January 1st 2019 Country Bus Services out of Bristol & Bath

[whole diary]

[martyjon]

There will be none except the 39 between Bristol and Bath itself.

Traditionally it has been the practise to operate a Sunday service out of both these two cities on the annual New Years Day. These Sunday services in the main are provided by the various operators with financial support from the relevant local authorities but for January 1st 2019 there be no financial support from the Western Super Mayor / WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) so there will be no country services except the one stated above.

Met DR, a mutual acquaintance of Grahame and myself, at Bristols Bus Station yesterday and he asked me to put a post on this forum of this matter as he had been contacted by, excuse the advertising, employees of Boots working at both Broadmead and Cribbs who will be unable to get to and from their jobs on the day unless they use a taxi the whole or part of their commute to where they can transfer to a bus to complete their travel to work. Being a Bank Holiday, taxi use on this day may even attract a surcharge on that day which would hit, financially, these folk who are in the lower waged sector of the community.

What makes this situation so farcical is that on Boxing Day a skeleton citywide bus service IS being provided with some country services covered in addition like the T2 from the Thornbury area and the Y2 from the Chipping Sodbury and Yate area.

Finally my reason for my visit to Bristol Bus Station yesterday, to load a West of England Zone day ticket on my TravelWest Travel card for a future journey I am committed to at a future date where my ENCTS^▸ (English National Concessionary Travel Scheme) concessionary pass wont be valid. Guess what, even at the Bus Station this product is not available for loading onto the TravelWest card so had to revert to a previous technology, a scratchcard, ha, ha, progress ? I did make a comment, I shall have to make a submission to Trading Standards, waving a copy of First 'Your New Bus Tickets' leaflet and see if that puts a stick of dynamite up TravelWest / Metrobuses backsides to get any action out of them. A comment was made, 'DO THAT'. I may just do that, watch this forum.

[ChrisB]

I don't think Trading Standards can assist in this situation.

[martyjon]

I don't think Trading Standards can assist in this situation.

Give em summut to do if even if it is to say what you said might make world news.

[grahame]

There WILL be trains on 1st January and also rail replacement buses Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton March, Warminster, Frome.

With regard commercial services in Bath and Bristol ... if there is no support contract in place for the services, the operator is perfectly free to run as many or as few as they like; they have no social or wider commercial obligation.  If this were withholding of service on a normal weekday, the traffic commissioner might have something to say if there had not been 56 days notice, but for a bank holiday I really don't think the commissioner would be interested.