Anyone in the Transport for Greater Bristol e-group would have seen my message from the other week; have copied and pasted it below for comment here.
We had a family ride out on the m3 bus today, doing a return trip from Lyde Green to Cabot Circus and I must say that I didn’t find very much at all to be impressed with.
First impressions; the bus stop was already in a very poor condition with weeds growing up through the block paving and a very poor quality finish to the street furniture.
The real-time display on the stop said that no services were due, even though the “bus checker” app was providing real-time information (albeit inaccurate as it is the second stop from the start of the route so did not pick up that it was running 6 Min late until after its scheduled departure time).
It was great to see the bus was so busy, but I too question how busy it will be when the service isn’t free. The bus doesn’t actually seem to run anywhere useful aside from Uwe and Emerson’s Green bus terminal; with stops in awkward isolated locations. I noticed Begbrook stop for instance, seems to only be convenient if you’re going to the allotment; anyone who lives in the nearby houses has quite a walk to even get to the main road where the segregated bus section meets the normal road. I presume the bus stop is some way back from the junction due to road design rules, but it isn’t great. Similarly stops on the ring road seem to be quite some way from the roundabouts; can’t say it seems very appetising to wait for a bus there with traffic either queueing up or speeding past.
On a more positive note, the buses themselves seem very well built. I’m no fan of ADL products but there were no squeaky and rattling panels (like on every other bus I’ve ever been on, aside from the “Borismasters” in London), and despite the hot weather they were very cool; normally the top deck especially is unbearable during hot weather. It seems to have some kind of air cooling/conditioning system, but I’m not sure why they have openable windows as that means such systems don’t actually work as effectively as they should. A significant amount of water was pouring out of the outlet at the side of the bus at the top of the stairs where there was some kind of cooling equipment.
Still looks like there is lots to do; the majority of the stops still don’t have the ticket machines; I’m also not quite sure how many are to be installed. I’m not convinced that only one at each stop will be enough. At Science Park outbound stop the driver said they can’t stop in line with the bus shelter because one of the two doors will be blocked by a glass panel! Science Park stop in either direction didn’t have the usual Metrobus style sign or shelter.
The journey itself seemed very slow and not the quickest route, although the tour of the UWE car park was very interesting, it added a significant amount of time to what was already a slow journey. We spent not very much time in traffic, although because the bus lane ends before the roundabouts there was a little bit of congestion.
I think an express bus route is a great low-cost option, and could have been really successful. But this doesn’t seem to be it; it is very slow and infrequent.
