Bristol: Airport Road, Rail & Access Issues

[TheLocalYokel]

I think it's a case of suck it and see at the moment. With Hartcliffe Way becoming one-way for up to a year because of metro bus works it's likely that a lot of city traffic might use the SBL that otherwise might not have done so.

tpm makes a good point about the airport press release being short on specific detail re helping drivers to plan their journeys following the SBL opening.

 

[superking]

That's my biggest gripe about lack of information from the airport. Its like the secret service,as said many times lets get someone like les there. If he had any news then every one would know about it it keeps the thoughts of the airport in peoples minds and they think lets try that and I'm sure it generates more trade. I'm not talking about sensitive news but run of the mill news

 

[kraktoa]

New A370 to A38 link road not on google maps yet. Doubt it will be on any sat navs. People not familiar with the new road will be led into residntial areas by their sat navs i think.

 

[Red Flyer]

New A370 to A38 link road not on google maps yet. Doubt it will be on any sat navs. People not familiar with the new road will be led into residntial areas by their sat navs i think.

Haha I suppose they'll have to drive the original way and read signposts.

 

[superking]

News travels fast. I would not hold my breath that the airport will announce any thing.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Falcon Service

The Stagecoach Falcon service that connects Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton, Bristol Airport and Bristol with stops in between has just carried its 150,000th passenger after 11 month of operation.

I had my doubts in the early days that it would succeed at such am intense 24-hours a day schedule but it seems to be a success although it's not made clear how many passengers access the airport.

http://www.somersetcountygazette.co...ss&utm_source=somersetnews&utm_medium=twitter

 

[superking]

Falcon Service

The Stagecoach Falcon service that connects Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton, Bristol Airport and Bristol with stops in between has just carried its 150,000th passenger after 11 month of operation.

I had my doubts in the early days that it would succeed at such am intense 24-hours a day schedule but it seems to be a success although it's not made clear how many passengers access the airport.

http://www.somersetcountygazette.co...ss&utm_source=somersetnews&utm_medium=twitter

not being funny about what you say,it does not matter how many get off at the airport, because the service is working.Im like you had a few thoughts that it was not the correct service at the amount of rotations per day.Im glad itsworking and shows public transport does work with a regular service. Long may it continue.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

not being funny about what you say,it does not matter how many get off at the airport, because the service is working.Im like you had a few thoughts that it was not the correct service at the amount of rotations per day.Im glad itsworking and shows public transport does work with a regular service. Long may it continue.

I think the same applies to the Bath A4 Air Decker. I use it sometimes between Brislington and Keynsham and Bath and it's often very busy with shoppers, commuters and school kids in those sections whereas to/from the airport it never seems that busy with perhaps 6-8 passengers the average, although on occasions I've seen many more.

Mind you, at £20 return between Bath and the airport I don't suppose they need too many passengers to make it pay. It obviously does because within a year they increased frequency from every hour to every half four.

Now awaiting details of the Weston-super-Mare Flyer which the airport is commencing in the spring. That might mean the end of the A2 'village bus' between the airport and Weston though.

 

[superking]

was at a loose end yesterday so thought would go and have a drive along the new link road. very impressed with it. shame it finishes by the old wills factory. the problems still there with the road from there to the hicks gate roundabout. is there any plans to continue the link road from where it finishes now to hicks gate,or will we wait for another 50 years for that bit of road. if that's the case I will be long gone. but good job what they just opened. seen the double decker on its way back to bath and it was empty,that was about 12 30.

 

[tpm]

There were various plans/routes to complete that missing ring road link between the Imperial Park roundabout and Hicks Gate, but I believe Marvin Rees / Labour explicitly decided not to pursue this further because of the impact (houses would need to be torn down etc.)

