New bus service - Bath Spa to Bristol Airport

[whole diary]

[grahame]

As from 23rd March, the Bath Bus Company is running an hourly through service from Bath Spa (Dorchester Street) to Bristol Airport.  It's route A4, takes 75 minutes, and the first bus leaves Bath at 03:00, with the first bus returning from the airport at 04:30

Getting from our home to Bristol Airport has always been slow and required multiple changes by public transport - this means that in most hours we can now hop on the local bus at the end of our street, change in Bath, and be at the checkin counter in about 2 hours.

Is the Bath Bus Company an independent operator, or a subsidiary of someone??

[Chris from Nailsea]

Bath Bus Company is owned by a French transport company, RATP.

From the Bath Chronicle:

Tour de France: city bus firm bought by European business

The firm which runs Bath^s open top buses has been bought by an expanding French company. The UK^▸ (United Kingdom) arm of international transport operator RATP has snapped up all the share capital of the Bath Bus Company.

The firm set up by former Badgerline manager Martin Curtis employs 81 people, running the City Sightseeing open-top tour franchise in the city and in Cardiff, Eastbourne and Windsor with a total of 30 vehicles.

RATP, which has operations across Europe and in the USA, will retain the Bath team headed by managing director Mr Curtis. He said: ^This is great news for Bath and the team at Bath Bus Company. RATP are widely respected across the world as a quality operator of public transport systems and we are now part of an international business.^

RATP also operates the L^Open Tour sightseeing operation in Paris.

Cyril Carniel, Northern Europe chief executive for RATP Dev, said: ^We are delighted that Martin Curtis and his team will be joining RATP Dev as part of our development plans for the UK. We are extremely pleased to have a base in the beautiful and historic city of Bath.^

The Bath firm also hires out its buses and provided the vehicle for last year^s tour of the city centre by Winter Olympics gold medallist Amy Williams.

Last year, RATP entered the UK market for the first time, taking over London United Busways, and Bournemouth Transport, that resort^s leading operator.

Mr Curtis^s operation is now the only provider of open-top bus tours in Bath, after successive other firms pulled out of the sector. Mr Curtis set up his company in 1997 with a number of former colleagues from then dominant operator Badgerline, which subsequently became part of the First Group. He also restores and writes about old buses.

[TonyK]

Bath Bus Company is owned by a French transport company, RATP.

Referred to, elsewhere, as Rat pee.

75 minutes is quite a slog. I'm assuming this is not targeted at passengers arriving at Bath Spa by rail. They would be better served by continuing to Temple Meads (15/16 minutes), then getting the A1. That has a frequency of every 10 minutes during the day, and takes 22 minutes from station to airport. Costs ^11.00 return.

[JayMac]

Costs ^10 for the period return if you buy in combination with a rail ticket to Bristol Temple Meads.

 http://brfares.com/#fares?orig=BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains)&dest=XPB&rlc=%20%20%20

Well done though to the state owned Bath Bus Company for introducing this new service. I hope it's a success.

[swrural]

Surely it's aimed at Bath residents who don't want to fork out ^30 per week minimum to park in Silver parking plus petrol to get there and back?

[TonyK]

Well done though to the state owned Bath Bus Company...

 

I think the correct word is ^tat...

(or whatever the French call it)

[grahame]

Thanks for the feedback / fill-in on ownership.

Certainly useful for our customers - I far prefer to recommend bus (with a single change) to get them from / to the airport, rather than bus - train - bus. That latter may remain the quicker, and offer more services, but it's a far harder sell.

Now the interesting question for our customers arriving at Bristol Airport for the service, or leaving us.   "Where do I buy my ticket / can I get a through ticket / what does it cost?".   Experts answering the question - please note that customers may wish to travel between Bath and Melksham on Faresaver, on daytime First and on evening First, each of which has different fares / interchangability rules

[Scott]

The buses being used for this service, sourced from fellow RATP subsidiary London United, having been under testing during the last few days in Bath. Their livery looks fairly good but nothing special when seen for real, and the destination displays are also in green. Unfortunately my camera has decided it doesn't want to work properly any more () so I can't share any photos with you all.

I do have one serious concern about this service. Never mind the price, the timetable is seriously out-of-sync with reality - I mean, 28 minutes from Bath to Saltford, with no variations during the day at all (meaning it takes that long even at 3am)? I might have to send them an e-mail about that...!