It would be fantastic if an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) was preserved, put back into their original 4 round table seating and painted in the Blue Pullman livery.

Perhaps one of the ROSCO^» (Rolling Stock Owning Company - about)'s owning them might be generous and gift one to the nations railway preservation movement at the end of their everyday working lives.

They were beautiful trains which I travelled on many times at a 5/- supplement to the normal fare.

They were also the preferred mode of transport when Bristol City F C, under the wings of Harry Dolman, had away games in the F A Cup and the team travelled in their luxury to the city/town of the match. I remember one such match against Leeds United when the 8 car Bristol Pullman was fully booked with fans travelling with the team and enjoying breakfast on the way there and dinner on the way home. I couldn't afford the fare for that trip but I did travel on one of the other four football specials run from the Bristol area to Leeds on that day and it was a fantastic atmosphere, no hint of the violence which seems to mar todays football rivalry. Leeds chairman at the time sent his chauffeured limousine to Leeds station to convey Harry and his wife Marina to Elland Road and the Leeds team coach was provided for the B C players too.

Went on many a Mystery Tour from Bristol which were ushered by a lovely person, a Cyril Saunders, and very popular they were and August Bank Holiday trips had a duplicate running, on one occasion the destination was Eastbourne and there were 4 trains run from Bristol that day.

And since that post just 2 hours ago I had a 5th flyer, guess what, announcing a By-Election.

The Metro Mayor just wants to make it look as if HE was the one that got the South Bristol Ring Road built and have his piccy took flagging off the first MetroBus service to use the road just like he did at the Aztec West roundabout where he was piccyed at the finished works claiming the works were carried out by WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) when in fact it was us, me included, council taxpayers of South Gloucestershire UA that paid for the works although funding from Central Government may have made a contribution. It must be coming up to an election, I had 4 flyers from the Tories through my letterbox last week.

That also included BRITISH ROAD SERVICES in their red liveried vehicles.

Didn't Kellogg's get in on the act too.

Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to produce a conversion lead to convert the electrical supply wiring from an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) power car to that at the other end to match the electrical supply wiring from a class 57.

I am old enough to remember when "square" pin plugs were introduced. My dad produced conversion leads with a round pin plug at one end and a "square" plug at the other when we moved from a council prefab to a new house.

Welcome to the forum Adrian, I am sure the moderators will extend their greetings to you also.

....confused .... yes you are .... there are 3 mayoral zones in Bristol .... you forgot The Lord Mayor besides The Elected Mayor and The Metro Mayor .... but out in the sticks we have our own Town Mayors, Thornbury, Weston-Super-Mare and  Yate to name a few.

To avoid road travel into Bristol City Centre, yes but peak hour travel on the Ring Road would be iffy but the bus lanes on the RR will help.

From what I could also see yesterday from the front top deck of the Y1 to the city centre sleepers and rails in place over new Stapleton Road bridge.

Route m2 was originally intended to be the first route to launch but the continued delays to the completion and testing of the infrastructure led to the m3 route being launched first. It is my belief that First Group lost patience with the Metrobus organisation and threatened to withdraw from the project as they had procured assets (the buses) to operate the services and these were idle in a depot somewhere gathering dust.

The m2 route is the infamous guided bus bit of Metrobus which had its problems and to my mind is a total waste of money, the guided bit that is. At the last minute the Metrobus organisation were oblivious to the requirement for the route to be signed off by the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) or whatever they are known as at present as the route was using "rails". A crude (my) description of the guide rails is a U-shaped steel section turned 90 degrees left or right and affixed to a guided busway equivalent of a rail chair which in turn is rawlbolted to the concrete surface of the busway itself. In my opinion the desired effect of funnelling the vehicles into the guided bits could equally be achieved by the use of curved and straight kerb edging like the rest of the guided bits. The guide rails only exist for about 5 metres at the commencement of each of the guided bits with the "jockey" wheels running against the walls of the both the kerb edgings of the sidewalks and the central reservations at other times.

The m1 route is still not complete of which that is not mentioned in dispatches. A Metrobus building compound is still present on the city centre next to the Cascade Steps and the Under the Skies floating eatery cum boozer, and stops exclusive to m1 are still devoid of their IPOINTS (ticket machines).

I won't start on the flooding of the m3 city centre stop over the weekend after a slight shower of rain, proof of which was seen by Grahame and DR at last nights meeting.

Parkway to Ring Road thence to Hicks Gate (one end of Keynsham By-pass) then A4 to Keynsham Church and Willsbridge Road to station. Same for Taunton and beyond pax, train from Keynsham to BRI and change or through PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) - TAU^» (Taunton - next trains)/beyond services.

Was good to meet up with you again last night Grahame.

I handed each of my tables acquaintances a copy of the Coffee Shop leaflet and all were impressed with some highlighting on or two of the topics.


Your dead right there Grahame, and the city has had the problem as far back as I can remember and that is over 60 years.

I first became aware of the traffic problems of Bristol when I was a paperboy delivering the Evening Post and Evening World in the locality where I lived.

Headline - Bristol Centre to be surrounded by toll booths.

That was a plan to surround the central area with a series of toll booths through which motorists would pay a toll to enter the area and it became fodder for the waste paper basket.

Headline - Bristol to get a monorail.

That was a plan to encompass the central area with an overhead monorail and BCC^» (Bristol City Council - about) chartered a Viscount aircraft from Cambrian Airways for Councillors and Top Officers to visit and see Munichs experimental monorail and that scheme again became fodder for the waste paper basket.

Headline - Bristol to get a Light Rail Metro.

A scheme put forward by the former HTV West news reporter Richard Cotterell, by then MEP^▸ (Member of European Parliament) for the Bristol area in association with a body, Avon Transit Authority (ATA). Killed off by one Dawn Primarolo then a councillor on BCC and others.

Headline - Bristol to get a Metrobus Network.

What we are getting, a network of 3 of what was originally 5, maybe its more, fast bus routes in Bristol to get people from where they live to where they work fast. The m3 route does it slowly, on the Ring Road and the M32 in the rush hours leaving passengers behind at the later stops on the inbound journey. The m2 route doesn't take the passengers where they work and want to get to, Anchor Road vicinity and gets caught up in the regular gridlock on Redcliffe Hill and Temple Meads areas.

Headline - Bristol to get an underground.

A pie in the sky idea by the current elected Mayor of Bristol to build an underground rail network under the city, pigs will probably fly before the first sod of earth is cut to begin the first tunnel bore.

I blame Bristols traffic problems on the city's fathers, both past and present, for not taking decisive actions to rid the city of the traffic problems because they fear losing their seats at the next local election time and thus lose their nice pocket money earner, sorry councillors allowances, for, for some very little work but when it approaches re-election time they all seem to crawl out of the woodwork to boast of what they have done during their term of office representing their constituents.