First Bus announce raft of changes

First are rescheduling many of its services and introducing some changes to its Bristol network from next month in response to recent problems with punctuality and reliability.

A brand new route, X48, will operate between the Bristol and Bath Science Park in Emersons Green and the city centre. Sunday frequencies will also be increased on Services 17, 24, 39, 75/76, 46, X6, X74 and X49. 

There will be 70 new drivers working in the city and 12 new buses brought into use by the end of March. 

First West of England managing director James Freeman said: “We are making a whole raft of changes to our network from the end of March in a real effort to tackle the problems that we have seen recently with services not running as they should do. 

“We have already brought in more double-deckers to the Bristol fleet – with more to come later this summer and now we are putting more buses and consequently more drivers on the road.   These will help us overcome the challenges of congestion in the city, while also providing extra capacity for the increasing number of people wishing to use our services.”

Specific changes, effective as of March 29:

Service 1 (Cribbs Causeway – Broomhill) and Service 2 (Cribbs Causeway – Stockwood): The timetables of both of these services are being completely overhauled with a focus placed on resolving current punctuality issues. Specifically an extra vehicle will be used at key times to help ensure the timetable stays on track. There will also be extra journeys added into the timetable at set times. 

There will be a change to the night time timetable on Service 2 as well. From March 29 night bus journeys on the latter will only operate between the City Centre and Stockwood (no longer serving the section between the Centre and Cribbs Causeway as at present), with departures from the city centre (Colston Avenue) at midnight, 1am and 2am six nights a week.   Customers wishing to travel towards Whiteladies Road at night time will be able to use Service 40 for this, while those wishing to travel between the Centre and Cribbs Causeway (via Southmead and Brentry) late at night should be able to use Service 76, which will operate 24 hours a day. 

Service 5 (Centre – Oldbury Court): To address punctuality and reliability concerns the timetable is being overhauled and the route is being amended.  In the city centre the terminus is being moved from Rupert Street to Lewins Mead. This change will reduce the amount of congestion that buses get caught up in the centre, and will mean that buses are more able to keep to time.  In addition to this the route is also being amended in Fishponds, Downend and Emersons Green.  Specifically buses will cease to run as far as Emersons Green from 29 March, and will instead terminate at Oldbury Court. People wishing to travel between Bromley Heath and Emersons Green will be able to use the new Service X48 instead. 

Service 17/17A (Southmead Hospital – Keynsham): This service is being adjusted in a number of ways.  Firstly to address concerns regarding the punctuality and reliability of buses, the timetable is being completely overhauled. In some instances up to 15 minutes is being added to individual journeys in the timetable to make them more robust. There will also be a number of extra journeys on Sundays and Public Holidays – providing opportunities to travel both earlier in the day and later into the evening. 

The route that the buses take is also being amended, with a new variation – to be known as Service 17A – created.  While all Service 17 and Service 17A buses will provide journeys between Southmead Hospital and Keynsham on every trip, they’ll follow slightly different routes between Keynsham and Kingswood. Service 17 will go via Court Farm Road, Ellacombe Road, Woodward Drive and will operate the full length of Hanham Road while Service 17A will go via  Bath Road, Stone Hill, Mount Hill Road, Cock Road, Weston Way and Courtney Road. Both services will serve the new Somerdale development on all journeys to and from Keynsham. 

The changes mean that between Kingswood and Keynsham the overall frequency of buses will double, from one an hour, to one every half hour.  This reflects the massive increase in demand for the service that the company has seen since it began running the service in April 2014. 

Service 24 (Southmead Hospital – Ashton Vale): To address concerns regarding the punctuality and reliability of buses on this route, First is making a number of changes to the timetable, while also adding extra resources (two extra buses and seven more drivers) at certain times too. 

The company is adding extra time into the timetable to help ensure that buses can recover should they inadvertently become stuck in traffic congestion.  There will also be significant improvements to the Sunday and Public Holiday timetable. Specifically on these days there will be an earlier first journey from Ashton Vale to Southmead Hospital at 0745 hours, while buses across the rest of the day will run every 20 minutes (rather than every half an hour at present). 

Throughout the rest of the week, there will be a later last journey from Ashton Vale to Southmead Hospital at 2308 hours. Between Monday and Friday there will also be some extra journeys at peak times, which should alleviate some of the capacity issues that have arisen in recent months as a result of the 40% increase in the number of fare paying passengers seen between April and December 2014. 

Finally, there will be a number of extra evening journeys (Monday to Saturday) between 1830 and 2030 hours, which should also help to relieve some of the capacity concerns at these times. 

