Comment: We need less talk and more action
The transport minister may have given his backing to the first stage of a new bus route in Bristol costing £48 million – but with a General Election so close it amounts to little more than words.
We are told the first stage of the network will transform travel between Long Ashton park and ride, the city centre and Temple Meads. But how?
We are told there will be new bus lanes, some of them guided tracks, for example, beside Cumberland Road. And a gizmo to make traffic lights change in favour of approaching buses. And we are promised buses every six minutes.
But with the exception of the Cumberland Road bus lane, all of this could be achieved now. And at a fraction of the cost.
We already have a service from Long Ashton park and ride. So this fast new bus service will duplicate that and other routes already operated by First and Wessex.
Yet the transport councillor Jon Rogers believes this will ease congestion and "give a real alternative to car users". How does he think that will happen?
Even if the rest of the bendybus network is built – at a frightening cost of a further £168m – what will it amount to? Simply more bus lanes and more buses competing for much the same space on our roads. And it will cost more than £200m. For that money you could genuinely encourage more people onto public transport by subsidising fares.
Dull perhaps, but effective. Just look at London. But of course that would rob local politicians of their chance to claim ownership of a multi-million pound scheme.
2 Comments
by Paul, Bristol
Thursday, March 18 2010, 6:42PM
“£48,000,000 and all they can think of is this...
No wonder Bristol is in such a mess when it comes to Public Transport!
With £48,000,000 you could set up your own bus service, owned by the people for the people, and have every fare half the price of Firsts equivalent with twice the amount of routes!”
by Bob de Bilde, Bristol
Thursday, March 18 2010, 4:41PM
“Couldn¿t agree more. The same effect could be achieved by removing parking on one side of Cumberland Road and installing a bus lane there ¿ I¿m sure this wouldn¿t cost £48 million.
The trouble with BRT is that it¿s a fudge, created after the Government refused to fund the Supertram scheme in 2005. The transport officers at the council and the West of England Partnership flailed around looking for an alternative and were gently prodded towards ¿Bus Rapid Transit¿ by the Government.
The council and the Government thought that Bristolians are daft enough to believe that buses with some bodykit running segregated for just 40% of the route are the same as trams. We weren¿t fooled ¿ we know they¿re just very, very, very expensive buses.
There is no point in spending almost £300 million on a network of BRT routes. Bristolians understand that they¿re just buses, so why spend this ridiculous amount of money? Especially when the council can¿t afford to keep routes like the no. 52 running which is depended upon by a lot of people.
With huge cuts just around the corner, most of the BRT routes ¿ certainly the £200 million North Fringe to Hengrove route will be axed later this year. That will leave us with this daft little Ashton Vale route and nothing else. The Brave New World of public transport in Bristol, indeed!
It¿s time to go back to the drawing board for our local transport planners. Investing in our chronically underfunded local rail network and establishing an ITA would be a start.”