8 Is Great ; 9 Not Fine

8 And 9 : How It Was

An old "First Overground" map helps fbb's jaded memory. It shows (less than clearly, unfortunately) that the 8 and 9 travelled opposite ways round a loop via Clifton and Redland (8) and vice versa (9).

The diagram is poor, as so often such route maps are, but it is clearly labelled with 8s and 9s and directional arrows.

fbb does not know for certain when these "Clifton Circulars" started but does remember using the No 8 route from station to town as a student on an all-lines rail rover expedition. 

The internet has a Bristol RE showing an appropriate blind and destination.

Under the National Bus Company standardisation it appears that the 8 was a stand-alone operation.

Ironically this route via Clifton alone was in some ways prophetic, as we shall see.

In a pre-privatisation rebrand, the city services operated by the Bristol Omnibus Company become "City Line" in a livery far removed from standard Tilling bus group green.

And we now have a clear presentation of the "Clifton Circulars"

The curse of the minibus was soon in the ascendancy.

The small vehicles gained their own brand as "City Dart".

But, for the time being the "circular" route and service pattern remained broadly the same.

But then comes First Bus and things become disappointingly complex by comparison.

fbb has no idea what diversion on the circulars was designated by the "A" suffix, but the core route via Clifton and Redland remains.

8 an 9 : How It Is!

It was in 2016 that the "revolution" happened according to  the B24/7 web site. The both-ways-round loop was undone and we were left with the 8 (MID GREEN) returning to that National Bus map as pictured above, but retaining a relatively high frequency.

The 9  (MAUVE) served Redland and Clifton Down station in its own one way terminal loop. The 9 frequency was very much reduced, but, by way of compensation journeys on route 72 (PALE GREEN) filled the gap between Temple Meads and Redland.

The link between Redland, Clifton Down and Clifton was broken and fbb guesses this did not go down well with the locals.

So we move to the present situation with a new but similar map,

A new terminal loop on route 9 now serves Clifton village.

Thus we have the timetables as revealed in an earlier blog.

A "frequent" 8 is joined by a half hourly 9 on its new route via Redland, Clifton Down and Clifton, with an additional half hourly 72 as far as Redland.

The 72, like the 73, runs to the University of the West of England's Frenchay Campus. Only an hourly 72 runs on Sundays with no route 9 trips.

You can't help feeling it is all a bit of a mess and, possibly, over complex for the poor travelling public. A commercial bus service is rarely stable as the need for profitability brings pressures for "revision" - almost always a euphemism for "cut-backs".

But the 72 now has electric buses ...

... so that is some compensation for repeated service changes.

Isn't  it?

Well, no, it isn't. A depleted service with a trendy planet-saving bus is still a depleted service!

Tomorrow brings stunning proposals for Temple Meads station including the stunning (?) removal of the 8, 9 and 72 from conveniently next to the station entrance.

Stunning!

Progress, indeed!

  Entrances galore blog ; Fri 6 June