TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Hengrove is as well known as any other name in the area. Hartcliffe or Whitchurch wouldnt be any more well known outside of Bristol (and less accurate) and 'South Bristol' wouldnt actually help anybody.
I not sure whats wrong with 'Street' as a destination! Glastonbury might be slightly better known as a result of the Pilton pop festival, however Street is the obvious destination from the North. Taunton and Yeovil have been tried in the past but havent survived. Whilst Bristol to Yeovil might sound good and look good on a network map the benefits of a single, reliable service on the Bristol-Street section far out way the complications of sending every other bus, or every 3rd bus, to Yeovil and back.
The Bowerhill services used to go to Devizes but dont produce the traffic to justify the service. Melksham for Bowerhill might be a better destination but, again, Melksham isnt well known outside of the area. TheGrandWazoo has outlined why Bath to Westbury is a none starter because of the train. Badgerline did try it's Swiftlink network and, historically, every major traffic flow from Bristol has had at least one express service introduced but subsequently withdrawn.
Stagecoach do appear to try more things like this, and give them longer, however I doubt they'd actually have achieved anything substantially different with the area. Cheltenham and Gloucester for instance tried an express Cheltenham-Gloucester service that's been dropped and has Forest Green as a destination for several services that people outside the area might realise is a football club but wont actually know where it is.
Well said Carl, and a few other details from the past
In terms of Bowerhill, it is really just an area of Melksham - displays could probably best say Melksham (Bowerhill). The Devizes section (and in fact, it ran past Devizes to the Lavingtons and Easterton was chopped about 2011 (?) to move from a three/four bus cycle to a two bus diagram - sure someone can confirm. The view was the Melksham to Bath was more viable but that there was sufficient time to run to Bowerhill where there was quite a bit of trade and also to serve the new developments being built off the Sandridge road.
However, I think whilst cutting the Easterton bit back made some sense, chopping Devizes then meant a tendered service on that section that Faresaver took on and then combined with their competitive Bath to Melksham route, giving them a guaranteed income and an increased presence on that corridor, so a bit short sighted.
There was a fast version of the Trowbridge to Bath service running via Monkton Farleigh and Sally in the Woods which was the original X4. Problem is that it is can't save enough time to be attractive to passengers vs the train and via missing out Winsley and Limpley Stoke, it misses out two large villages in favour of one small and rather well heeled one.
The old 308 Bristol to Gloucester service died a death too as north of Thornbury, there just wasn't the population to sustain it. I never used the old SN X96 but again, I wonder if there's really the trade to sustain a Bristol to Taunton service