 

[TheLocalYokel]

That's correct, tpm. See this link.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/huge-r...are-scrapped/story-29491001-detail/story.html

When it was first proposed to continue the Avon ring road from Hicks Gate around the edge of south Bristol to the Long Ashton bypass (at least a decade ago from memory) various people organised themselves into groups to protest. The outline route was up the hill from Hicks Gate around the edge of a golf course, skirting the Bristol suburb of Stockwood, before crossing the A37 just south of Whitchurch Village. The route would then have continued through housing estates between the Bristol part of Whitchurch and the eastern edge of Hartcliffe to the big Hengrove roundabout, and then along the existing dual carriageway to where the SBL link now starts just to the east of Hareclive Road.

All sorts of environmental objections were thrown up but a major sticking point (as tpm pointed out) was the need to demolish houses to enable the route to squeeze through the section between Whitchurch and Hartcliffe.

As it stands the route east from the end of the SBL uses the dual carriageway I mentioned to Hengrove roundabout then along what is known as a ring road (Bristol seems to have many ring roads and circuit roads that are only partially built) and is dual and passes Hengrove Leisure centre to Airport Road (which is not dual), across the A37 into Callington Road (dual carriageway in places) to the A4 at Brislington. Once the A4 is reached it is followed to Hicks Gate.The linked press report above talks of a Callington Road Link which the mayor and the local Labour party believe would be better value for money.

I use these roads regularly and traffic frequently queues (not just at peak times) at such places as the ATS-controlled junction with the A 37 and approaching the A4 where the road joins the busy local road, West Town Lane, before reaching the A4 with ATS controls at both junctions. The A4 itself at Brislington is often a nightmare with slow-moving traffic throughout the day.

I really don't know what is meant by a Callington Road Link as I can't see anywhere that a road could be accommodated.

 

[tpm]

I really don't know what is meant by a Callington Road Link as I can't see anywhere that a road could be accommodated.

It's a link from the Tesco roundabout on the A4174 in Brislington to the Sainsbury's roundabout on St Philips Causeway. The route goes pretty much straight north from the roundabout, left of Tesco, next to Station Rd and Thiery Rd, then under the A4, and continues past the warehouses in parallel to Repton Rd, then under Sandy Bridge Rd, again past the warehouses, and straight onto the Sainsbury's access road and onto the St Philips Causeway roundabout. I believe the route follows an old railway track alignment, I think you can some old tracks if you pass Talbot Rd on the way towards the A4. And I guess the name 'Station Road' kinda gives the game away. Sad that re-instating the railway is not even under consideration, only whether it should be a bus corridor or single/dual-carriageway cum bus corridor. I don't know what the status of this scheme is though, if there are plans to bring it forward. I would not be surprised if it turned into another MetroBus route from the Brislington P+R to Temple Meads and then doing the city centre circle.

So this scheme could take some through traffic away from Brislington and provide a nice link from the A4174 towards the M32, but doesn't do much for traffic going towads the Hicks Gate roundabout.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks for that, tpm. I hadn't heard of any plan to use the old railway line track bed for a link. It's the former Bristol & North Somerset Railway track from Temple Meads (branching from the London line east of the station) to Radstock and then on to Frome. It lost its passenger services in the 1950s and finally closed when the Somerset Coalfield around Radstock ceased to be operated in the early 1970s.

Sadly, it's impossible to use it to the south beyond the old Brislington Station site (now Tesco). The bridge over West Town Lane is no more although the track bed between there and Whitchurch is now a walking/cycling path. Beyond that much of the track bed has been filled in and the two rail bridges over the A37 north of and in Pensford have long since been removed. The magnificent viaduct at Pensford remains in place though but it looks forlorn as nothing can use it.

I agree with your comment that a Callington Road link would do nothing to address the congestion that occurs regularly on the A4 between the West Town Lane/Callington Road junction and the approach to Hicks Gate.

 

[Jerry]

Does anyone know who the Bristol Airport express that goes from Cardiff to Bristol Airport via Newport is paid for by? Is it a National Express operation only or a Bristol airport paid for service?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Does anyone know who the Bristol Airport express that goes from Cardiff to Bristol Airport via Newport is paid for by? Is it a National Express operation only or a Bristol airport paid for service?

It's a National Express service operated by Edwards Coaches of Llantwit Fardre, one of National Express's contractors.

