Road, Rail & Access Issues

[LBA787]

Good news for BRS. Will this be duel carriageway?

:crazy:

 

[tpm]

With the Flyer currently using the congested Bedminster streets where a significant number of passengers are picked up and dropped off it will mean that a switch to the new Link will lose this facility.

I seem to remember statements by the airport to the effect that they still expect there to be a service from/to Bedminster when the flyer gets rerouted via Ashton Vale. And it makes sense too given the number of staff who live in South Bristol. Not sure what the source for that was though, possibly some consultative committee comments, one of my previous posts in this thread might say.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Good news for BRS. Will this be duel carriageway?

Not in the accepted sense so far as I can ascertain but there may be a central strip separating the opposing carriageways.

The link road will make it easier for traffic to access the airport from beyond the north of the city and from Wales, as a tortuous trip around parts of congested south Bristol will be removed.

The link road is part of a much larger traffic scheme including a dedicated bus route from the central rail station at Temple Meads to the beginning of the link road that is eventually planned to run around the whole of south Bristol and join up with the dual-carriageway Avon Ring Road to the east of the city that feeds into the M4/M5/M32 motorway systems.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/South-Bris ... story.html

I seem to remember statements by the airport to the effect that they still expect there to be a service from/to Bedminster when the flyer gets rerouted via Ashton Vale. And it makes sense too given the number of staff who live in South Bristol. Not sure what the source for that was though, possibly some consultative committee comments, one of my previous posts in this thread might say.

That would suggest some sort of feeder service which may not be viable or a separate service from Bedminster to the airport, as I understand the plan is to route the Flyer from Temple Meads along the proposed BRT (now renamed Metrobus) route to the South Bristol Link at Ashton.

Perhaps that has now changed.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Lots of rain around the area this morning with a number of roads in south Bristol closed early on with the main problem so far as BRS is concerned being the A4 Portway.
This notice currently appears on the BRS website.

The Bristol Portway is currently closed and will remain so for a further few hours due to flooding. Passengers travelling to and from the airport are advised to use J19 at Portishead rather than J18. Diversions are in place but we advise allowing extra time for your journey at this time.

 

[Aviador]

Bristol Airports reports that the M4 is closed Eastbound between from J28 to J24 with local diversions in place.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol Airports reports that the M4 is closed Eastbound between from J28 to J24 with local diversions in place.

Now open again - RTA involved a coach and other vehicles in South Wales.

Airport buses

The A4 Air Decker service that uses liveried green double deckers between central Bath and the airport hourly in both directions from 0300 until after midnight is now enjoying a speeded up timetable in the early mornings and evenings which enables an extra return journey to be operated leaving Bath at 2300 and returning from the airport at 0110 hours to arrive back at Bath at 0050.

I admit to being surprised that the service operated through the winter, let alone added more journeys. It's never very full when I see it with about 30 the most I've ever seen on board and that was in high summer. The Bath Bus Company must know what it's doing so all power to it.

The Greyhound service from South Wales has also operated through the winter from early till very late at hourly/two hourly intervals and seems to do decent business in the dark months. In summer it's not uncommon to see 40 or more passengers on it.

The Flyer seems to go from strength to strength.

The new A2 link service that operates via the airport to neighbouring villages and small towns using two buses to maintain the service never seems to have anyone on it (apart from the driver) when I've seen it at the airport. It's subsidised by the local council as a means of enabling connectivity between villages and the regular buses to Bristol and Weston-super-Mare along the main roads, and uses the airport as a convenient stopover location within the schedule. The buses are First vehicles and now seem to have been given a dedicated livery. And councils are supposed to be short of money!

The other airport service is the First 121 between Bristol and Weston that calls at the airport en route in both directions. It's only two hourly although additional journeys are now made to/from the airport from Weston in the evenings. The regular Bristol-Weston high frequency X services don't go near the airport.

