Using UK's public transport means you are patient, tolerant and have stamina, specially if living in rural areas. But today, I wrote this to First Somerset and Avon:
"Service 332 Bath - Bristol
For the past decade, I have been tolerating unreliability of this service in the Bath direction. The one that is delayed almost daily is the 0830 bus from Bristol, due at 0900 in Bitton.
First Somerset and Avon and their predecessors have given me a wide range of excuses. I understood delays when cabot circus was being built. I understood this prior to bus lanes in church road, St. George, Bristol. You can tell me now delays are due to traffic but I won't believe you.
Recently, a fellow passenger reported that the bus hadn't left Bristol bus station at 0850, some 20 minutes after it was supposed to. No information was given to passengers. The electronic displays at Bristol are a 'pretend' system rather than 'real time'. Information simply disappears off-screen a few minutes after departure time, irrespective of whether a bus has left or not.
For the past decade, I have been periodically pointing out the idiotic gaps in your timetable for both the 319 and 332 services. Here's one final time. At 0700, both buses in the Bath direction arrive at the same time. Then there's almost an hour's gap. Again, both buses arrive in Bitton at 0755 or thereabouts. Then an hour's gap. The 332 is scheduled at 0900 and the 319 at 0929. As the 332 from Bristol is almost always late, usually by about 30 minutes at Bitton, again, both buses arrive within minutes of each other. After that, buses revert to an almost-sensible 30 minute interval between services. So basically, at peak hours 0700-0900, you run both buses at the same time with an hourly gap. It's surely common sense to run services more frequently during peak hours?
Recently, I spoke with WessexConnect regarding filling the gaps left by your timetable. They said they would consider it after strenghtening their services in Bath. I'm pleased about this. Rather than paying 1400 gbp annually for poor service from First, I 'd be able to use WessexConnect for a fraction of the cost.
A picture used in a local history book is one of a double-decker at Hanham taken in 1917. Its caption says something like: "...Hourly bus. Its destination states, Longwell green, Bitton, Kelston. It is probably on its way to Bath." So 93 years on, nothing much has changed.
2 comments:
Yes, I've always thought the bus provision from Longwell Green and Bitton to Bath was appalling. It was why I (and no doubt countless others) ended up commuting by car. And the buses were usually of a lower standard than those going into Bristol.
Maybe, just maybe, if you realised how the 332 is worked, by 2 buses all day, then you would realise why it is late coming back to Bath. It gets stuck in traffic heading into Bristol, which delays its return to Bath at 0830.
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