Great Western Coffee Shop

From Wikipedia ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_bus_station


Well - does it work well for YOU or do you still hanker after the old bus station?

I opted for "not thrilled" but I thought that I'd better add why.  At first it seemed just the (bus) ticket.  Built adjacent to the railway station to form a transport hub, sensible layout with all the required facilities associated with an important transport centre.....what wasn't to like?
Sadly, the high aspirations of the bus station seem to have evaporated over the years.  On my more recent visits it's seemed to look increasingly tired with parts of it put out of use...all classic signs of decline.  Maybe I went there at a bad time but that was the impression that I was left with.

"Take it or leave it". Firstly, I barely remember the old bus station. Secondly, I do remember enough to say that IMO the new one is better, both as a building and especially in terms of location. The new (ie. current) building isn't particularly attractive but it works and I suppose I have low expectations of bus stations – by their nature they tend to be grimy places of transit and unwilling waiting. At least they don't smell of stale cigarettes nowadays!

Not thrilled.

* As soon as it gets busy it doesn't work well, as queues conflict with circulation.

* The continuous deep eaves, combined with the building's glass means that it needs (but doesn't receive) frequent window cleaning.

* It's difficult to identify the entrances from Dorchester Street from the rest of the glass frontage - though it has to be said that the pigeons do not have a problem with this - and the interior has built-in bird roosts for them to enjoy after they've fed on the bird seed that a local well meaning but misguided person scatters round the building (in addition to the entire city centre).

* It's not big enough to include all of the city's services - and for services that do not use the bus station, information on and directions to where those services *do* terminate is poor - and in any case some are ten minutes walk away. (This is something that it shares with Bristol's bus station where various services from and to Wales aren't able to use the current station - not sure if they were able to use the previous one, mind).

Was the objection to keeping the 30s-but-in-keeping-with-its-surroundings Churchill House was that its retention meant that the site wouldn't be able to accommodate bendy buses? Not sure how the current bus station would cope with those either, and looking at the comparative footprints on maps.nls.uk, the corner block of the former electricity offices were a gift for reuse.

I also seem to recall that the bus station cost £28 million rather than the £14 as stated by Wikipedia with reference to a vanished first group web page.

Mark

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.5&lat=51.37778&lon=-2.35923&layers=193&b=1

I had to vote 'Never used it'. Which slightly surprises me. I've been a fairly regular visitor to Bristol's second-nicest suburb for the last five decades, and for all that time I've almost always used public transport. In my teens and twenties, I always used the No.339 bus, sometimes changing for Trowbridge, Devizes and other mysterious places.

For the last twenty years, since I've been living within walking distance of Montpelier station, I've only ever used the bus for the last leg of the journey home, and only then if I've missed the last Beach line train.

I did poke my head around the door last year just to see what it was like though. It was a hot day, and it seemed pretty badly ventilated.

Thank you for the various inputs - amongst those who have used it, a clear majority are not thrilled and it doesn't have a loving fan club.  Personally, I think the best things about it are the catering outlet and the places the buses go.

Has the information desk re-opened yet?

No, and I don't think it is planned to happen. There are now some leaflets in racks.

It is very sad seeing how this lobby area, with what was the information desk, has been left to become unused. The door into it from the bus station is currently blocked off, so you have to go out into the street to back into it to look at the desultory set of leaflets. Only when inside the lobby do you find a sign to tell you the toilets are through a further door into the noodle bar cafe. These toilets aren't always available though, as the people running the cafe have blocked access when it is full.

Getting any useful information beyond what is shown on the screens is almost impossible now. I have spent many an hour trying to find out what is happening with buses I've waited for there, looking for somebody who might know, and having to ask random drivers as there is nobody else to ask.

Given that not all First buses now use the bus station, and there is no information on where others go from (both First and others), and that Bath does attract a lot of visitors, I think the desertion of the information desk is a disgrace, and the dowdy look of that lobby area just as bad.

Another sign sign of decline, designed to put people off using them by making access as uneasy as possible, casting doubt on if you are actually supposed to be using them.

Using it today, a passenger in a (small) mobility scooter was boarding: the bus station bay layout was not cooperating with this as once the bus ramp was out the concrete high kerb deflector by the boarding area didn't allow them to take a straight approach to the ramp.

Mark