Service 35 (Bristol – Marshfield): The timetable for this service is being adjusted to improve the punctuality and reliability of buses.  Some early morning commuter journeys will be brought forward slightly – by five or ten minutes.  In addition there will be some changes to the Saturday timetable, with some journeys brought forward or pushed back, and some extra journeys added in.

Service 36 (Centre – Hengrove): To address concerns regarding the punctuality and reliability of Service 36 buses both the timetable and the route are being significantly revised. The changes will significantly improve punctuality, but they do mean that the outermost section of the route between Hengrove Park at Hartcliffe and Withywood is being withdrawn, to allow the buses to concentrate on the main parts of the journey between the Centre and Hengrove.   

Once the changes are made, Service 36 will start and terminate outside First’s Hengrove depot (Roman Farm Road). Buses will also serve Hawkfield Road in both directions. The change means that access to the Hengrove Leisure Park, from Service 36, will be improved. 

People living between Hartcliffe and Withywood who are concerned about the changes should note though Service 75 covers the whole of the section of route that is being withdrawn. The latter runs every 10 minutes during the daytime and covers exactly the same roads as Service 36 over that section at present. 

From March 29 those people, who previously used Service 36 to travel to and from Withywood, will need to use Service 75 as far as The South Bristol Skills Academy at Hengrove Park, changing to or from Service 36 there.

In addition to this, the route of Service 36 is also being amended so that it no longer calls at Tesco Brislington in Callington Road. The diversion that the buses currently take to serve Tesco means that the vehicles regularly get caught up in congestion and shopper traffic in and around the car park. To avoid this – while creating a faster and better journey for those travelling between the other points on the route – the buses will not divert from the Wells Road after the 29 March.

Service 37 (Bristol – Bitton – Bath): To accommodate the changes being made to other services on the same corridor, the timetable is changing slightly. The alterations mainly affect peak time journeys.  Some departures at these times will change by up to 10 minutes.

Service 38 (Bristol – Keynsham continuing to Bath): The timetable is being adjusted to improve the punctuality and reliability of service. In addition, following agreement between First and Abus, brokered by Bath and North East Somerset Council, the two companies will accept all of each other’s season tickets from 29 March. The route of the Abus Service 349 is also being adjusted so that it follows the same route as Service 38, including starting and finishing at Bristol Bus Station.  This means bus users will have greater choice between the two services. It also means that First season ticket holders will be able to board either Service 38 or 349 for journeys to and from Keynsham, using their valid day, week, month and annual tickets on the Abus service. 

Service 39/X39 (Bristol – Bath): The timetables of these services are being adjusted to improve the punctuality and reliability of buses.  In addition, an extra vehicle will be used at peak times to ensure that the services are better able to cope with the level of congestion that they sometimes face.   

On Service X39 there will also be some additional peak time journeys between Bristol and Bath which will provide extra capacity on this increasingly popular service. There will also be extra journeys on Service 39 on Sundays and Public Holidays too.

Service 42 (Centre – Keynsham): To compensate for the previous withdrawal of the tendered Service 533 (previously operated by Wessex) the route of Service 42 is being amended between Bitton and Keynsham.   Buses will operate via Cherry Garden Lane and Kenilworth Drive. One bus stop on Cherry Garden Lane will no longer be served by this route. 

Service 43 (Centre – Cadbury Heath), Service 44 (Centre – Kingswood), Service 45 (Centre – Longwell Green): To alleviate some capacity issues that have arisen at set times First is putting some extra resource into these routes.  There will be some additional journeys on Service 43 at peak times between Kingswood and the City Centre, while on Services 44 and 45 an extra vehicle will be used during the day (Monday – Friday) to provide extra recovery time at the end of journeys. This should mean that incidences of journeys starting late, because the previous journey ran late, are reduced. 

Service 46/X46 (Bristol – Yate / Chipping Sodbury): The timetable is being adjusted to improve the overall punctuality and reliability of buses. Specifically extra time is being added in, especially during the morning and afternoon peak period.  Some early morning commuter journeys are also being brought forward slightly, making the first Monday to Friday departure from Yate at 0540 hours (arriving into Bristol at 0635 hours).  In addition, there will an extra Service 46 journey from Yate to Bristol on Sundays and Public Holidays (at 0905 hours), which will make it possible to get into the city an hour earlier than at present. 

Service 50/51 (Centre – Hengrove): The timetable is being overhauled to improve the punctuality and reliability of the service. In addition, following a reduction in funding for supported journeys by Bristol City Council, the Sunday and Public Holiday timetable is being adjusted. This means buses will run hourly on Services 50 and 51, providing a half hour combined frequency on common sections on the route.

