The Greyhound and The Fox Part 4

The First Fox Bus Route

The on-line PDF implies that leaflets were printed in hard copy; but fbb's Bristol contacts cannot confirm this as they do not live on the 65 route. The publicity, however, was very smart complete with little cartoon sheep (?) ...

... and full company details.

There was also an excellent map.

The service ran via the busy Bristol Road through Redcliffe and Totterdown, turning off the main road at Broad Walk. The route appeared to be a misture of First's 50 and 51 services ...

... continuing via ASDA to Whitchurch.

But this service was not competitive with First Bus. How so? It ran only on Boxing Day, 26th December 2015 ...

... when firsts 50 group of services was not running despite an extensive netywork on the post festive day.

CityFox's leaflet advertised an hourly service (click on the timetable to enlarge) ...

According to Fox's on-line presence, it was well received and hugely successful. It was FREE!

There's that favourite bus, always well turned out.

The service was advertised to run again on January 1st 2016.

The company even promised a card payment on their buss although January 1st was also free..

... something fbb thinks would be unique in the UK.

And they intend to offer smartcard technology to their passengers!

But, sadly, no further buses have been in service.

Until now, that is.

This FREE bus does a circuit of the city centre linking Temple Meads with various locations on Old Market Street. The loop via the inner rins road is off-map to the left.

Running every 15 minutes this operation will need two buses and (probably) five or six drivers.

It will be interesting to see how the company manages its resources to deliver this operation, much bigger than anything delivered so far. fbb will try to arrange for a correspondent to take a look on the day and report back. Perhaps a selection of the taxi fleet will need to be deployed?

But there is also a "free travel" offer from First (terms and conditions apply!).

Fascinating times in Bristol.

Tomorrow we conclude this series by taking a trip to Cornwall where, for various reasons, initial enthusiasm seems to have waned. .

fbb has received a statement from the company explaining and answering some of the criticisms that have been raised on-line. Both fbb and the company would appreciate that there will be no no further speculation until these matters are dealt with in Friday's blog.

Thank you.

Please Note : If you read yesterday's blog between 0200 and 0900 you will have missed a bit. Additional info was added later. (read again) here.

 Next Cornwall Fox blog - Thursday 23rd June