The expansion plans call for a major public transport interchange at the airport. It seems it can't come too soon. Last week I was at BRS about 10.30am in midweek when along the relatively small area in front of the terminal which is restricted to authorised vehicles I saw a very large single decker on the 121 service, two mid sized single deckers on the A 2 service, a double decker on the A 4 service, a large coach on First's 100 South Wales service, two Airport Flyers (large Volvo single deckers) and three large car park buses, including a 'bendy' bus, all looking for parking/pick-up space in front of the terminal. It looked like a local high street in the rush hour.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The South Wales Greyhound service is being speeded up from Sunday with a revised route. It will no longer call at UWE, North Bristol or at Bristol country bus & coach station but, instead, will avoid the often congested central areas of the city entirely with its new route via Avonmouth and the A4 Portway.

I could never understand why it routed via the Bristol bus station as it didn't carry passengers between there and the airport, and the circuitous and slow journey via UWE seemed pointless.

[textarea]Changes to Greyhound mean faster journeys between Bristol Airport and South Wales

A change to the route and timetable of Greyhound UK services means that from Sunday 4 May journey times for people travelling between Swansea and Bristol Airport by will be even shorter.

The change is being made to coincide with the launch of summer flight schedules and follows the announcement of new routes and increased capacity by airlines operating at the Airport.

The introduction of larger aircraft by Thomas Cook Airlines will deliver a 20 per cent increase in the number of flight-only seats and holidays it offers from Bristol this summer, while Thomson and First Choice have announced plans to add four new routes (to Pula and Dubrovnik in Croatia, Marrakesh in Morocco, and Santorini in Greece) from summer 2015. New services to Shannon (with Aer Lingus Regional) and Bologna (with Ryanair) started last month, and a codeshare agreement between bmi regional and Lufthansa makes connections to the German airline’s global network of 235 destinations accessible to passengers on flights to Munich (daily) and Frankfurt (twice daily).

For people from South Wales flying out of Bristol Airport, or for travellers coming into the country and looking for onward travel to Newport, Cardiff, Bridgend or Swansea, the Greyhound UK service operated by First Cymru offers the perfect way to get there. Luxury coaches – offering access to extra legroom and free onboard WiFi – leave Bristol Airport every hour for travel to Cardiff, and every two hours for journeys through to Swansea.

Travelling by Greyhound also means people can enjoy seamless journeys to and from the airport without needing to change between modes of transport (ie train / bus). Similarly passengers can leave the stress of driving, the hassle (and cost) of parking, and the cost of bridge tolls to someone else. Greyhound UK coaches pick up and drop off passengers right outside Bristol Airport’s terminal building and with journeys between Swansea and Bristol costing as little as £10* per person, per trip, there is really is no better way to get to there and back.

The changes to the route and timetable from 4 May – which mean Greyhound UK will no longer call at Bristol Bus Station or the University of the West of England – mean that end to end journey times will be up to 25 minutes shorter (depending on the time of day).

Talking about the changes Simon Cursio, Business Performance Director says: “Since its launch in March 2013 the Swansea to Bristol Airport Greyhound service has gone from strength to strength. We’re seeing increasing demand for travel in both directions – both into Wales from the Airport and vice versa. The addition of new routes and services will no doubt increase the appeal for both business travellers and holiday makers too, and we’d like to build on this moving forward.

“Customers should note that in revising the new timetable we’ve taken steps to speed up the end to end journey times; avoiding some of the issues we’ve faced with congestion in and around Bristol. We believe these quicker journeys into and out of Wales will appeal to more people, while those wishing to travel to North Bristol from the Airport will still have the option to use the other services that operate in that area.”

Pete Downes, Head of Commercial Ground Transportation at Bristol Airport, adds: “We are focused on improving access to Bristol Airport for customers from across our catchment area. The Greyhound service forms an important part of our surface access strategy and these timetable changes improve what is already an excellent service for passengers in South Wales.”

The changes at a glance:

From Sunday 4 May Greyhound services will run hourly between Bristol Airport and Cardiff and every two hours between Bristol Airport and Swansea.

Some existing journeys have been extended to operate to and from Swansea University. Specifically the 0845 departure from Swansea to Bristol Airport will begin at the University, while two journeys from Cardiff, leaving at 0725 and 1530 hours, will also be extended to terminate at the University.