Ostensibly it's a National Express commercial venture but I've heard whispers that Bristol Airport may part-fund it or may have done when it started as it quickly replaced a previous service by another operator. If they do or did I suspect it would be regarded as commercially confidential.

It's certainly not an airport-operated service in the way that the A1 Bristol Flyer is or the Weston-super-Mare Flyer that the airport is to launch soon.

BRS has other services such as the South West Falcon (Stagecoach) that operates nearly hourly 24/7 between Bristol city, BRS, Taunton, Exeter and Plymouth, and the Bath A4 Air Decker to Bath (Bath Bus Company) that operates at 30/60 min intervals depending on time of day nearly 24/7.

The Falcon and Air Decker also pick up non-airport passengers along the way which doubtless supports the overall route. I've not heard that the airport supports them financially.

 

[superking]

was in lay by at edithmead Friday. seen the Plymouth coach come off the m5 at edithmead and as best I could see the coach was about half full, likewise a few mins later the Plymouth coach getting on the m5 was best I could see was half full and this was late morning.

 

[Jerry]

I've seen the Bristol Airport Express on the M4 sometimes and usually it's half full. Thanks for the reply TLY !

 

[TheLocalYokel]

was in lay by at edithmead Friday. seen the Plymouth coach come off the m5 at edithmead and as best I could see the coach was about half full, likewise a few mins later the Plymouth coach getting on the m5 was best I could see was half full and this was late morning.

I've seen the Bristol Airport Express on the M4 sometimes and usually it's half full. Thanks for the reply TLY !

As with the A1 Flyer the loads on the National Express service 216* to Newport/Cardiff and the South West Falcon (and the Bath Air Decker) vary according to the peaks and troughs of airline scheduling.

I've seen 100 people at BRS waiting for the next A1 and at other times it goes out empty or with a handful of passengers although as it's at least a 10-minute frequency for much of its time there isn't usually too long a wait for the next one unless the notorious traffic jams between airport and city occur. I've been at BRS when service 216 has deposited 40-plus passengers and at other times barely half a dozen. The Falcon and Bath Air Decker never seem so busy when I've been at the airport but as I said in my previous post they pick up non-airport passengers along the route with the A4 Air Decker particularly useful around some of the south Bristol suburbs that aren't linked by city buses.

The Falcon carried 150,000 passengers in the first eleven months of its operation (started February last year) a milestone that seems to have been reached ahead of Stagecoach management expectations, and after its first year of operation the Bath A4 Air Decker doubled its frequency to every 30 minutes for much of its operating times which called for a doubling of its liveried fleet (six double deckers I think) and which is slowly being modernised - one or two are still relatively old vehicles.

The more people that access the airport by public transport helps the airport in its quest to be seen as a good environmental neighbour.

* in recognition of the last Concorde built and to fly, hull 216, G-BOAF, which is at Filton soon to be the centre-piece of the new aero museum there

 

[TheLocalYokel]

On one of my walks today and I switched buses at the airport in early afternoon when a number of buses and long distance coaches were loading.

What struck me was how busy the southbound Falcon was. I'm not at the airport regularly but I've never seen so many getting on when I've been there in the past - must have been at least 40 people. A northbound Falcon arrived at that time but was not as busy. About a dozen got off.

I also noticed that the airport now has an impressive digital bus service display near where the Flyer loads. It has replaced the previous rather limited digital display. The new display lists all service bus and coach departures for about the next 90 minutes although, with traffic conditions being what they are, it's impossible to be accurate when predicting the exact time a bus will leave in an hour's time.

There is also a new display in real time listing all rail departure from Temple Meads in the next 20-30 minutes. That's fine up to a point but as the Flyer takes around 25 minutes to reach Temple Meads all those trains will have departed before it reaches the railway station.

 

[superking]

was at Churchill gate traffic lights today and a falcon coach up from devon was hailed by a man and women. coach pulled into layby,put 2 cases in luggage compartment man and women got on and coach departed. my question is. is this a hail and stop anywhere on route or would this be pre booked. I was suprised to see this happen,but there must be a simple answer to this.it was about mid day.