Revealed today in "The Word", First Bristol's weekly staff newsletter is yet another hand-over of First Bus operations to Stagecoach!
In this case it is the X5 and the Severn Express - both of which have featured before in these blogs.
The X5 runs hourly (Mon to Sat) from Weston-super-Mud to the shopping Mall at Cribbs Causeway.
There are four complete journeys on a Sunday.
It makes use of the M5 crossing the Avon on the spectacular Motorway Bridge. A double deck bus ride is well worth taking, even if the delights of Cribbs Causeway are less than appealing.
It has an excellent leaflet ...
... and the orange buses certainly stand out from the crowd!
As a special bonus, you get an inclusive circular tour of Clevedon!
What greater thrill could you imagine?
The Seven Express (Bristol to Newport South Wales) does not make such a stand-out appearance, presumably being branded for "quality".
It has had a chequered route-number history, being simply X7 at one stage.
Further back it was a hotch-potch of X10, X11 and X14, ironically joint with Stagecoach South Wales ...
... who pulled out leaving at all to first. X7 became 7XP (SeveRn eXPress? gettit!) with its own dedicated and liveried deckers.
Anyway, from 1st September both of these routes will be operated by Stagecoach from their Patchway depot, a base which came with their purchase of the South Gloucestershire bus company.
It will be interesting to see if they match the quality vehicles usually allocated by First. fbb guesses that such lavish provision is unlikely.
And Back to Guildford
fbb set off on his Stagecoach service 1 via the University. Some buses on the route were double deck which would have provided a better view of the campus.
The uni was built in the arc of the railway lines between town and Aldershot and Reading.
It was once a largely open undeveloped site (Guildford Park) ...
... very close to the town centre.
The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institution was previously known as Battersea College of Technology and was located in Battersea Park, London. Its roots however, go back to Battersea Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1891 to provide higher education for London's poorer inhabitants.
It shares the site with Guildford Cathedral.
The main entrance to the campus is big and very open, complete with a trendy "artwork" ...
... but Stagecoach service 1 enters via the back door, as it were, seen here with a now displaced Arrive bus on its way back to town from the 26/27 circular; but Stagecoach does the same.
Here fbb's route 1 met the dreaded "rising bollards" which prevent unauthorised users from creeping in through the back way.
Aha! That's what the "artwork" represents at the other end of the site!
The descending bollard is hidden by the front of the bus ...
... but fbb is always anxious at this point. What would happen if a bus load of eager students approached and the bollard stayed risen? There is nowhere to turn round! At Northampton's new Uni campus a rising bollard rose majestically underneath a Uno bus causing much damage and much delay - so fbb's fears are not unwarranted.
The campus was deserted and only a few (possibly) language school students came and went. But the Uni's cruise liner had just docked on the campus ...
... (?) but everywhere was, understandably, deserted and the ten minute frequency was far too generous - but fair enough if the Uni is paying a good part of the bill!
And so on to another loop via Manor Park, home to the Uni's sports facilities ...
... with a long stretch of bus only road and provided with a ducky one-stand mini bus station, again seen via Streetview pre-Stagecoach.
The gyrations were quite disorientating but somehow the bus found its way round part of the extensive student village ...
... before performing yet another loop by turning back on itself to end up at the Hospital.
The Guildford bus map might help, despite a simplification of several of the wiggles?
This was the purpose of fbb's ride because here, at the hospital, Stagecoach, Arriva and Safeguard all meet up in a ludicrously over-bussed attempt to extract some fares revenue from visitors and staff.
Due to the Bristol news above, readers will have to wait until tomorrow for the results of a 40 minutes sojourn outside the hospital's main entrance watching buses in profusion pass by. There was a reasonably comfortable wall to sit on ...
... and a wide range of personal input and output needs just inside the main entrance.
What more could a bus watcher want?
Next Guildford blog PLUS ; Saturday 20th July
Stagecoach have been involved in the operation across the Severn Bridge before as it was, at one time, a joint First/Stagecoach operation. Stagecoach input was from its Cwmbran depot. Many moons ago it ran under the name of ExpressWest, with through services from Bristol to Haverfordwest. The original routes across the bridge started on 8th September 1966 as a joint operation between Bristol Omnibus and Red & White Services. The stopping service was numbered 300 and ran from Bristol to Cardiff via Chepstow and the A48, taking over the longstanding R&W Gloucester/Cardiff route west of Chepstow. The other route, also a BOC/R&W joint operation, was the 301 using the M4 for most of the journey between Bristol and Newport, so not serving Chepstow, and then limited stop to Cardiff.
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