Transport Minister says Bristol's public transport system 'absolutely fantastic'

[whole diary]

[grahame]

General public transport topic ( ?? ) ... so I have put it under "Bristol Commuters" ... not that she even mentions trains!

From Bristol Live

Transport Minister says Bristol's public transport system 'absolutely fantastic'

Ms Ghani said she was impressed with the live times provided

Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani described the public transport system in Bristol as 'absolutely fantastic' while on a visit to the city today (February 16).

The MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) travelled on the MetroBus from Long Ashton to the Unversity of West England campus in Frenchay via the centre centre today.

It came a day after the Government published its Investing in the South West document, highlighting schemes it was backing in the region.

Getting off the MetroBus at UWE, Ms Ghani said: "It is a fantastic scheme, I jumped on the bus from Bristol and we are here in South Gloucestershire.

"I don't need to tell you that its doing well, the figures are showing it.

"We have passenger numbers really high in this region, it is because they have really thought about the type of journeys people want to take and how easy it can be."

Ms Ghani said she was impressed with the live times provided on a phone app and the methods of paying.

And she said the buses were at the forefront of efforts to introduce to clean air zones.

She said: "The biggest issue we face with constituents is looking at clean air zones and buses deliver that.

"They emit lower emissions and they take dozens and dozens of cars off the road."

Before taking a ride on the MetroBus, Ms Ghani visited Bristol Port for a tour of the Royal Portbury Docks and Avonmouth.

I don't live in Bristol (neither does Ms Ghani).  Would those of you who do agree with her assessment?

[Pavement]

I don't live in Bristol (neither does Ms Ghani).  Would those of you who do agree with her assessment?

No, the Real Time Information system is next to useless, as highlighted in this blog post:
https://blog.scottlogic.com/2019/01/31/the-curious-case-of-disappeared-buses.html

There are basically three types of information it displays:

• Where no information on a bus is available, it just displays timetabled times, so no better than a printed timetable.
• When it has limited data, eg it knows a bus has left the depot, it shows pseudo-real times - resulting in the disappearing buses detailed in the post.
• In the cases where it is actually tracking the location of the bus, it usually has a completely unrealistic idea of how long it will take it to travel between stops, resulting in the upward slopes on the charts. This is the most prevailant situation in my experience. I tend to use a rule of thumb that once the countdown gets below about 5 minutes you need to double the estimate, but it's not consistent.

[johnneyw]

These sort of statements can really rile those who actually live in Bristol and have to deal with the daily realities of our "transport system" rather than just go on a prearranged/staged publicity tour bearing no comparison to the travails of the usual commuter.

If our transport system is as good Ms Ghani claims, how does she resolve this with Bristol's long recognized congestion problems?
Britain's relatively high bus usage figures are easily explained by the paucity of rail based alternatives and where they do exist the take up and growth has been far more than Metrobust.
Which brings me to Me Ghani's claims for Metrobust. Most services I've seen have been far from full. No actual figures where given and no definition was offered of what "high" passenger numbers actually meant. Anyone can claim high passenger uptake if you set your expectations low enough.

[TonyK]

These sort of statements can really rile those who actually live in Bristol and have to deal with the daily realities of our "transport system" rather than just go on a prearranged/staged publicity tour bearing no comparison to the travails of the usual commuter.

If our transport system is as good Ms Ghani claims, how does she resolve this with Bristol's long recognized congestion problems?
Britain's relatively high bus usage figures are easily explained by the paucity of rail based alternatives and where they do exist the take up and growth has been far more than Metrobust.
Which brings me to Me Ghani's claims for Metrobust. Most services I've seen have been far from full. No actual figures where given and no definition was offered of what "high" passenger numbers actually meant. Anyone can claim high passenger uptake if you set your expectations low enough.

A short look at other social media shows that it has riled the locals. Anger was initially directed towards the Minister, but it has now dawned on many that she was conned by the Western Super Mayor.

What she saw would have looked good, especially as it was done on a Saturday morning. The ride along the shortest guided busway in the know universe with its premium view of the suspension bridge is impressive. It becomes less so if you are one of the unfortunate people whose journey has been lengthened considerably by the withdrawal of the previous service, or who has to drag luggage in the rain to Temple Meads from the "nearby" stop in the rain, or who is pelted with rocks on the isolated section. Similarly, the ride on the Platinum route to UWE looks good when the last of the students got home from town on the 4am bus, and are now sleeping off the effects in preparation for another night out, but less so when you are trying to get to work from the Begbrook stop, watching full buses sweep past you without stopping. Or, for that matter, when you are First West of England supremo James Freeman and tell the inconvenient truth that the trip from Emersons Green to town is supposed to take 34 minutes, but actually takes an hour and a half.

I might drop her a line.