More Yate station improvements

Great news for commuters as the ticket machine at Yate Station is about to be covered, meaning the machine is less likely to break and will be easier to read on sunny days. Queuing at the ticket window will also be covered, with more shelter on the platform once you’ve got your ticket. Thanks to the Lib Dem Focus Team for putting in funding bids and finally persuading the authorities to pay up!

If you are interested in campaigning for more station improvements, the next Friends of Yate Station meeting is at 7.30pm on 1st November.

Early warning of train delays

On Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 September Network Rail will be testing the overhead wires in the Reading area, which will have an impact on all Thames Valley and High Speed Services. What that means for people travelling from our area is that services will operate hourly from Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington with amended calling patterns and some extended journey times.  You can find out more at https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/reading2017

Your views on bus services

South Glos Council currently subsidises a number of bus services in our area. They are now asking for your views on these in an online survey.

Printed copies will be available at all South Gloucestershire libraries and One Stop Shops and there will also be roadshow events:

Saturday 24th June, 11.00-14.00, Yate Shopping Centre
Tuesday 27th June, 10.00-14.00, Willow Brook Centre, Bradley Stoke
Friday 30th June, 10.00-14.00 The Mall, Cribbs Causeway
Thursday 6th July, 11.00-14.00 St Mary’s Shopping Centre, Thornbury
Wednesday 12th July, 08.00-10.00, Bristol Parkway Station

The consultation runs until 3rd September.

Work on Halfpenny Bridge, Ram Hill

As part of the electrification works, Network Rail are extending the parapets on Halfpenny Bridge, Ram Hill to 1.85m to prevent access to the new electric power cables when they are installed. As the bridge is narrow, they will have to close the footpath to the general public while works are being undertaken, but most of the works will happen at night. Pedestrians and cyclists will be able to cross the bridge as normal when no works are being undertaken.

Work will take place between 22.00hrs and 08.00hrs on the following dates:

Weekend nights in April - 9th, 16th, 23rd
Midweek nights in April - 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th
Weekend nights in May - 7th, 14th, 21st, 22nd

They will do everything possible to minimise the impact on neighbours. For more information contact Toby Elliott, Public Affairs Manager at toby.elliott@networkrail.co.uk or 07734 648 408 or Claire McGine, Communications Manager at claire.mcgine@networkrail.co.uk or 07734 647 240.

Bus service changes

There are a number of changes to the 47/X47 services from 24th April:

• There will be two more X47 journeys departing Chipping Sodbury at 0620 and 0850.
• Extra time and an extra bus has been added to Service 47 to ease some of the current issues of poor punctuality and reliability.
• An additional evening journey from Bristol on Service X47 will also be added. The times of the departures of Service X47 in the evenings will change.
• Following customer requests an additional 0500 departure from Bristol Bus Station has been added to Service 47, this will allow customers to arrive into Yate before 0600.

Following agreement with the parish councils, a nightbus service will be running but it will be renumbered and will go straight down Badminton Road rather than round Frampton Cotterell (Beesmoor Road/Woodend Road/Church Road) as it used to.

Ram Hill buses

Concerns have been raised once again about the way buses are being driven down Ram Hill. It's a narrow country road, well used by walkers and horse riders as well as motorists. Claire Young has been passing details of incidents on to both the police and South Glos council officials and has asked for the issue to be considered at the next Safer Stronger Community Group meeting (7.30pm on Tuesday 30th June in the Manor Hall, Coalpit Heath). Please email Claire details of any incidents that happen between now and then. We would also be interested to hear the experiences of people who use the bus.

A chance to put your views to First Bus managers - Mon 9th Feb

If you have problems with or questions about First's local bus services, you may be interested in their Online Meet the Manager event on Monday, timed to coincide with the commute home.

Between 5 and 7pm on Monday (9th February) you can talk directly online to First’s management team, either asking specific questions about local bus services or offering feedback. It is being held in addition to the normal Meet the Manager sessions, which are generally held every few months at various locations throughout the West of England.

To take part, you can:

• post a message on to the Facebook wall (www.facebook.com/FirstWestofEngland) 
• send a direct private message via the Facebook Page
• tweet the company, at @FirstBSA, using the hashtag 'tweetboss' ie #tweetboss. 

Messages will be answered on the night by First West of England’s Managing Director, James Freeman and the business’ Regional Customer Services Manager, Natacha Tagholm. Let's just hope potential participants are on a bus with WIFI or a good phone signal...

Buy a bus ticket on your mobile phone

First Bus have just introduced a new way to buy bus tickets - using your smartphone.

