HERE COME THE QUEUE BUSTERS
‘PLUGGING THE GAPS’ EXTRA 20 BUSES TO BE PUT ON CITY’S FOUR MOST UNRELIABLE ROUTES
THE man in charge of Bristol’s biggest bus company has announced he’s putting on 20 extra buses on the busiest and most delay-hit routes.
First Bus are adding the buses to the two main cross-city transport corridors, on four routes which have been struggling the most.
The buses are described as ‘Queue Busters’ and will be added to the routes when there are problems on the roads of Bristol.
They will be sent out, particularly at peak times, to cope with extra demand and when there are delays on routes 1 and 2, and the 75 and 76.
The 1 and 2 go from Cribbs Causeway in the north of the city, all the way to Stockwood and Broomhill in the south east, while the 75 and 76 go from Cribbs and Henbury down to Hartcliffe, Withywood and Bishopsworth in the south west of the city.
All four routes, being cross-city, suffer from delays caused by sheer weight of traffic.
Mr Freeman told the Bristol Post while the company aims for a 95 per cent reliabil- ity rate, the 75 and 76 have been barely 50 per cent reliable since the much-documented bus problems began in September.
The vehicles have been borrowed from other parts of the country and extra drivers have been brought in.
Each route will have dedicated controllers physically on the street from 6am through to 10pm with iPads connected to the Control Centre so they can quickly identify problem hotspots and call up support.
There are already ten buses on the road with the remaining ten being introduced shortly.
“Chronic congestion across the city, particularly at peak times, means we can’t always offer the customer the reliability that they rightly expect from a bus service,” said Mr Freeman.
“This dynamic approach to route control means we can swiftly plug gaps where the timetabled bus has got held up and hopefully get our passengers on their way a bit quicker.
“That’s particularly critical as we come into one of our busiest periods in the run up to Christmas with more people moving around the city generally.
“As well as extra resource on the street in the form of our trouble-shooting ambassadors, who will be out 16 hours a day, we’ll have extra supervisors in the control centre to make sure the new system runs smoothly.”
“The success of the Queue Busters initiative will be reviewed post-Christmas to see what we can apply in terms of longer-term solutions to the congestion crisis in the city,” he added.
The topic of Bristol’s buses has been a major issue since a crisis began in late September.
A combination of a driver recruitment crisis, a surge in passenger numbers and severe traffic congestion caused mainly by roadworks at key locations in the city meant Bristol’s bus service almost fell apart with cancelled, late, overcrowded and delayed buses an hourly feature across the city.
Those problems led to calls for a Transport for London franchise system being introduced in Bristol, a petition and a rally held last month in College Green.
Mr Freeman said he was confident the immediate problems were now over, as First now had ‘a driver in every seat’, but problems on the road with congestion still remained.