I had an event at the university this evening - at 18.45 there seemed to be a fairly steady stream of people exiting the new East exit, including plenty of non-students heading towards the number 8 and beyond.

Incidentally, I forgot to take a picture but the new University building has a Solari board in the lobby. I think it was supposed to be asking students profound questions, but I couldn't help wondering whether they were just jokes waiting for a punchline! 

 

I seem to recall an interview with Mark Hopward saying that if he could electrify Filton to Bathampton via Temple Meads, it would be enough to run battery electric units to Weymouth and Portsmouth based on current technology.

 
Ok, question from an out-of-county resident....

Do the trains generally calling at Stapleton Road carry a guard/train manager?

I know the station is unstaffed. Was wondering whether I can get there in my wheelchair. It does seem as though residents park on pavements there, looking at Google Maps, certainly coming off the trains from Bristol side (Pl. 1?)

Heading for Downend....is it safe around the station into the evening in winter?

Thanks all

 
Not to be done inside the bunker, though: carbon monoxide and all that. 

 

In all honesty I prefer a nice BBQ.

 

Well, you're the one who keeps bringing them up! In a manner of speaking. 

 

Please, no, not the pickled eggs again! 

 

There is no previous topic here on the Coffee Shop forum, grahame: we have not previously discussed this case here.

There is a very detailed topic on another forum: I'll provide details 'behind the counter' (our board for admins and moderators only).

CfN. 

 

The 8 is currently on a small diversion after leaving its its new stop due to road works. When those are finished it will go on a more direct route along Avon Street direct onto Temple Way.

Others have already mentioned the fact the new stop is actually easier for people to get to and use.

And remember the 70 and 72 buses also serve the stop on Station Approach so it isnt just the airport buses.

 
From the BBC:

 
The PM has stated that iran is believed to be involved in the foiled attack at RAF Fairford.
It therefore appears that both russia and iran are waging a hybrid war against the UK .
Future attacks may affect supplies of food, fuel, and utility service. Stock up and be prepared !

 

I agree, it is relatively easy to electrify plain track. Complex junctions and locations with limited clearances are a lot more expensive. This points to electrification of MOST of a route whilst omitting the more challenging parts.

 
I totally hold my hand up to Bristol Temple Meads station's effect on my mood - and I did start by saying that I was walking off a niggly back too so was able to mystery shop the station with a couple of disabilities layered one on top of another.
Also, this year started with a 24 hour weather-related delayed arrival at Bristol extended by an hour, courtesy of a mid-evening cancelled GWR connection from Newport - the arrival from Newport would have been able to connect into a train from Bath but for the fact that in a more or less empty station it was platformed at the country end of the station and as it departed, passed the passengers off the Newport train.

Then, some of the poor practices at Bristol Temple Meads are widespread within the transport industry - for example, the way the industry uses digital display screens. Given the capital and installation costs of £15 - £25000 per unit for the models used in the new entrance, managers are then moved to justify the expense by putting the kitchen sink on them - or don't stop to consider that a screen of that sort is going to have a pixel pitch of perhaps 60 - 80 ppi so that lovely dense bus mapping table they've chosen to display for 40 seconds will have around 8 pixels to render the height of a typeface. That's very sortable once people think 'Are rotating carousels really appropriate for this information?' but no ones in reflecting/listening mode on that - when people raise it as an issue the response tends to be 'We're information professionals and we know better'. An aspect of this though is that it tramples on various pieces of disability legislation... and the passenger workround

Leaving Bristol for a moment, it's only a couple of years since the 'Euston Station screen issue' blew up in all sorts of directions, as its deployment had effectively destroyed the ambience of the concourse as well as generating safety issue and users of the station were at best *really* fed up with it. That was a large-scale example of poor use of display technology, but at any urban bus stop you may find that you glance up to check the bus arrivals and find yourself looking at a recruitment ad or travel promotion.

Back to Bristol. Apologies, you've asked questions and I'm not doing a very good job of answering them. Since I'm thinking of those L B Foster 'Inform' screens at the east entrance, yes, one of the pages-in-rotation does address the issue of the Number 8 bus move. I took a photo of the page (it's below) and you can see the issue...



