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

[CD]

.

Off topic - not heard from our South Somerset posters (Ron and Mike). Hope they're OK and their relative silence is a reflection of stability in the area

GW, yes Mike and I are fine, thanks for asking.
Mike has been concentrating on his favourite area Stagecoach in Devon recently.
I have been mostly local catching up on fleet additions to South West Coaches and Nippybus.
Interesting times on BoS 54/77 as any type of single decker can turn up from a Solo to coaches 23012/14.
FHD locally, 53054 has returned after being away for repaint since last year! It is as 53057 in urban and still with a red roof.
B7RLEs 69211 and ex Bath 66732 have been operating on 58, but 66732 has proved rather unreliable and spends much of its time under repair.
All the Solos are in service except 53110 which is currently in Weymouth.
Darts 42949/50/52 working in Yeovil, with 42953/54 in Weymouth. 42951 is long time VOR.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

GW, yes Mike and I are fine, thanks for asking.
Mike has been concentrating on his favourite area Stagecoach in Devon recently.
I have been mostly local catching up on fleet additions to South West Coaches and Nippybus.
Interesting times on BoS 54/77 as any type of single decker can turn up from a Solo to coaches 23012/14.
FHD locally, 53054 has returned after being away for repaint since last year! It is as 53057 in urban and still with a red roof.
B7RLEs 69211 and ex Bath 66732 have been operating on 58, but 66732 has proved rather unreliable and spends much of its time under repair.
All the Solos are in service except 53110 which is currently in Weymouth.
Darts 42949/50/52 working in Yeovil, with 42953/54 in Weymouth. 42951 is long time VOR.

Good to hear you're both well - I guess there's a bit going on with Stagecoach Devon with the Exeter and Exmouth goings on.

Yeovil doesn't seem to have much luck with it's cascades. Some of those Darts have proved a bit troublesome (oddly) as have those ex Slough Solos. There was some talk of the 58 getting something larger (which I think was an inference of 65724-6) and imagine that the B7RLEs are quite pleasant on there; bit different to my first trip on there which I think was some ex Provincial Iveco Turbo Daily!!!

As for the 54/55/77 workings, they seem to get a decent variety of fleet! I wouldn't mind an Irizar for a spin on the 55; be more comfortable than 62183 I had last time

 

[Class 33]

When are we getting news of the Bristol changes then? Wasn't last week, so thought it would be definitely this week! Unless there are in fact no changes atall to Bristol services this September this year.

 

[Colly405]

When are we getting news of the Bristol changes then? Wasn't last week, so thought it would be definitely this week! Unless there are in fact no changes atall to Bristol services this September this year.

I imagine that they will be on VOSA over the next few days - VOSA seem to be v busy posting changes this week, so they may well have a load of 4th Sept ones still to go through. To my knowledge there must be changes going through for at least the 48A and X74 (not least as the X74 current Traveline tt finishes 3rd Sept and there is nothign beyond that showing!), so if there's these then there may well be more - who knows!

 

[henairs]

Good to hear you're both well - I guess there's a bit going on with Stagecoach Devon with the Exeter and Exmouth goings on.

Yeovil doesn't seem to have much luck with it's cascades. Some of those Darts have proved a bit troublesome (oddly) as have those ex Slough Solos. There was some talk of the 58 getting something larger (which I think was an inference of 65724-6) and imagine that the B7RLEs are quite pleasant on there; bit different to my first trip on there which I think was some ex Provincial Iveco Turbo Daily!!!

As for the 54/55/77 workings, they seem to get a decent variety of fleet! I wouldn't mind an Irizar for a spin on the 55; be more comfortable than 62183 I had last time

Hi Wazoo, just read your post this evening. I've been on holiday near Exmouth the past week so been catching up on routes down there.
As we were staying at Sandy Bay camp the bus into town was partial open-top Trident 17701 one of the oldest examples in the local fleet being a 52 reg.
This only runs up to 19 03 from Exmouth but there is an evening 99e route which runs up to 22 50 Exmouth as far as Rodney Close which is just down the road from the camp so an easy stroll off up to 10 mins dependent on location on the camp. This working is a locally based Solo, 47102 being on it when we rode it after a day over the Exe at Dawlish.
This gave us a run back down from Coutess Weir to Exmouth on the Gold 57 route. Also the Wi-Fi works well along the route.
Do like a trip to Devon as the scenery is well worth the journey on its own but with comfortable services as well makes for an excellent day out or holiday destination. Cheers Mike R