Their M-ticketing app allows you to pay for a range of tickets, with the option to pay using Barclay's Pingit.  You then store the tickets in a virtual wallet ready for use. Currently you can buy adult tickets for:

• Bristol Inner zone: either a carnet of five day tickets, a week ticket or a month ticket
• Bristol Outer zone: either a carnet of five day tickets, a carnet of 10 single tickets (otherwise known as a 10Journey ticket), a week ticket or a month ticket
• Bath Inner zone: either a carnet of five day tickets, a carnet of 10 single tickets (otherwise known as a 10Journey ticket), a week ticket or a month ticket
• Bath Outer zone: either a carnet of five day tickets, a carnet of 10 single tickets (otherwise known as a 10Journey ticket), a week ticket or a month ticket
• Weston-super-Mare: either a carnet of five day tickets, a carnet of 10 single tickets (otherwise known as a 10Journey ticket), a week ticket or a month ticket
• West of England: either a carnet of five day tickets, a week ticket or a month ticket

The M-tickets cost the same as they do to buy in other forms and child and young person versions of the app will be added in the coming months. For more information see www.firstgroup.com/m-tickets

MP challenges bus bosses over local services

Local MP Steve Webb has hosted a meeting in his constituency office at Yate to raise with First Bus managers the many concerns of local residents about the quality of bus services in this area.

James Freeman, the new Managing Director of First in the West of England, attended the meeting along with Commercial Manager, Simon Ford.   The two heard from Steve a range of complaints about services including those from Yate to Southmead Hospital. They also heard from X49 user and Westerleigh resident Mrs Carol Moore, whose account of the service was described by James Freeman as “a chapter of horrors”.   Issues raised included buses being cancelled or running late, inexperienced drivers making mistakes over routes and the lack of reliable information at bus stops.

First Bus said that they recognised that the service needed to be improved and were planning a range of improvements for the timetable which takes effect at the end of March 2015. This included ensuring that the first bus of each day gets to its starting point on time, adjusting timetables to make sure that they give a more realistic indication of journey times, recruiting more drivers to reduce dependence on agency and temporary staff and trying to make better use of the existing fleet of buses as well as bringing in new vehicles and more double decker buses to increase capacity.

You can read more on Steve's website.

Let's Get Yate Moving!

Local MP Steve Webb and Lib Dem Focus Team councillors have launched a campaign to improve public transport in and around Yate.

The campaign comes as thousands more houses are set to be built in and around Yate over the coming years, on top of hundreds already built in the last few years.   Campaigners are calling on South Gloucestershire Council to plan ahead for the new housing and make sure that there are proper public transport options for new and existing residents.

In particular, the Lib Dem team are calling for:

• A Park and Ride for Yate and the surrounding area, next to the Council offices at Badminton Road;
• For the Yate-Bristol rail route to be included in the electrification project for the Great Western mainline;
• For improved bus services in residential areas, especially for North and South Yate and Dodington, not just services from Yate town centre.

Go to http://letsgetyatemoving-ldthornburyandyate.nationbuilder.com  to back the campaign and share your experiences and ideas about local transport.

Healthwatch issues report on Southmead Hospital

Healthwatch, the consumer group concentrating on health and social care, has been consulting patients and the public about their experiences at Southmead Hospital - their report is available here.

North Bristol NHS Trust has responded in fairly general terms - for example, they say "Parking is an area of continuous improvement for us whilst waiting for the completion of the phase 2 development in spring 2016"

The report concentrates on matters within the hospital, so it doesn't really touch on issues such as bus services. Please let Pat Hockey pat.hockey@southglos.gov.uk know about any excessive delays or missing services on the Southmead routes.

X27 bus service withdrawn

Back in March we reported that starting in April First Bus would be running a commercial service, the X46, to replace the subsidised X27 that Wessex had been running.The X46 only runs as far as Bristol bus station, not to Anchor Road.

At the time Wessex said they would continue to run the X27 as a commercial service, but with reduced frequency. However they have now announced that they are withdrawing the X27 service from 31st August.

First are amending the timetable for the 46/X46, including introducing an earlier 06:25 service from Yate arriving in Bristol at 07:17. You can find more information about bus timetables on the Traveline South West website.

Bus number correction

The buses to Southmead from Frampton Cotterell are 81 and 82, not 41 and 42 as it said in the Frampton Cotterell ward Focus. Service 82 goes all the way to the hospital while service 81 requires a change at Parkway but takes a shorter route. Both go down Church Road.

