Its built, Colston Tower from which you can see Temple Meads from the top.

and also on the Centre near the War Memorial on Magpie Park, opposite Eagle House. I used to travel home from school (Cotham Grammar) on one of the 5 services which ran beyond Downend where the family moved in 1955. I had the choice of the 25, Chipping Sodbury to Clevedon, the 131 Chipping Sodbury to The Centre, the 31 Swindon to Bristol, the 32 Cirencester to Bristol and finally the 400 Stroud to Bristol which I had to leave at Downend Horse Shoe pub and walk the last mile or so home.

My Metrobus insider e-mailed me today :-

Service Change 16 September 2018

Service M3 – First Bus (Emersons Green – UWE – Bristol Centre) introduction of Sunday and bank holiday service operating every 30 minutes between UWE Frenchay Campus and Bristol Centre.

New late evening/early morning journeys introduced Monday to Saturdays every 20 minutes between UWE Frenchay Campus and Bristol Centre. Last journey from Bristol Centre at 0412.

Timetable amended but frequencies remain the same during the day Monday to Saturdays. No change to route.

Service U3 – First Bus (UWE – Bristol Centre) new service between UWE Frenchay to Bristol Centre via Coldharbour Lane. Service operates Monday to Friday every 20 minutes during the day and more regularly during peak times. Metrobus service M3 operates from UWE to Bristol Centre on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.


Comment.

So the "successful" M3 service is not, according to the above, having the hours of operation to Lyde Green / Emersons Green locations extended unless this is covered by the phrase, "Timetable amended". Sunday and Bank Holiday service only to operate between UWE and City Centre so still no indication of a Sunday service to Lyde Green / Emersons Green in this announcement.

Interesting the introduction of the U3, will this be interleaved with the M3 and thus provide a 10 minute interval service from UWE to City Centre.

End of comment.


Also further changes revealed ;-

Metrobus type services to be introduced to operate to the Yate / Sodbury area as follows ;-

Y1 replaces 47/X47 running at 30 minute intervals on route of X47 but NOT serving the Bus Station, operating to and from Bristol Centre Colston Street(opposite the Colston Hall) instead;

Y2 replaces 47 running at 60 minute intervals between Bristol Bus Station and Yate Bus Station only serving Fishponds and Downend as the 47 does at present.

Y3 replaces X46 running at 60 minute intervals deviating at the Stover Road roundabout to operate via Stover Road and Yate Station to Yate Bus Station thence a loop round North Yate back to Yate Bus Station before returning to Bristol as outward deviation, Evenings the Yate loop will be covered by the Y4.

Y4 replaces 46 running at 60 minute intervals deviating to operate direct to Yate Bus Station and not serving the Airfield Estate. Evenings this service will provide the North Yate loop.

Y5 replaces X49 running at 60 minute intervals M - S and 120 minute intervals Su.

Y6 replaces 82 running at 60 minute intervals M - S and 120 minute intervals Su.

Whilst in Yate today saw a red liveried Metrobus vehicle, probably on a driver route familiarisation duty as it didnt enter the Yate Bus Station on its two passes of the Bus Station entrance.

Still no definitive news on start of M2 but there is a meeting arranged between Metrobus and Karin Smyth MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) to see if anything can be salvaged out of the proposed and then abandoned route from Hengrove the the LA P&R^▸ (Park and Ride).

Hope I haven't confused anyone with the above info, might have more info after tomorrows meeting in Kingswood.

Missed out again this year, with so much interest surely whatever organisation shows the punters around the unseen parts of Temple Meads station could organise PAID FOR tours and donate the proceeds after expenses to maybe a railway/local charity.

When I left school and was at college my journeys home involved travel on a Friday night on a service which was regularly longer than the down platform at Bath Spa and it was a regular event at Bath for the train to draw forward so that the rear coaches were platformed and regular passengers knew this and there was no panic. Irregular passengers would start to move forward to a carriage platformed unless another passenger advised them of the procedure so again no panic as the draw forward was at a snails pace initiated by platform staff waving an arm backwards and forwards until the rear coaches were platformed when the platform staff would hold both hands straight upwards to stop. In hours of darkness this movement was initiated by the platform staff waving their oil burning hand lamp displaying a yellow aspect forwards and backwards until the rear of the train was platformed which then caused the platform staff to switch their hand lamp to display a red aspect, STOP.

Have to look out some of my fots of Casualty filming locations round where I live including the one of Holby being the 2nd exit off of a nearby roundabout.