To speed up journey times, Greyhound UK coaches will no longer call at the University of West of England Campus in North Bristol or Bristol Bus Station. Instead they’ll travel via Avonmouth and Ashton Gate on their way to Bristol Airport. Coaches will serve stops outside the Portway Park and Ride and on Winterstoke Road in Bristol just outside the Ashton Gate Stadium.[/textarea]
http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-c ... hound.aspx

 

[superking]

greyhound service.
its nice to know its going well. its like a lot ot things when put on there is always a few tweaks here and there. Untill you try this and that , you dont know rightly what will or wont work.
different point. do we know how the decker service from bath is doing, if its still running.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

greyhound service.
its nice to know its going well. its like a lot ot things when put on there is always a few tweaks here and there. until you try this and that , you dont know rightly what will or wont work.
different point. do we know how the decker service from bath is doing, if its still running.

Yes, the A4 Air Decker Bath service is still running.

In February off peak journeys were speeded up and an additional return journey was added during the late evening/early morning. It still runs hourly starting at 0300 from Bath with the last bus leaving the airport at midnight.

It never seems particularly full but does pick up local non-airport passengers along the route as a local bus service, and particularly in the outer suburbs of south Bristol links some areas not directly linked by normal city bus services.

At £20 return and £14 single I suppose it doesn't need too many passengers to be profitable.

It's nice to see green double deckers running in the area again - reminds me of years ago when the Bristol Omnibus Company held sway before it indirectly became one of the founding companies of First.
http://www.bathbuscompany.com/images/New_Timetable.png

 

[superking]

carefull going too far back or we will get side tracked again, as much as i like talking what happened and how in them years back.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

carefull going too far back or we will get side tracked again, as much as i like talking what happened and how in them years back.

We forget the lessons of history in so many things. Succeeding generations keep reinventing the wheel.

Looking at BRS in 2014, given its lack of rail connectivity the various bus links are comprehensive with the A1 Flyer up to every eight minutes for much of the day, the A2 Link to the local villages and towns, the A4 Air Decker to Bath, the Greyhound 100 to South Wales and the 121 to Weston and Bristol, not to mention the National Express route 404 between London and Penzance that calls at the airport in both directions in the early hours each day.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Airport Flyer

I use the Flyer regularly and not just when I fly from BRS.

I've noticed that since the frequency was enhanced to every 8/9 minutes earlier this year for much of the 24-hour period, the reliability is not what it was.

What often seems to happen is that a Flyer en route to the airport will spend several minutes at Temple Meads loading a lot of passengers if it hits a time when several trains arrive with the result that the next one will be more lightly loaded and catch up. It's not uncommon to see them almost in convoy at times along the A 38 - yesterday afternoon I saw three heading to the airport within a minute of each other, and last week I saw four on the Temple Circus Gyratory at the same time - two inbound and two outbound.

It's not helped of course by the horrendous road works with the Bristol Water Company digging up half the city with two serious pinch points outside Temple Meads and at Bedminster Down.

The result can be no Flyer at the airport for several minutes awaiting passengers coming off fights, something that rarely happened (in my experience anyway) during the day with the previous 10-minute timetable.

That a couple of minutes can make such a difference seems ridiculous but I've noticed this phenomenon with city buses. A double decker route near me operates a cross-city journey that is timetabled at nearly 90 minutes for the entire route. When it was at 12 minute intervals the reliability wasn't too bad but now it's every ten minutes the buses bunch up - two, sometimes three in quick succession is now common - again because one will become heavily loaded with the next ones picking up fewer passengers. In Bristol we still have the archaic situation of bus drivers accepting money for tickets and having to fish around for change.

The First Greyhound 100 service between the airport and Newport/Cardiff/Swansea has had one or two problems recently. I've seen coaches broken down at the airport and at Lulsgate Bottom on the A 38.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Rail link

The announcement last week that the airport terminal is to be extended, with the airport management saying it would be a positive influence in their attempts to re-start their NYC service and gain a Middle East route, gave rise to a number of fanciful reports in the local news media that exotic locations on the other side of the world would be in the mix.