Stop Press - First Bus Meet the Manager event on Thursday

First bus will be holding a meet the manager event in the Atrium at Southmead Hospital this Thursday 3 July from 10:00 - 14:00.

In the evening, there will be an online meet the manager session from 17:00 - 19:00 on Twitter (@FirstBSA) and Facebook (First West of England).

Both sessions will offer opportunities to residents of the West of England area to provide feedback on the changes to the services to the hospital which were made in April, the forthcoming changes to the fare structures in the wider West of England area (as Bristol was changed last November) and to discuss anything else which is of concern to them.

People thinking of catching a bus to Southmead from Frampton Cotterell should note that the correct service numbers are 81 and 82, not 41 and 42 as it said in the Frampton Cotterell ward Focus. Service 82 goes all the way to the hospital while service 81 requires a change at Parkway but takes a shorter route. Both go down Church Road.

Another way to get to Southmead and other hospitals

Green Community Travel now manages a dedicated Hospital Transport Scheme Monday to Friday to Southmead, Frenchay, BRI, Oncology and Bristol Eye and Dental Hospitals. You can find out more on their website and facebook page.

Some success for Southmead bus campaign

South Gloucestershire Council has agreed funding for a bus service for visiting times from Chipping Sodbury to the new hospital via Yate, Coalpit Heath and Frampton Cotterell. The NHS funding only covers improving the 581 service to half hourly, requiring a change to another bus at Parkway to get to Southmead.

Local MP Steve Webb who has been leading the “Bus to Southmead” campaign said, “I welcome this step forward but it still leaves staff and any outpatients having to change buses. We need to ensure the NHS keeps its promise to provide most treatment at Yate and Cossham as the extra 581 buses will enable people to get there. We must also try to persuade the bus companies to rethink their decision not to provide a through service commercially”.

Getting to the new hospital without a car

When the decision was taken to close Frenchay Hospital and concentrate services at Southmead, promises were made that there would be bus services to enable staff, patients and visitors to get there.

Because the new hospital is located within Bristol, the City Council holds the money which was allocated for new bus services.

Current proposals are that the 581 bus from Chipping Sodbury should run half hourly instead of hourly with passengers bound for Southmead Hospital changing to another service at Bristol Parkway to complete their journey.

Your FOCUS TEAM considers this to be very unsatisfactory and is continuing to push with support from Steve Webb MP for a through bus service.

September bus service changes

Some changes are being made to local bus services from 2nd September 2012. Those that most affect us locally are:

The "Eighties services" 85, 87 & 88 have been replaced by a new service 222. This service will connect Chipping Sodbury, Yate, Iron Acton and Frampton Cotterell with Emersons Green, Kingswood and Longwell Green. Sections of the route in North Yate, Iron Acton, Ram Hill and the Emersons Green Treatment centre will be served on a Demand Responsive Basis, this means that the bus will only call at demand responsive stops if requested by a passenger on the bus, or booked in advance by calling 01454 868 368 at least 2 hours before departure.

The X27 Yate to Bristol has a minor timetable amendment to the first journey into Bristol to improve reliability.

Bus stop markings

The Greater Bristol Bus Network project has been trying to encourage more people to use buses by improving bus shelters and other infrastructure on key routes.  As part of this, South Glos is going to install some additional raised kerbs on the Bristol-Yate corridor and change some of the existing bus stop clearway markings so the buses can line up properly with the raised kerbs. You can see what's planned and make any comments you may have on the South Glos website - the closing date is 23rd December. Subject to comments, the work is expected to be carried out in the new year.

Local councillors grill bus bosses

Last week the Manging Directors and senior staff from First Bus and Wessex Connect attended the South Glos Transport Select Committee, chaired by local councillor Pat Hockey. This enabled councillors, members of the public and transport action groups to ask questions and raise problems.

Claire Young asked First to reconsider their axing of two X42 services, which leaves Coalpit Heath pensioners with no express bus service on which they can use their diamond cards to get into Bristol. She also said passengers had been caught out by the changes due to a lack of publicity. Simon Curzio of First Bus apologised for this and promised to look again at the X42 timings.

When asked about the quality of the buses running to the Yate area, First Bus said they had to meet minimum standards, but the newness of the bus was linked to how profitable the route was. Questioned on pricing, they promised to look at extending family and group tickets, particularly looking ahead to the summer holidys.

Pat Hockey was able to establish that smart cards can be purchased and used on all Wessex Connect services in South Gloucestershire and Bristol, apart from night buses. Details are on their website.

These are planned to be replaced in the autumn with a new smart card that can also be used on all First buses operating in the West of England (former County of Avon).