considering the X73 which ran a similar route could never make work. But overall a lot of money for a few improvements (Few good). Most could have been provided for a fraction of the cost!
Then we saw a plan for new Metrobus routes, like Bristol - Bath which now seems to have quietly been superseded by the Bristol Transport Corridors plan. Which seems to be a cut down version again or a GBBN 2 if you will (Another scheme briefly mentioned around the time of Metrobus but sure enough faded away!) And lets not forget the Bus Deal!
Now the main focus of this seems to be to stop buses terminating in Bristol City Centre to Improve cycling measures and finish a few bus stop upgrades that were already being done!
1) Route 2 - We have just seen the 2A introduced which I believe is part of this Scheme, which goes against the last idea of splitting the 1 and 2. There are a few proposed changes but really these are quite minor things.
2) Route 75/76 - This in my view will be the biggest change to finally upgrade the route to the standard of the GBBN, although most sections have been upgraded as part of ongoing works, but there are some shelters that still need doing and a lot of stops that need better bases at stops, if anyone has seen the Muller Road Top Southbound stop the road is in an awful condition, where the stop doesn't had a proper base. But otherwise most likely a few upgrades in places. We could see more services from Filton - Bedminster like we have done recently.
3) Route 349 - This might include the idea of Gas buses for Keynsham and a proper update of stops in Keynsham, might also include changes to the Park & Ride. Otherwise what other changes can be made to the A4 from Bristol to Keynsham? Only odd minor changes in places, that were never done as part of the original scheme.
4) Route 48/49 - Hopefully some changes in Downend/Mangotsfield that were left out of the original scheme. Same again what changes can be made along Fishponds Road?
5) Route 17/24/90 - This is an odd one, we know there are changes on Muller Road planned, otherwise we could see some improvements across the 17 route from Fishponds/Kingswood, I seriously think we could see a few new routes Hengrove - Bedminster - Centre - Eastville - Kingswood/Southmead routes. Basically something to stop the 90 needing to terminate in town and to provide more buses along Muller Road/Fishponds Road.
6) M32 - I believe this idea is finally a Park & Ride on the M32 or by then probably an A road! As Highways England have said if you want a Park & Ride on the M32 it will have to be A) Downgraded and B) responsibility for it passing to the Council, which could be a costly problem at Eastville!
7) A370 - Some improvements enroute to Weston. Not sure what else route wise could be done.
8) A4 and A420 - Again an odd choice! Almost like they want to link up the 43 to the Portway Park & Ride.
