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Author Topic: MetroBus  (Read 236432 times)
martyjon
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« Reply #240 on: March 21, 2018, 17:30:33 »

Another rework and not one routes operating yet.

My local S supermarket has a bus terminus adjacent to it which is served by three bus companies, First, Stagecoach and Wessex. The powers to be decreed that Metrobus would not serve the aforesaid terminus but would serve a purpose built MetroBus only stop 50 metres as the crow flies but 200 metres on foot from that stop.

It was built with a paved area, raised kerbs and a shelter however. the footpath runs behind the newly constructed bus stop but the other side of a 2 metre high hedge with no gap but if there was a gap intending passengers would have to slide down a grass bank to access the stop or leave the footpath some 30 metres from the stop and walk on a grass verge which the hords of people the powers to be hope will use MetroBus would soon churn up into a muddy quagmire in inclement weather and what secretary to a Bristol Company's Managing Director wants to arrive in the office with her stilettos caked in mud. She has however an alternative, walk in the road on a busy two lane dual carriageway which leads to a roundabout on the A4174 Bristol Ring Road with her BACK TO THE TRAFFIC.

Someone in an elevated position decided the stop as constructed lacked somewhere to lock up pushbikes, the railings at the aforementioned nearby bus terminus was not acceptable and would deter cyclists from using MetroBus so a revised plan was drawn up and the bus stop was modified. Gone went the bus shelter, the previously mention grass bank was cut back and a retaining wall was built to contain any bank slippage and a number of steel U shaped cycle stands installed, no shelter at the moment. When I passed the site last Saturday I did notice 4 orange barriers around a hole in the paved area with a piece of cable emerging  from a length of flexible plastic piping and it dawned on me that this was to be the electricity supply cable and this is where the MetroBus Ticket Machine is to be installed. NO ROOM FOR A SHELTER NOW.

Travelling home after my Saturday visit to S's I was stopped at the traffic lights at one of the roundabouts on the ring road and while there I took a good glance around at the nearly finished bus stops on the ring road towards the M32. No shelters there either but barriers I suppose guarding holes in the slabbed areas for the ticket machines.

I cant wait for MetroBus to commence running, but to be perfectly honest, I await more eagerly the statements from the promoters of this project explaining the disappointing take up of the service WHHEEEENNNNNNNN IT EVENTUALLY STARTS RUNNING.

Thinking to myself, I thought who in their right minds is going to walk 100's of metres from their front door to a MetroBus stop with no shelter on a busy two lane dual carriageway A road in all winds and weathers that takes them half way round the city's ring road to gain access to the M32 only to get caught up in the gridlocked motorway when they could walk 50 metres to a normal bus stop with a shelter and an RTI (Real Time Information (displays)) display, cant see any sign of RTI's at the stops I've described in this post, and travel on a city bus service along the slow moving A432 and still arrive in the city central area earlier than if they had taken MetroBus.

Time will tell.



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simonw
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« Reply #241 on: March 21, 2018, 19:02:47 »

The long delays to Metrobus do not encourage.

The poor planning, and execution, are depressing!

Who in their right mind would use Metrobus to the centre when Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meades are 10 minutes apart with 4-5 trains per hour, not the 2 buses per hour metrobus will run?

When Metrowest (Filton Four Tracking) Phase 1 is complete, Metrobus MUST

  • integrate with existing and new rail stations
  • have common ticket system
  • prioritise buses by charging cars to use key stretches of roads at peak|busy times

But in the short term, we will have a system that is expensive, unreliable and hard to access as Martjon has shown.
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Red Squirrel
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« Reply #242 on: March 21, 2018, 20:11:55 »

t.

My local S supermarket...


Just to be clear, as these things are important to me: Do you mean Morrison's?
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johnneyw
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« Reply #243 on: March 24, 2018, 21:47:59 »

ITV local news last night. Interview with Metrobust spokesperson. Still no date for opening. 4 separate attempts at an answer 4 variations on "soon". To be fair, the chap they wheeled out did it with good humour. To be even fairer, it could be seen a a flippant dismissal of local taxpayers concerns.
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grahame
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« Reply #244 on: March 24, 2018, 21:58:39 »

ITV local news last night. Interview with Metrobust spokesperson. Still no date for opening. 4 separate attempts at an answer 4 variations on "soon". To be fair, the chap they wheeled out did it with good humour. To be even fairer, it could be seen a a flippant dismissal of local taxpayers concerns.

"Don't know" is a legitimate and honest answer ... though if given for too long and in contradiction to original and more specific plans, it can cause credibility to be lost.
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martyjon
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« Reply #245 on: March 25, 2018, 10:34:45 »

Travelling to and from WWRUG» (West Wiltshire Rail Users Group - about) AGM (Annual General Meeting) on Thursday and Friday took me on the bus along routes I don't usually use and I noted there is still a lot of work being carried out at new MetroBus stops despite the press informing the public that the MetroBus works in the Centre were complete then they didn't consider the works building the MetroBus stop at the bottom end of Corn Street on Broad Quay as the Centre and of course the works ongoing in Prince Street which is 'just off' the Centre. Non of the stops I could see had the 3/4 ton ticket machines installed either.
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TonyK
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« Reply #246 on: March 26, 2018, 19:31:00 »

"Don't know" is a legitimate and honest answer ... though if given for too long and in contradiction to original and more specific plans, it can cause credibility to be lost.