Service 70/71 (Bristol Temple Meads – UWE): The timetables for both Service 70 and 71 are being adjusted with an extra bus being added into improve the punctuality and reliability. 

Service 72 (Centre – UWE): The route that the buses take is changing.  Following the opening of the Romney Avenue Bus Link we will finally be able to take advantage of the time savings that the bus lane provides instead of having to divert via Filton Avenue, Station Road, Filton Road, and Coldharbour Lane.  The overall punctuality and reliability of buses is expected to improve as a result. 

Service 73/X73 (Centre – Cribbs Causeway / Aztec West): The timetables of these two services are being changed to improve the punctuality and reliability of the buses. There will also be two route changes affecting both the buses in the city centre and in the north of the city.    The main changes can be best summarised as follows:

• All buses will start and terminate at Lewins Mead instead of Colston Avenue to reduce the likelihood of them being caught in congestion around the centre. This will also enable all driver changes to be completed at the end of a journey rather than part-way through. 
• Service X73 buses will no longer cover the section of route between Aztec West Roundabout and Cribbs Causeway, nor will they call at East Filton Sainsbury’s. Instead of the latter they’ll travel directly along Great Stoke Way.   
• Two extra vehicles will be used, helping to minimise the impact of traffic congestion.  They will mean that the frequency of Monday to Friday peak time journeys on Service 73 can be improved (to every 12-15 minutes). This should avoid the need for journeys to be cancelled, or cut short due to excessive late running as a result of congestion. 
• The timetable for evening journeys is being overhauled with one of the two extra buses used to ensure that the service during the evening is more punctual and reliable. 

Service 75 (Hengrove – Cribbs Causeway) and Service 76 (Hengrove – Cribbs Causeway): The timetables of these two services are being overhauled to improve the punctuality and reliability of buses.  Specifically four additional vehicles will be used on Mondays to Saturdays to provide additional capacity for customers while additionally helping to resolve the ongoing issues with traffic congestion and to provide more recovery time for vehicles.  There will also be extra early evening journeys on these days to respond to the level of customer demand for them.   

There will also be significant improvements to the Sunday and Public Holiday timetable with eight extra buses used on these days. This will greatly improve the frequency of these two services: there will be a bus every 20 minutes on each route, meaning that on combined the sections of route, buses will run every 10 minutes (compared to every 15 minutes at present).   

Finally, Service 76 is going 24/7 like Service 75 from March 29. Following the successful introduction of a 24 hour a day service on Service 75 in March 2013, First is introducing the same on Service 76 too. So from March 29 Service 76 will run hourly throughout the night, seven days a week.  Notably the addition of Service 76 to the night bus network means that parts of Hartcliffe and Headley Park will have access to them for the first time. It also means that there will be a 24 hour a day service to and from Southmead Hospital too.    Customers who currently use Service 2 to travel to Southmead, Brentry and Cribbs Causeway late at night should find Service 76 offers them an alternative, reducing the impact of the changes to Service 2 on them.   

Service 82 (Southmead Hospital – Wotton-under-Edge): To resolve ongoing issues with traffic congestion affecting the punctuality and reliability of services, the timetable is being changed.  From 29 March a number of Monday to Friday peak time journeys will have significantly more time to complete their journeys, however, this means that a number of departure times – at both ends of the route – will be revised.

In addition to this some extra journeys – running during the evening – are being added to the timetable. It means that the last bus from Southmead Hospital will leave later, at 2055 hours Monday to Friday, while the last bus from Wotton-under-Edge will be at 1930 hours Monday to Friday. 

Service 90 (Broadmead – Hengrove): To improve the punctuality and reliability of the services, the timetable is being overhauled. In addition, following the withdrawal of pump-primed financial support for night bus services by Bristol City Council (introduced in March 2013), the night time timetable is also being adjusted. While other night bus routes have grown in popularity, allowing First to take them on commercially, this has not been the case with this route. As such, from 29 March, the last buses to leave Broadmead and Hengrove will now be earlier (2400 hours from Broadmead, 2320 hours from Hengrove).   

Service 178 (Bristol – Bath): Following partnership work between First and Bath and North East Somerset Council, there will be some changes to the evening timetable. Specifically the 2315 hours journey from Bristol to Radstock, which operates Monday to Saturday, is being extended beyond Radstock to terminate in Bath. This provides a later last journey opportunity for people wishing to travel. 

In addition, the 2355 hours journey from Bath to Paulton, which currently only operates on Fridays and Saturdays, will now operate six days a week instead (i.e. Mondays to Saturdays). 

Service 520 (Broadmead – Westbury): This timetable of this service, which First provides under contract to Bristol City Council, is being adjusted to improve the overall punctuality and reliability of buses.