 

[swifty]

Bath Norton will be the following

171 - Bath - Peasedown Circle Bath (EVERY HOUR)
172 - Bath - Farrington Gurney via Paulton (Every 30 mins)
173 - Bath - Wells (As current but extra evening busses / sundays)
174 - Bath - Wells (As current gaining some later journeys to get busses to wells and also sundays)
175 - Wells - Shepton (As current 161 but sundays replaced by 174)
178 - Radstock - Bristol ( Run by Bristol not serving tescos or the estates in keynsham)

Expect some interesting changes to the services running around keynsham - bristol also all the bath stuff is very up in the air i have been led to believe that the whole city network is being revamped and changed

So it seems the 37 is also going to be diverted, via Keynsham and serving the new Somerdale development and the town. Anyone between Bath and Willsbridge will now need to use the 19 and transfer across to the 42/44/45.

 

[DaveHarries]

So it seems the 37 is also going to be diverted, via Keynsham and serving the new Somerdale development and the town. Anyone between Bath and Willsbridge will now need to use the 19 and transfer across to the 42/44/45.

Where did you hear that from, OOI?

Dave

 

[CD]

From 21st July for 5 days excluding weekends the A371 is closed at Croscombe.
So an interesting diversion between Wells and Shepton for 161/174.

 

[Whiteway215]

Today's VOSA Bus Service Registrations for the Western Region run to 82 entries for today. For First S&A theirs can be summarised as follows:

RT = Changes to Route
TT = Changes to Timetable
SP = Changes to Stopping Places

1 Bath (Upper Weston - Bus Station) (RT, SP, TT)
2 Bath (Combe Down - Bus Station) (RT, TT)
21 Newbridge Park & Ride (TT)
31 Lansdown Park & Ride (TT)
39/X39 Bath - Bristol (RT, TT)
41 Odd Down Park & Ride (TT)
175 Wells - Shepton Mallet (RT, SP, TT) (was Bath - PSJ which becomes 171)
179 Bath - Writhlington (RT, TT)

The changes to the 39/X39 will be down to feedback arising from the consultation which took place earlier this year but noticeable is the omission of Service 38 from that registration as I have seen it as 38/39/X39 in the past.

Also, as has already been said, the registration for the 175 is to allow it to replace the 161: the old 175 as run by Somerbus between Bath and Peasdown St. John will become Service 171 (which used to be Wells - Wookey IIRC).

I reckon there will be more registrations to come from First S&A as well as some from First Bristol who don't appear today.

HTIOI,
Dave

Is this VOSA not quite getting the facts correct? The present FSA Bath service 1 is Upper Weston-Bus Station-Combe Down. Bath service 2 is Ensleigh-Bus Station-Bath Riverside and is a BANES tendered service operated by CT Coaches I believe.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Is this VOSA not quite getting the facts correct? The present FSA Bath service 1 is Upper Weston-Bus Station-Combe Down. Bath service 2 is Ensleigh-Bus Station-Bath Riverside and is a BANES tendered service operated by CT Coaches I believe.

Hmmm...wonder if the 1 is being split.

Was the 2 to Ensleigh going to be withdrawn with the 31 stopping on Landsdown Hill, or was that just a proposal being floated?

 

[pompeyfan]

The last time I spoke to anyone from Hoeford I was told that the plan was that 69537-9 would stay at Hoeford to provide support for the E200MMC 11.5m, with the rest being split between Southampton and Weymouth (for the 10, although that could have changed now because of the strike action).

 

[baza585]

The last time I spoke to anyone from Hoeford I was told that the plan was that 69537-9 would stay at Hoeford to provide support for the E200MMC 11.5m, with the rest being split between Southampton and Weymouth (for the 10, although that could have changed now because of the strike action).

Makes a lot of sense PF. I fail to see why FHD management would transfer their newest B7BLEs out to Wells or anywhere else, when they have much older stock to get rid of first.

Personally I hoped some might stay at Hoeford to see off the worst of the Scanias and/or Ciraros, or make the 1/3 circuit all full size buses and release some Streetlites from Hoeford to Southampton. They are also potential replacements for the W reg Tridents which must surely go this year. Alternatively, maybe release newer Solos from Hoeford to replace the older ones around FHD, particularly in Dorset, though I guess this may happen via cascade from Weymouth if the Eclipse B7BLEs do end up on the 10.