I agree. Three years after the original opening date, though, you would expect the man in charge to be able to give an answer to within a month or so. The TV report missed a lot of things, although they did put the man's feet to the fire pretty well. For instance, when did the first route to open change from Ashton Vale to Temple Meads (operator First) to Emersons Green to the Centre (operator as yet unknown), and why?

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simonw
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« Reply #247 on: March 26, 2018, 19:55:23 »

Is there a link for this interview?

I have searched without success!
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johnneyw
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« Reply #248 on: March 26, 2018, 20:33:11 »

Is there a link for this interview?

I have searched without success!

Sadly, no joy finding it either but I did see it live on the local news.
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TonyK
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« Reply #249 on: March 26, 2018, 21:15:06 »

Is there a link for this interview?

I have searched without success!

This is as good as it gets, but as it is a Facebook post it may not work.

Edit: It will not work unless you are either a friend of the guy or member of the FB group.

Meanwhile, late to the party, the Bristol Post has also taken up the cudgels again:

Quote
Bristol Metrobus delayed again and the people in charge still can't say when it will begin
It could be May, at the earliest...

ByTristan Cork
08:08, 26 MAR 2018

The first Metrobus route in Bristol will not be open for at least another month – and those in charge of the project still cannot say exactly when the first passenger will get on board.

Metrobus has confirmed the first route to open will be the M3 route – which runs from Emersons Green Park and Ride, via the University of the West of England (UWE), to the city centre.

But the route itself will not begin operating for at least another month or more.

The M3 route will not begin running until the roadworks that are restricting part of its route on the Bromley Heath viaduct are finished – and that won’t be until the end of April at least.


A map of the current MetroBus routes

The Metrobus project has been dogged by delays and problems, and has gone £30million over its £200million budget.

The last time a delay was confirmed was at the end of November last year. The route between Ashton Vale and Temple Meads in the south of the city was due to initially begin in autumn 2017, and then in the New Year of 2018.


A new Metrobus iPoint at Long Ashton

But in late November, Metrobus confirmed it would be delayed until the spring too, with both the Bristol Post and the BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) reporting that it would be open at Easter.

That will now not happen because of issues with the Ashton Swing Bridge and with installing the huge iPoints where passengers can buy tickets for the service at each Metrobus stop.

Now, there is no date given for the Ashton Vale service – with Metrobus merely saying it will be ‘after’ the M3 opens.

« Last Edit: March 26, 2018, 21:59:53 by Four Track, Now! » Logged

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simonw
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« Reply #250 on: March 26, 2018, 21:57:29 »

Thank you!

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TonyK
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« Reply #251 on: March 26, 2018, 23:00:18 »

Thank you!

Did it work?
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simonw
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« Reply #252 on: March 27, 2018, 07:04:23 »

Yes
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martyjon
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« Reply #253 on: March 27, 2018, 08:32:24 »

Wearing another hat I attend my LA's transport forum. At a past meeting the forum was informed that the current double decker bus profile had changed and the roof of these vehicles was now curved which meant the overall height of the bus was increased. This coupled with the fact that a low bridge had been re-signed and using the DfT» (Department for Transport - about)'s conversion table the bridge height in metres.decimal was now lower but even so these curved roof buses could still physically pass underthe bridge. However, by expressing the height in metres.decimal, this meant that these new vehicles couldn't legally traverse under the bridge although the flat roofed buses still could. Thus, that was the answer to why a bus route had changed.

On the subject of the Ashton Bridge I am of the opinion that those transverse beams which carried and supported the original road surface are not high enough to allow the current vehicle specification double deckers to be used. I am wondering if a derogation application has to be made to some official body somewhere to allow the currently specified vehicle specification double deckers to be used and that application has to go through a myriad of organisations to be approved and that could take months.

Another negative is that the original lower deck of this bridge carried a double tracked rail line which lead to Canons Marsh and to Temple Meads via a double junction on the city side of the bridge BUT for MetroBus use the road surface is a single file lane controlled by signals at each end of the bridge. This effectively means that in some circumstances any time savings on this so-called bus only road will be lost 'waiting another service to clear the single file section'.

Perhaps its time for the promoters of MetroBus to dip their hands yet again into the bottomless barrel of Bristols Council Tax Payers cash and take another £10 million or so and construct step free ramps up to the level of the upper and thus lost road surface and install an upper level pedestrian / cycleway in consultation with English Heritage and in keeping with the historical aspect of the bridge. An added bonus of this would also be to provide a glorious new visitor attraction, an uninterrupted view of Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge and only a 10 minute walk away from Brunel's S S Great Britain and the new Brunel Museum opened only last week.

This brings me to conclude, if I K B were alive today and was tasked with building MetroBus, how much would it cost and how long would he take in its construction.
 
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chuffed
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« Reply #254 on: March 27, 2018, 08:50:41 »

IKB (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) would be spinning in his grave so fast, it would probably send the earth out of orbit.
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