My insider tells me that route M2 has been cleared to start operating and a start date of September 3rd is mooted. Clearance for some non-passenger service vehicles is yet to be confirmed. There is now a mad panic to get the I-points plinths completed and where needed electrics and comms cable wiring runs installed to the I-points bases. Apparently last Saturday was the busiest day of the service to date, well it had to be, didn't it, was Harbour Festival weekend in the city. The blank paper ticket roll can be monitored remotely and on Saturday morning the P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) Inbound I-point recorded 70% ticket roll remaining but by the afternoon this had reduced to 19% and thus gave "kittens" to the promoters fearing that the ticket machine had been hacked and was issuing "freebies".

Once again travelled inbound on the 1420 X Emersons Green but this time I was joined on the upper deck front row by a male and his child daughter at the P&R and we were the only passengers until UWE where about 10 - 12 passengers boarded and picking up 1 more pax at the Stoke Park stop before joining the M32. I have never noticed it before but yesterday I took a good look at the landscape, the eastern slopes of Purdown, noticing a monument high up before the PO Tower and wondered how beautiful this area would have been when Duchess Lake was there before it was drained to make way for the M32. Progress ? Maybe not.

A disabled person who is a well known "celebrity" in the area that I reside has met Tanyalee on a number of occasions and said she is great. At one function another "comedian" like Tanyalee visited the ladies but was "an absolute flop" and as it was the interval the punters were also visiting the ladies and were remarking about the "dead loss" of the persons act, but other females in the loo were frantically making signs pointing to the closet door this person was using when it opened and silence erupted to the extent that you could hear a pin drop, a rare event in a crowd of women.

Anyway to complete this post the disabled person known to me told me of an encounter she had with Wessex Trains. She had booked assistance from Yate to Southampton. Her booked service from Yate was cancelled but Gloucester Station phoned her to advise her of this and revised arrangements for her complete journey. When the next service arrived, she said that the conductor/guard never appeared until the train was ready to depart when he stepped out onto the platform and saw her waiting for the ramp so he walked along the platform to her, grunted about she should have booked assistance to which she replied that she had and had even had a phone call from Gloucester station advising her of the revised arrangements. "Nobody has told me", said the guard. Arriving at TM^‡(resolve), lovely Wayne, the one who was honoured by the Queen, was waiting with the ramp and escorted her to the Portsmouth train which was held specially for her and she said that she heard the guard on her train from Yate had not read his special instructions for her joining at Yate for the first part of her journey. 

.... till there is a fault with the signalling system ....

No, Finn had already done the tiddle and that was what caused the box to flash and smoke !!!!

Marv has closed all the cities public loos coz the council cant afford the million or so needed to keep them open, where is he going to get the billions to buy the vacated land from Network Rail / BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Residuary Board, a loan from the Chinese to which he seems to be very fond of cosying up to ? Perhaps he wants the Temple Meads location to be Bristol's main underground railway interchange point instead.

Since he has been mayor I have noticed a marked deterioration in the cleanliness of the cities streets with some streets and footpaths not yet relieved of last autumns leaf drop.

Just take a peep at the masses of vegetation growing up from the concrete constructions on the M32 into the city, hardly a good advertisement for the city or should it be the city for not pestering Highways England to get it removed.

Being born a Bristolian I am increasingly becoming ashamed of the city I have lived in or near for all my life with the elected politicians seemingly doing nowt to improve it yet all too willing to holding their hands out for their councillors allowances and all the other perks available to them. I have heard comments in City Hall. "Is there a lunchtime buffet for your meeting". "No". "I wont be staying on then".

One of the worst things Westminster did was when they allowed councillors to be paid an attendance allowance for attending meetings, when I was a councillor we didn't get anything as a right although we could apply for reasonable out of pocket expenses which had to go to a committee consisting of political party leaders, council chairperson, staff member of treasury department but in them days we stood at elections for the privilege of serving the people of the community in which you lived.

In pre ENCTS^▸ (English National Concessionary Travel Scheme) days my LA gave tokens value £15 per annum to over 60's for travel, train OR bus which at my rate of travel would equate to less than 1 weeks local travel. At present I estimate my ENCTS usage saves me in excess of £800 per annum if I had to pay bus fares which would reduce to £500 if I were to always buy day tickets in the areas I were travelling in.

Take a look at airlines on disabled travel, some airlines do not even allow blind passengers to travel ALONE. There is a programme on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) R4 called In Touch and the tales heard on there are amazing in the derogatory sense. A blind person quite able to walk having lost their sight in an accident of as a result of illness being forced to wait until last to disembark an aircraft and then forced into making use of a wheelchair when they were quite happily guided onto the aircraft at the departing airport by the ground handling staff which may even be the same company at both airports.

Where's the staff announcement ?

I presume you mean the X48, and have you heard anything about MetroBust to Yate/Sodbury, route number Y1 has been mentioned at a Public Meeting to complement T1/T2 to Thornbury for which the T1 uses the Stoke Gifford to Ring Road Link and then the M32 to City Centre (Colston Hall) calling at MetroBust stops outbound.