Sea Mills - Change here for ferry to Pill.

So how will the rugby fans with tickets for the match fare when they get to BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) and find there is no train that will get them to the match in time for kick-off.

Any regular traveller reading today's excuses on Journeycheck will think huh !

When do HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services regularly change drivers at Swindon ?

Would it not have been better to state that due to insufficient drivers being available with the route knowledge to drive the services to Paddington (or Marylebone) planned to operate via Oxford will now operate to Reading where those services will terminate (and passengers for Paddington can chance their luck from there).

I do apologise. I haven't been in the vicinity of the Colston Street, St. Augustines Parade, Colston Avenue junction since the reconstruction of the centre started although I have travelled by bus through Rupert Street and past the War Memorial then left across to Broad Quay and thence Prince Street. Have to take a walk around the Centre when I next visit Harbourside.

PROGRESS at Emersons Green. the bus shelter at the Emersons Green terminus was installed today, today cos I sore it being installed, No Information Point or Ticket Machine yet but Metrobus is slowly, slowly coming together at last after over 10 years in gestation.

From ;-

https://www.thebreeze.com/southdevon/news/local-news/dawlish-proofed-trains-being-trialled-at-nights/


Really !!!!

Since they blocked of the exit from Colston Street onto Colston Avenue, Pipe Lane alongside the Colston Hall now being the exit from Colston Street at the Colston Hall / Colston Tower end of Colston Street unless the buses are going to use a Colston Street / Trenchard Street / Pipe Lane route to terminate in Colston Street. My guess is that the Barons at Metrobus HQ^▸ (Headquarters) have misquoted the terminating / starting point for M3 as Colston Street when they really mean Colston Avenue and expect us Bristolians to be mind readers.

Evidently you are too young to remember how the Centre looked in the early 1950's


But how would they get there from Colston Street ?

Melksham station is a special place but did the driver manage it in a three point turn, I was thinking more of a turntable with a bus stop both sides so that when the bus arrives and terminates passengers get of at the terminal stop and the bus is turned so the stop becomes the departure stop and when the bus leaves the next terminating service arrives onto the empty turntable at a terminating stop and is turned so the terminating stop becomes the departure stop and so on and on and on ....

From press release ;-


They're gonna use two of the remaining 57 in the hour for the re-routed Thornbury service 79 which will become the T1 and start from Colston Street which is effectively a cul-de-sac after all the upheaval and revamping in the centre and hope they've tested the feasibility of the buses to adequately perform a three point turn at the bottom of Colston Street outside the Colston Hall.

Another Mishap ?

Had a couple of pints lunchtime today with my knowledgeable MetroBus informer and he told me the latest.

When the dimwits at MetroBus HQ^▸ (Headquarters) announced the start date of the rapidly brought forward / somewhat rather  belatedly opening of this wunderful white elephant with the hurriedly elevation of the route M3 as the launch route of this service they did so without consulting the bus company which had been chosen to operate the service. It transpired that the earliest the service could start going through the set down regulatory procedure relating to the introduction of new local bus services was June 10th. Oh dear, we've already announced it as May 29th, it was intended to be May 28th until it was pointed out that May 28th was a Bank Holiday, never mind said the boss who relishes in spending other people money we'll run it free from the date we've already announced until June 9th provided the operating bus company can provide the resources and we'll reimburse the bus company out of the taxpayers bottomless barrel of cash for doing so. Now the dimwits have to explain to the Traffic Commissioners why the service is not commencing on June 10th as the approved application is now effective from and starting on June 11th instead.

From a press release ;-


Also they've dropped clangers in the press release as quoted above. They've stated that the service will commence operating from 27 May 2018 (actually its from 29 May) and operate every 20 minutes from approximately 06:00 to 19:00 and then every 30 minutes until 21:00 and later in the same press release relating to the withdrawal of the UWE service stating that users of the UWE service will be able to use the new M3 service which operates up to every 20 minutes between 06:00 and 21:00.

I interpreted the ' many others ' to include other useless sections of bus lanes within the city boundaries when I referred to the Non Bus Lane Fishponds Road Bus Lane from the Cross Hands in Fishponds to Royate Hill in Eastville.

Some overhead knitting also up between Chipping Sodbury and Westerleigh Junction. looks like the tensioning wire which is fixed at one end and onto a load of weights at tother what I could see as it was wrapped round pulley wheels.

You'll have to wait until the arenal is built if it is built next to BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains).

If I remember rightly Railtrack did not go bust, Stephen Byers, Transport Minister at the time, placed Railtrack into liquidation, initially without compensation until the law stepped in and eventually a figure for the Railtrack assets was agreed.

About the time this happened Railtrack announced and paid a dividend and there was at least three payouts following the liquidation process which resulted in the shareholders receiving a few coppers more in total than the shares cost in the original Public Offer.

The reason why Byers put Railtrack into administration was that Railtrack went cap in hand to the government for cash to undertake the project or projects requested by the then Labour Government and as provided for in the rail privatisation act of parliament and patience was lost particularly as the abovementioned dividend was announced only days earlier.

There is a stretch of the main London - South Wales line near my residence. Wapley Bridge vacinity. which has large trees just outside the lines boundary fence which if blown down by a north wind would crash onto the OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line), if not through it, and cause disruption for at least 24 hours whilst repairs take place. Whose responsibility is it to ensure those trees don't potentially foul the running lines, Network Rails or the LA's, the LA cut the grass on the road verge of the highway which parallels the rail line at this point.

There has been a lot of criticism about actions in Sheffield to fell trees along highways in that city, The Burgermasters of Bristol ought to act in a similar fashion. On the Staple Hill / Fishponds Roads arterial route into the city many tree trunks protrude into the gutters and where this happens a standard length Kerb edge has been cut to length to butt up against the trunk whilst a full length kerb edge laid tother side of the trunk to maintain the kerb line. In other places where the still growing trees girth has expanded like a muffin top the trunk is growing over and covering the kerb edge. Three or four years ago I was travelling into the city and the bus became entangled in a huge gridlocked traffic queue on the Fishponds Road when a verbal message from the bus control came over the radio to divert and as my stop would be missed by the diversion I got off the bus and started to walk to my destination. The cause of the gridlock became clear on that enforced walk, a bus had hit a tree that was leaning out over the bus lane and a bus had hit it shearing off the roof which was resting up against the back of the bus and six ambulances were in attendance together with numerous police and the fire service vehicles. In a later stroll past that site I noted that the road surface had been disturbed by the tree roots causing the road surface to rise then dip into a depression and then rise again this caused the bus to lurch to the right as the buses near side front wheel hit the first tree root hump than fall into the depression causing the bus then to lurch to the left this causing the roof of the double decker to sideways swipe the tree trunk and sustain the extensive damage to the bus. As far as I can see Bristol Council have done nothing to prevent such a similar occurrence but the buses no longer use that dedicated bus lane.

On another arterial road into the City Centre, the Wells Road (A37) there is a bus lane and riding front seat off side I noticed the driver was straddling the wide white boundary line on the right side of the bus lane and then I saw the reason, a tree leaning so far out into the road that presumably BCC^» (Bristol City Council - about) had nailed or screwed onto the tree trunk a hatched Yellow and Black hazard plate about 50cm x 20cm lengthways down the tree trunk. I couldn't believe it and wouldn't if I hadn't seen it myself.