Yate has a rather splendid bus station which simply gets called "Yate Shopping Centre" in timetables.
It is right next to the obligatory enormous Tesco Extra and has five head-in stands and some pretty umbrellas to protect waiting passengers - a bit.
Getting in and out of the vehicle area can be tricky ...
... involving intersection with a queue of traffic on entering and leaving.
There were various departure lists and an electronic screen ...
... and from the top deck of his Y1, fbb spotted a Yate network map.
Was it correct for the new network? fbb couldn't tell from a distance but his guess would be (redacted!).
Sadly, there seemed to be nowhere for passengers to obtain the excellent First Bus timetable book.
On the first full day of the new network, surely First should have had some "customer relations" staff at this significant interchange to give advice and hand out the booklets? An opportunity missed - Poor.
It was busy, even at 1110 in the morning, with a queue of over a dozen to join the Y1 for "the estates" ...
... and a few arriving off the Y5 which runs straight down the main drag from Chipping Sodbury.
via Frampton Cotterell
Also alongside fbb's decker was a Y3 about to set off for Bristol.
It claimed thus on its screen:-
Y3 Bristol DIRECT
fbb's Y1 claimed it ran from Bristol to Chipping Sodbury "direct" which it didn't; as between Yate and the more superior Market Town it twiddled via estates and was far from "direct"
So to the Y3 and Y4. At Cabot Circus they were advertised on the same chunk of departure list ...
... sensibly as each is hourly and there is some commonality of places served. Like the Y1/Y2 pair, the Y3 runs to Bristol via a sizeable piece of the M32, whereas the Y4 uses traditional roads.
The Y1 takes a smidgen over 30 minutes to get from Yate to the bus station in Bristol, whilst the Y3 takes 36 minutes. The Y4 with multiple wiggles and via Fishponds will give you a pleasant 52 minutes ride into the City. They both use the Bus Station.
But there is a silliness in timetable presentation here, typical of output from a database rather than from a brain.
Here is the Y3 and Y4 outbound from Bristol.
They both terminate at Yate!
All together, "Oh No they don't!"
During the day the Y3 continues from Yate Bus station via Church Road and over an impressive flyover ...
During the day the Y3 continues from Yate Bus station via Church Road and over an impressive flyover ...
... before continuing to Brimsham Park, where sits the exciting Tesco Extra.
It loops round to join Goose Green Way ...
... and returns to the bus station by flying under the flyover which it has just flown over. OK, the map makes in clearer!
But the loop remains a secret for outbound passengers. According to First you can only go via Brimsham Park on journeys TO Bristol.
Poor - the loop should be shown on BOTH tables.
It is Y4 to Yate only (no Brimsham Park trips) evenings and Sundays.
As well as NOT using the M32, the Y4 takes a more wiggly route through Winterbourne, with a time point at The George and Dragon (to Bristol) and Post Office (from). fbb reckons "Co-op" would be more helpful - have a look around on Streetview!
The shelter is by the streetlamp. "Co-op" would do for the outbound stop on the Y4 and is closer to the outbound stop on the Y3 than the traditional pub!
A detail, dear boy, a mere detail!
The new Y3 and Y4 are almost a straight replacement for their immediate predecessors.
Going back further in history to the on-line 2014 leafletand GBBTT, things are not quite so clear (at least not to fbb!). X29 was the forerunner of the X46 ...
327 became the 46 ...
The Great Britain Bus Timetable of Y2K only shows a service X27/X29 running hourly via the M32 and Iron Acton ...
It is fascinating to see the vacillations in route numbering policy over even the last twenty years; and you do wonder how long it will be before the "Y" network gets a refurb and First proudly announces a new series of easy to remember route numbers?
And if, as it did for fbb, Goose Green Way ...
Tomorrow we will finally get to Chipping Sodbury and back!
Next Yate blog : Thursday 13th September
Minor point and for balance as its difficult to capture every facet of what’s been happening on the ground if you’re not in the area.
ReplyDeleteAs a Yate resident and user of the Y6(82) I must admit the First PR machine wasn’t as awful prior to these changes as with previous service changes/renumberings. There was some local resistance to the original plans, which involved removing services from some parts of north Yate which were not well received, but with begrudging credit to First, they rather surprisingly hastily addressed them, although not after some swift local campaigning.
There was a bit of a PR presence from First in Yate before the changes.
localfocus.blogspot.com/2018/08/first-bus-launches-new-bus-services-for.html
And I some respects more importantly in conjunction with the council, all households in the area had a leaflet drop including a copy of the timetable book and vouchers for a free day ticket and to go some way to try and engage commuters (I guess) also a half price weekly ticket.
In previous years there would have been a stack of leaflets on the bus for regular users and a notice tucked away on the First and council website if you were lucky, so whilst not great in every respect, this time round it seems a lot more well managed.
Yesterday a woman got on my bus there and asked if it was an X47. The driver tried to explain that we were with a new number but she refused to believe him and got off! One bit of confusion is most buses have double doors but drivers don't use them for some reason. Also why do Metrobus buses go so slow, even on normal roads. All my buses yesterday went significantly slower than the normal buses on shared roads. Have the drivers been told to go slow?
ReplyDeleteJust in case it interests you, Services 327 and 329 were altered in November 2012. The weekday evening 329 journeys run by First were withdrawn completely and replaced with extra 327 journeys. This meant some places on the 327 gained extra service provision whilst at the same time some places on the 329 route lost evening service provision. The Sunday and Bank Holiday only 329 journeys remained however.
ReplyDeleteThe services stayed like that until April 2014 when 327 and 329 were replaced with the 46. Service X46 initially ran alongside Service X27 but after about 6 months Wessex pulled the service for good.