Great Western Coffee Shop

Being posted in this section as most of the passenger arrivals at BTM come from London.

Network rail want the amount of licence's for Taxi's to be reduce from 241 to 188(I think I got the numbers right)

Didn't know there was a strike planned until I listened to radio bristol on Tuesday morning.NOW CANCELLED

Could I suggest all the taxi's queuing up for fares to have their "standing" moved to the left outside the taxi cafe.

Then the 6/7/8 could go over by the old airport pick up point

Maybe at the bottom of the incline the turn left sign could be a flashing yellow amber so you could turn left towards the Bath and Wells roads

When was the last time you were at Bristols' Temple Mead station ?

Rubbish, how about all the commuters and travellers from the Gloucester line stations and North thereof, the South West line from Taunton and stations to Bristol, the Severn Beach line, from Cardiff, Newport and stations (including Pilning) to Bristol, from Keynsham, Oldfield Park, Bath and stations to both Swindon and Westbury.

Don't sadly join the growing band of folk who open their mouths before their brain is engaged.

I  take exception to your comments.

Would you say the things to me that you have if we were stood in front of me?

If you care to have a listen to radio bristol from tuesdays morning show,

you would hear the spokesman for the taxis drivers saying that most of their custom

comes off the trains from London.

Would you like to apologise for your comments?

Gentlemen, six of one and half a dozen of the other??? Please - let's not let it get personal, and if we think it has got personal, not respond in any similar vein.

Being strictly neutral (so thereby probably annoying everybody...) I do not recall ever getting into a taxi to find the driver ask me where I've come from, or indeed telling the driver unprompted where I've come from.

It really doesn't read like that. martyjon came over as unnecessarily abrupt. My reading is that infoman was right to take exception and seek an apology.

Play nicely please chaps and let's move On thankyou.

I'm curious about the premise for this strike. Hadn't heard anything about it and there's nothing in the local news. What are these licences that Network Rail are cutting? I can only think that this means the Station Approach Road is NR property, not a public highway, and therefore NR can require a licence for taxis to pick up or hire from there. Is that it? If so, why do they want to reduce the number of taxis?

And what would the likely effects of a drivers' strike be? Presumably some disgruntled commuters, a bit more passengers on buses, but it doesn't seem entirely obvious to me that there would be any impact on rail operations unless the strike continued for several days, in which case regular travellers might make other arrangements.

Not commenting on the way the response was worded, but just to say, I don't think the first comment is in any way the same as the second comment, is it? Martyjon has a point. There will be a lot more locals arriving into BRI than ever come from London. How many then get into a taxi is completely different.

Thank You.

Did grahame request

 let's not let it get personal, and if we think it has got personal, not respond in any similar vein.

Moving on...

The station approach and the cab ranks are private property, with the station operator saying who can ply for trade there. Licences were introduced in 2012, at a cost of £375 pa pc (per cab). At that time, cabbies were charged £600 to pick up at either Bristol Parkway or Bath Spa, so it wasn't something new. The reduction in numbers is likely to annoy cabbies rather than passengers, as 184 taxis will be enough, it just means over 50 cabbies won't be able to pick up there. Dropping off by either Hackney or private hire will still be permitted.

Infoman's idea to move the bus stop to the old airport bus stand could certainly be looked at, as it would make it look as though there was a real bus service actually to the front door of the station. There is a problem that might mitigate against it. As it is the end of the route for the 8/9, 70/72/73 and hospital bus, they tend to park up for a while, and the space wouldn't fit more than two at a time. Also, there is still a plan to move the whole lot to the other side of the Engine Shed, unless the transport secretary is thinking of launching an inquiry into that, too.

So a permit to ply from Temple Meads is only a little over half the cost of one for Bristol Parkway or Bath Spa? Strange. One would have assumed that the bigger the station, the greater the price that could be charged for the permit. Presumably Bath's tourist trade boosts its numbers (but it has a much smaller forecourt), but what about Parkway?

Sorry, I have to challenge that. In what way was my reply 'personal'?

If any one would listen back to Patrick Massey who I think is the rep for the Bristol drivers,about London Paddington being the taxi drivers biggest earner

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07j9gkl

Listen from 7 minutes in

 

The demonstration that was planned,

was for the central area of Bristol,

although not sure how the demonstration was going to work.

I wonder if we should look the "other way" - to the typical taxi journeys - for the pattern in station fees.

Speculation - the most common taxi journey from Temple Meads is to closer locations within the city centre, with the average fare per pickup being "X".  But from Parkway and also from Bath, there isn't this dominance of very local trips and an average pick up fare will be "3X".  Therefore a Parkway or Bath permit has a far greater earning potential than a Temple Meads one.

I tend to disagree slightly. There are many thousands of homes that are closer to Bristol Parway than to Temple Meads yet still within a tenner fare, including Stoke Gifford, Bradley Stoke, Patchway, Winterbourne, Bromley Heath, possible even Keith Emersons Green. Then there is Thornbury and its suburbs. I wonder if the taxi permits are more a traffic control measure than a slice of the profits.

Reducing the number of permits available would tend to suggest traffic control rather than profit taking. Parkway obviously has much more taxi space than Temple Meads, and although Bath has limited space directly in front of the station entrance, I think the taxis might queue up through one of the arches to the r/hs as you look at the station.

I was thinking of the price more from the drivers' perspective than the railways': not as taking a slice of profits but as the amount drivers would be willing to pay.