Clearly this was partly journalistic licence to fill newspaper space but inevitably some readers took it at face value and assume that a mini Heathrow is about to be launched one hundred miles to the west of the real one.

A number of newspaper readers and at least one local website thought that it could never be a proper airport without a rail link and in so doing ignored the tremendous operational and cost implications.

The aforementioned website believes that a link from the Bristol-Exeter line at Yatton some four miles from the airport is the way to go. This ignores the considerable civil engineering difficulties in getting a line to climb several hundred feet in so short a distance and the realities in not only finding rolling stock but also pathways on a busy main line. Anyone who uses the commuter trains in and out of Bristol will know the RSPCA would be on the case if cattle were packed in so tightly, but there are allegedly no spare coaches/trains anywhere on the system.

If the £20-£30 million needed to link Portishead with Bristol can't be found (there is a freight line to within three miles of Portishead and the old railway trackbed is in place all the way to the town which is a large and growing commuter dormitory town) the far greater sum needed to link the airport is just pie in the sky.

The Flyer bus is not perfect but it runs as a train and at a much greater frequency than any rail connection could hope for.

 

[tpm]

Well, Weston Super-Mare is supposed to be part of the MetroWest network, so slots in the timetable will have to be found for that anyway, and if trains were to detour via the airport on a spur line that would probably increase overall capacity slightly, since the slow train would free the line whilst on the spur line. The costs are a problem of course. The advantage of a rail link that's integrated with the MetroWest network would be that you'd suddenly have most parts of the city and surrounding areas directly connected to the airport, e.g there could be three trains an hour, one going up the Severn Beach line, one to Bath, one to Yate via Bristol Parkway. This would increase perceived connectivity massively. One can dream. Perhaps it will be considered more seriously when the airport is close to its 10mppa limit in 2030 and another extension is needed

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It would be an interesting spur that had to climb over 500 feet in around four miles.I suppose it could only be done in tunnel for part of the route as the hills rise fairly abruptly in what would be the last two miles of the line.

I shan't see a rail link in my lifetime.

The airport is currently restricted to a maximum of 10 mppa by its planning consents. If and when it approached the 10 mppa there will be some interesting debates with the environmental lobby.

 

[Ash]

Will be flying into BRS from KEF in a couple of weeks and looking at best/cheapest public transport to get back to Bham. Never been before so wondering what the best way to Temple Meads is? Bus from airport or is there a closer station?

Any ideas welcome, thanks!

 

[superking]

Will be flying into BRS from KEF in a couple of weeks and looking at best/cheapest public transport to get back to Bham. Never been before so wondering what the best way to Temple Meads is? Bus from airport or is there a closer station?

Any ideas welcome, thanks!

There is a bus service direct to temple meads station. it runs every 10 minutes, and i beleive every 30 minutes during the night.they leave from outside the terminal building and drop off at temple meads right outside, so not much lugging cases.
hope that helps,
have a good flightand bus transfer.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Just to add to superking's reply, this is the link to the Airport Flyer service.

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/getting ... -link.aspx

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]UK’s first ever bus to run on human and food waste launched

The UK’s first ever bus powered on food waste and human poo has taken to the road today which engineers believe could provide a sustainable way of fuelling public transport - cutting emissions in polluted towns and cities.

The 40-seater Bio-Bus, which runs on gas generated through the treatment of sewage and food waste that’s unfit for human consumption, helps to improve urban air quality as it produces fewer emissions than traditional diesel engines.

Running on waste products that are both renewable and sustainable, the bus can travel up to 300km on a full tank of gas generated at Bristol sewage treatment works – a plant run by GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water.

This week GENeco became the first company in the UK to start injecting gas generated from food waste and sewage into the national gas grid network and at the same time installed a gas refuelling plant for the bus.

GENeco general manager Mohammed Saddiq said: “Through treating sewage and food that’s unfit for human consumption we’re able to produce enough biomethane to provide a significant supply of gas to the national gas network that’s capable of powering almost 8,500 homes as well as fuelling the Bio-Bus.

“Gas powered vehicles have an important role to play in improving air quality in UK cities, but the Bio-Bus goes further than that and is actually powered by people living in the local area, including quite possibly those on the bus itself.