Service X2/X3 (Bristol – Portishead): A couple of changes are being made to the route of Service X3. Specifically buses will no longer serve Sheepway but will use the Portbury Hundred instead. Buses will also serve the new Sainsbury’s store in Portishead. In addition to this there will be changes to evening journeys that are supported by North Somerset Council with two extra journeys (departing Bristol Bus Station at 0030 and 0130 hours) added in. There will also be a number of extra Monday to Friday peak time journeys, helping to provide much needed additional capacity at key times. 

Service X6 (Bristol – Clevedon): The timetable is being adjusted to improve the punctuality and reliability of services.  In addition, a new evening timetable is being introduced Mondays to Saturdays evenings, with extra journeys (departing Bristol Bus Station at 2005, 2205 and 0005 hours and Clevedon at 2052 and 2252 hours) added in. The latter will provide more direct, and therefore quicker, evening journeys between Bristol and Tickenham and Clevedon as well as providing a later last departure. There will also be extra – and later last – evening journeys on Sundays and Public Holidays. 

Service X8 (Bristol – Nailsea – Clevedon / Portishead): The timetable is being changed to improve the punctuality and reliability of buses, and to ensure that vehicles have enough recovery time at the end of routes, to ensure that, if they are held up en route, the delays do not affect subsequent journeys.  In addition, following successful partnership working with North Somerset Council, First will continue to operate journeys on Service X8 between Nailsea and Portishead via Portbury. These journeys will continue to operate hourly throughout the main part of the day, however, some early evening journeys will be withdrawn due to low customer demand. 

Service X9/X10 (Bristol – Nailsea): A number of changes are being made to this service.  Specifically all Service X9 journeys are being withdrawn and replaced instead by Service X10 journeys. This means that all buses will operate via Long Ashton, giving people in the village more access to services. For people who previously used Service X9 it will mean the end-to-end journey time will increase by between five and 10 minutes. 

In addition the timetable is being adjusted to suit the movements of students travelling to and from schools along the route.   

Service X48 (Centre – Lyde Green via Bromley Heath, Emersons Green): This brand new service will provide a fast, direct link between the Bristol and Bath Science Park at Lyde Green, Emersons Green, Bromley Heath and Bristol City Centre.  Buses will run every half an hour during the daytime (Monday to Saturday).  Service X48 will also provide a partial replacement for the journeys people used to be able to make on Service 5 between Centre to Bromley Heath and Emersons Green. To mark the launch of the new route, and to encourage people to give it a try,  there will be a special promotion offering travel on it free journeys for the first three weeks of operation (until 18 April). 

Service X49 (Bristol – Yate): The timetable is being adjusted slightly to improve punctuality and reliability, with additional time added in where it is required. In addition a change is being made so that the route is operated by double deck vehicles where possible, instead of single deck buses. This should substantially increase the capacity of the service at peak times.

Some improvements are also being made to the Sunday and Public Holiday timetable, with a more consistent two-hourly frequency brought in. There will be an additional, and later, last journey from Bristol (at 1900 hours) and Yate (at 1758 hours) on these days, along with an earlier first departure from Yate too (at 0800 hours). 

Service X74 (Centre – Bradley Stoke): There are two main changes to this service. Specifically the route is being amended in the city centre: from 29 March Service X74 buses will start and terminate at Lewins Mead rather than Colston Avenue. This is being done to minimise the risk of buses being caught up in congestion around the centre and the cenotaph. 

In addition the timetable is being adjusted to improve the punctuality and reliability of the services. Buses at peak times will be given additional running time and recovery time at the end of journeys to ensure if they are delayed en route there is no knock on effect to subsequent journeys.

There will also be a number of additional Monday to Friday and Saturday evening journeys introduced (designed to please those wishing to travel into the Centre for the evening from Bradley Stoke and UWE) and a brand new Sunday and Public Holiday timetable is being introduced.   

Notably the new Sunday and Public Holiday timetable, which will see buses running every 30 minutes between 1000 and 1800 hours, will give people in Little Stoke the opportunity to travel on these days, while also providing faster journeys between Bradley Stoke and the Centre. Students at UWE will also benefit from a quick and direct service to and from the Centre. 

Finally, a small number of early morning Monday to Friday and Saturday journeys – which are poorly used at present – will be removed from the timetable.

Service A1 (Bristol Airport Flyer): Recognising the start of the summer flying programme, the timetable of this service is being adjusted slightly. New timetables for all the affected services will be uploaded to the First West of England website, www.firstgroup.com/bristol, from early March (under journey planning / timetable booklets). They will be available in hard copy format from mid-March.