There are of course some B7BLEs to redeploy from Kernow when their new deckers arrive. Maybe theses B7s will end up in FSA instead!

 

[matt_splat]

first are renumbering in bath

 

[carlberry]

first are renumbering in bath

It's always good to do that. Theres no benefit in having the customers knowing what your product is and building loyalty to it!

 

[freetoview33]

first are renumbering in bath

more details?

 

[matt_splat]

more details?

other then it sounds like a lot of splitting of routes im not fully sure so will have to wait and see

new tt's for the 82 in bristol are up it goes back to running Southmead to Yate

 

[freetoview33]

Some more changes 3rd September

1/2 - Bristol - Timetable change, no frequency change just a total overhaul of weekday times.

6/7 - Bristol - Timetable Change, One late night number 6 withdrawn, Sunday evening the 6 and 7 will now run hourly, (Not 30 min 6 like now)

8/9 - Bristol - Instead of running a 53A from Hengrove - Temple Meads, early/late trips on 8/9 start back at Hengrove, an additional 8 leaving Temple Meads at midnight.
The 9 is reduced to half hourly but the 8 is increased to every 10 mins.

17 - Bristol - ????

24 - Bristol - Minor time changes to a few early trips.

36 - Bristol - Change in City Centre stop to CW instead of BB

44/45 - Bristol - From what I can tell changes to late trips with no 45's running but an extra 44.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
48/48A/49 - Bristol - Not sure but guess mainly the 48A going back to every 10 mins.

73 - Bristol - Being extended to Start back from Temple Meads again, still every 15 mins. and the 2am trip to Cribbs has been removed.

82 - Bristol - As Said cut back to run Southmead - Yate. And an increase in Sunday frequency to hourly.

X6/X6A - Bristol - X6 reduced to Hourly, new service X6A Running hourly Bristol - Nailsea express, then to Clevedon and onto terminate at Yatton! Guess this replaces the 6.

X8/X9 - Bristol - Minor timetable changes.

X74 - Bristol - Short U.W.E trips back.

 

[Class 33]

Some more changes 3rd September

8/9 - Bristol - Instead of running a 53A from Hengrove - Temple Meads, early/late trips on 8/9 start back at Hengrove, an additional 8 leaving Temple Meads at midnight.
The 9 is reduced to half hourly but the 8 is increased to every 10 mins.

9 is reduced to half hourly and the 8 increased to every 10 minutes? This can't be right surely? Where's the logic in that?

Thought there would have been significant changes and improvments to the 8 & 9 as a result of the recent consultation!

 

[DS85]

So this means most of Clevedon will now only have an hourly service to Bristol. Yet Nailsea which is smaller gets 5 buses an hour seems a bit unfair!

 

[DaveHarries]

Some more changes 3rd September

1/2 - Bristol - Timetable change, no frequency change just a total overhaul of weekday times.

6/7 - Bristol - Timetable Change, One late night number 6 withdrawn, Sunday evening the 6 and 7 will now run hourly, (Not 30 min 6 like now)

8/9 - Bristol - Instead of running a 53A from Hengrove - Temple Meads, early/late trips on 8/9 start back at Hengrove, an additional 8 leaving Temple Meads at midnight.
The 9 is reduced to half hourly but the 8 is increased to every 10 mins.

17 - Bristol - ????

24 - Bristol - Minor time changes to a few early trips.

36 - Bristol - Change in City Centre stop to CW instead of BB

44/45 - Bristol - From what I can tell changes to late trips with no 45's running but an extra 44.

48/48A/49 - Bristol - Not sure but guess mainly the 48A going back to every 10 mins.

73 - Bristol - Being extended to Start back from Temple Meads again, still every 15 mins. and the 2am trip to Cribbs has been removed.

82 - Bristol - As Said cut back to run Southmead - Yate. And an increase in Sunday frequency to hourly.

X6/X6A - Bristol - X6 reduced to Hourly, new service X6A Running hourly Bristol - Nailsea express, then to Clevedon and onto terminate at Yatton! Guess this replaces the 6.

X8/X9 - Bristol - Minor timetable changes.

X74 - Bristol - Short U.W.E trips back.