“Using biomethane in this way not only provides a sustainable fuel, but also reduces our reliance on traditional fossil fuels.”

The Bio-Bus can travel up to 300km on a full tank of gas, which takes the annual waste of around five people to produce.

Using the annual waste generated from one bus load of passengers, would provide enough power for it to travel a return journey from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

All aboard the Bio-Bus

Today (20 November 2014) the first passengers to get on board the Bio-Bus were visitors to the UK who were commuting from Bristol Airport to the historic city of Bath.

Bath Bus Company, which is operating the service, said the bus was greener for the environment and added that it was extremely pleased to be using the Bio-Bus for its rapidly growing A4 service from Bath to Bristol Airport via South Bristol.

Collin Field, engineering director, at Bath Bus Company, said: “Up to 10,000 passengers are expected to travel on the A4 service in a month, which is available not only for airport travel, but also local journeys along the route through Saltford, Keynsham, Brislington, Knowle and Hengrove.

“As part of the RATP Dev UK group, this represents RATP Dev’s involvement in the latest of a number of initiatives to gain experience of alternative fuels, with sister companies also experimenting with different alternatives. The information we gain, will be shared with other group companies across the UK and Europe.

“The timing of this initiative could not be more appropriate as we approach 2015 when the City of Bristol itself becomes European Green Capital. With so much attention being directed towards improving air quality generally, the public reaction to the appearance of this bus on a service between a World Heritage City and an airport will further focus on the potential for this particular fuel.”

Melanie King, Bristol Airport’s environmental manager, added: “Sustainability and surface access are key areas of focus for us and we welcome new technologies which could reduce the environmental impact of getting to and from the Airport. With Bristol set to be European Green Capital in 2015, this is one of several exciting initiatives we hope to be involved with over the course of the year.”

Bristol sewage treatment works treats around 75 million cubic metres of sewage waste and 35,000 tonnes of food waste, collected from households, supermarkets and food manufacturers, every year.

Through a process, known as anaerobic digestion, 17 million cubic metres of biomethane is generated a year at the Bristol plant – the equivalent of meeting the power needs of 8,300 homes. A newly built state-of-the-art gas plant injects the gas into the grid.

Charlotte Morton, chief executive of the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA), said: “GENeco’s Bio-Bus is an excellent demonstration of biomethane’s unique benefits; decarbonising areas other renewables can’t reach. A home generated green gas, biomethane is capable of replacing around 10% of the UK’s domestic gas needs and is currently the only renewable fuel available for HGVs.

“The bus also clearly shows that human poo and our waste food are valuable resources. Food which is unsuitable for human consumption should be separately collected and recycled through anaerobic digestion into green gas and biofertilisers, not wasted in landfill sites or incinerators. The Bio-Bus will also help to demonstrate the true value of separate food waste collections, which are now obligatory in all other regions, to the English government.”

The Bio-Bus has received backing from a number of businesses including the manufacturer of the bus, Scania, as well as companies including Roadgas, CNG Services Ltd, Dampney’s Agri Environmental, Trant, Grontmij and AIR Decker.

In 2010 GENeco powered a car on biomethane produced during the sewage treatment process. The Bio-Bug was used in various trials to see how viable it was to power a vehicle on sewage gas.[/textarea]

See http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-c ... o-bus.aspx

This is an airport press release so is reproduced in full.

It's being used on the airport's A4 Bath service which is normally operated by luggage rack-equipped double deckers. For once people will have some justification when they say that Bristol's bus services are a load of cr*p.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It's a shame that nothing was forthcoming to improve access to BRS in the government's £15 billion roads programme announced today. A direct link to the M5 would be very useful, to put it mildly.

There will be a new junction from the M49 (near to both the M4 and M5) to open up still more access to the vibrant Avonmouth/Severnside area. I was surprised to learn that it's the largest brown field site in Western Europe.

Already there are huge warehouses and related industrial buildings and this initiative (assuming today's announcement doesn't disappear in the cloud of a new government's different policies after the General Election) will create thousands more jobs which can't be a bad thing for the airport.