This will only be some of them. In terms of consultations we wait and see what will happen to the 39/X39: a registration for changes to the route and timetable appeared in the VOSA registrations earlier this week but Service 38 did not appear in the entry.

In terms of South Gloucestershire it is being suggested that Stagecoach West have picked up Services 81 (Yate - Kingswood, currently a First route) and 620 (Yate - Bath, currently a Wessex Connect route) both on tender. I have also heard that Stagecoach West have picked up at least one other route, possibly two, in South Gloucestershire, also in the Yate area. I can't help wondering if Stagecoach may eventually outstation somewhere near Yate.

Dave

 

[freetoview33]

9 is reduced to half hourly and the 8 increased to every 10 minutes? This can't be right surely? Where's the logic in that?

Thought there would have been significant changes and improvments to the 8 & 9 as a result of the recent consultation!

Yup sure is right, a bit odd but obviously that's what people wanted, more buses to serve Clifton First rather than Redland.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

So this means most of Clevedon will now only have an hourly service to Bristol. Yet Nailsea which is smaller gets 5 buses an hour seems a bit unfair!

Clevedon will have 2 still.

X6 - Direct as it is now, hourly
X6A - Bristol - Nailsea - Clevedon - Yatton. So almost back to the old ways.!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

This will only be some of them. In terms of consultations we wait and see what will happen to the 39/X39: a registration for changes to the route and timetable appeared in the VOSA registrations earlier this week but Service 38 did not appear in the entry.

In terms of South Gloucestershire it is being suggested that Stagecoach West have picked up Services 81 (Yate - Kingswood, currently a First route) and 620 (Yate - Bath, currently a Wessex Connect route) both on tender. I have also heard that Stagecoach West have picked up at least one other route, possibly two, in South Gloucestershire, also in the Yate area. I can't help wondering if Stagecoach may eventually outstation somewhere near Yate.

Dave

Indeed just not on traveline yet!
And yes this with Stagecoach is interesting, it might make First take on services commercially, in order to get rid of Stagecoach. I wonder if the 82 especially on Sundays is commercial.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
At least they have numbered it the X6A rather than like the X8 was!

 

[ooo]

Looks to me like the 8 & 9 is a route change as well.

 

[freetoview33]

Looks to me like the 8 & 9 is a route change as well.

well spotted!

 

[Private Baxter]

I take it the 53 will then be withdrawn? Good idea anyhow extending the service.

 

[swifty]

In terms of South Gloucestershire it is being suggested that Stagecoach West have picked up Services 81 (Yate - Kingswood, currently a First route) and 620 (Yate - Bath, currently a Wessex Connect route) both on tender. I have also heard that Stagecoach West have picked up at least one other route, possibly two, in South Gloucestershire, also in the Yate area. I can't help wondering if Stagecoach may eventually outstation somewhere near Yate.

I thinks you've got all excited and got your Kingswoods mixed up! Yes they will be running to Kingswood (South Glos) but on the 86 via Emersons. The only suggestion I've seen of Stagecoah running the 81 is from you.

 

[ooo]

well spotted!

It will be a big reduction in service for Cotham combined with Wessex's withdrawal of the 19

 

[THarris123]

Re 8/9 are we sure there won't be some sort of new service out of this? Maybe a 10 that goes every 30 mins from Temple Meads to Redland and back down whiteladies road? Will 50/51 be reduced in frequency too if 8/9 are changing?

 

[Class 33]

Yup sure is right, a bit odd but obviously that's what people wanted, more buses to serve Clifton First rather than Redland.

Well that's crazy in my opinion. So anyone who wants to use the 9 to travel from Temple Meads/Broadmead/Centre to Cotham or Redland, now has just a service only every half hour!! Instead of the current frequency of ever 12 minutes(providing the services are running to time that is!). Unfair, and that is going to cheese a lot of people off! It's bad enough as it is at busy peak times on Monday-Fridays and on Saturday afternoons when traffic can be very heavy, when one can have a very long wait for a 9 and then they're usually packed out. So it's going to be ridiculous now that the service is reduced to just one every half hour!

Also thinking about what effects this will have on people living in Clifton using the 8 & 9. whilst people using the 8 to travel home from Temple Meads/Broadmead/Centre to Clifton and Clifton Village will now have a slight up in freqency from every 12 minutes to every 10 minutes. If they're travelling the opposite way and using the 9 into town or Temple Meads, they will now have a service only every half hour! This is going to cheese a lot of Clifton'ers off who use the 8 to travel to work in the mornings from September, just TWO single decker services per hour! Instead of the current FIVE single decker services per hour, which are probably packed at these times anyway!

Utter utter madness!

 

[THarris123]

Well that's crazy in my opinion. So anyone who wants to use the 9 to travel from Temple Meads/Broadmead/Centre to Cotham or Redland, now has just a service only every half hour!! Instead of the current frequency of ever 12 minutes(providing the services are running to time that is!). Unfair, and that is going to cheese a lot of people off! It's bad enough as it is at busy peak times on Monday-Fridays and on Saturday afternoons when traffic can be very heavy, when one can have a very long wait for a 9 and then they're usually packed out. So it's going to be ridiculous now that the service is reduced to just one every half hour!

Also thinking about what effects this will have on people living in Clifton using the 8 & 9. whilst people using the 8 to travel home from Temple Meads/Broadmead/Centre to Clifton and Clifton Village will now have a slight up in freqency from every 12 minutes to every 10 minutes. If they're travelling the opposite way and using the 9 into town or Temple Meads, they will now have a service only every half hour! This is going to cheese a lot of Clifton'ers off who use the 8 to travel to work in the mornings from September, just TWO single decker services per hour! Instead of the current FIVE single decker services per hour, which are probably packed at these times anyway!

Utter utter madness!

I think you're jumping the gun at the moment - the registrations for Bristol haven't even gone through VOSA yet.

With all these changes, I expect some of the new buses that come in will effectively become extras, rather than replacements (73 - increase in PVR=?)

 

[DaveHarries]

I thinks you've got all excited and got your Kingswoods mixed up! Yes they will be running to Kingswood (South Glos) but on the 86 via Emersons. The only suggestion I've seen of Stagecoah running the 81 is from you.

I may have got my Kingswoods mixed up. However I think I am right in believing that Kingswood, near Bristol, is the one in South Glocucestershire but Kingwood near Wooton-under-Edge is one I have seen referred to as "Kingswood (Glos)".

My comment about the 81 came from a post in the "Stagecoach West/Stagecoach South West/Stagecoach Wales" thread on the Buses & Coaches section of this forum, specifically this post:

Stroud has 4 new acquisitions starting 4th September.

28/29 Will be merged, One will service Minchampton and then down to Tetbury and another will service Nailsworth, Both service will end in Tetbury.

Stroud also has 3 routes in South Gloucestershire. Yate-Bath, Yate-Kingswood, There is one more but i cant remember it off the top of my head but will check tomorrow when im back in Work.

Saying that, no subsequent post mentions the 81. I guess we will have to wait and see: the best form of confirmation would be cancellation of the 81 by First if it comes to it.

On the Bristol front I must admit that I am also surprised by the changes to the 8 and 9. However it seems to me that the 8 will operate through Clifton Village in both directions on that 10 minute frequency. As for the 9 the upper section of this route, between Redland Station and Clifton Down / BBC is also covered by the 72 so it is Cotham which will be worst affected by this.

As for the changes posted by freetoview33 I have had a browse through of the new timetables and picked up on a few changes not mentioned by freetoview33:

2 (Bristol): the night journeys (0030 & 0130 Stockwood - City Centre and 0100 & 0200 City Centre to Stockwood) have been dropped. This surprises me also as I would have thought the late service to Stockwood would do fairly well.

18 (Bristol) is extended to Lyde Green. There is also a new Service 18A which will follow the same route as the 18 from Lyde Green to Shirehampton before operating to Avonmouth. The X18 is dropped.

50 & 51 (Bristol): a new timetable for these routes is now on Traveline. Changes as follows:

Daytime Services:
- Service 50 will terminate at / start from Broadmead (The Horsefair) and will not operate between Broadmead and City Centre (Broad Quay). The terminus and start point on the Horsefair will be the same stop. Frequency to be every 20 minutes.

- Service 51 to continue to operate its present route. Frequency to be 20 minutes.

Evening Services:
- Service 50 will terminate at / start from Broadmead (The Horsefair) as it does in the daytime and will not operate between Broadmead and City Centre (Broad Quay). The terminus and start point on the Horsefair will be the same stop. Frequency to be every 30 minutes.

- Service 51 to continue to operate its present route. Frequency to be 60 minutes.