And further apologies for my persistent terrible attitude to the station. To be fair there are also good things:

Holding the lift for a chap heading back to Swindon with a very broken suitcase - he'd been for a few days to Butlins Minehead, the suitcase shedding its handles along the way, yet was very cheerful about several things, including an impending running race on the Two Tunnels route.

The East entrance's level access of course, and the sense of space within and through the entrance.

The fact that climbing aboard the number 8 bus was a bit like getting on a fairground ghost train from the way it departed the stop and promptly dived into a grid of minor roads and then through a mouse-hole of a tunnel beneath the main line before managing to serve the site of Bristol St Philips station, from the stop outside which it picked up several passengers, though none dressed sixties-fashion.

Also, back to Temple Meads from Clifton Down Station on a cheerfully busy 158 heading for Weston Super Mare - and which disgorged a truly impressive flow of its passengers at Lawrence Hill.

Hearing of the forward plans for the spare train shed: that's good too.

And lastly the very quick journey home, which showed what the area's transport system can deliver when the services exist, and they connect. When the 620 is able to stop in Manvers Street once more, that even makes the connection somewhat robust, though I'm heartily disappointed for others that the opportunity isn't taken to have many of the Faresaver services use those stops.

 
It should be noted that the 8 bus is surely much more likely to be used by students needing to enter/exit the new campus than the airport bus would be?   And the stop is very handily located for that.

 

It's there to prevent regular usage forming a public right of way

 

It was sadly blown over (unsurprisingly) the next morning

 

Blimey, that is some serious observations you have shared there.
Judging by the lack of positive comments about any of the renovations in any of your posts, I think it is safe to say you may be looking at it all with an already negative opinion?
Just my thoughts "thinking out loud" added above in red

 
BEMUs is the reason not to wire Temple Meads because of the complications of the layout. Maybe the mainline easy stretches.

 
I used the Airport bus stop twice during the summer. Unless it has been moved again, at that time it was about the furthest from the station building. Located on the ?Northern pavement and close to where the Empire Exhibition used to be. I noted at the time there was no seat or shelter, which was pretty poor. I imagine this location was chosen because it is easier for the bus to exit without negotiating the complete Approach Road.

Some while back it was of course located close to and to the left of station entrance on exit. There may well have been further changes in the interim! 

 

Well the sign in the photo in MarkA's post clearly says it isn't. Which is, I will grant you, eccentric.

 
The station map issue is indefensible - they have had years to update this, and it looks like no-one thought it was their job. Putting up an out-of-date map at the new entrance that doesn't show the new entrance is farcical.

I don't have a strong view on the No.8 bus stop issue. By my reckoning it is actually closer to Platform 13/15 than the old stop, and an easier walk, but it it does look like it could have been closer.

As to the northern entrance (past the Old Station and Midland Shed) - this is actually the busiest entrance to the station, and is due to be greatly improved over the next few years. The car parking will be moved to the new 'Southern Gateway', which will allow the Midland Shed to become the station foyer. All this is laid out here: https://bristolrailcampaign.org.uk/temple-meads-masterplan-november-2019-update/

 

Presumably some of the airport passengers have poor mobility due to luggage for their flight as well as any general mobility issues they might have?

Granted they are exposed to the elements to get to the eastern entrance from the No. 8 stop, but that route through to the station subway, from which you access the large majority of platforms and trains, is much nicer than walking through the cramped concourse, busy main gate line and down narrow steps or a lift.  The route from the eastern entrance to the subway is wider, quieter and level.

Not suggesting your points are wrong as such, but that there are nearly always counter arguments that can be used.

 

Because the bus company pays for it to be there.


That damn-well IS a pedestrian crossing. It was there before they started to use that area as a car park. I was a regular user of the crossing at that time.

 
Is this close to it?

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=17528.msg215807#msg215807

 
From the Law Gazette


I have made a - fruitless - search of the Coffee Shop for a previous thread on this which as I recall involved ABC - the Association of British Commuters - I fee sure I should know what it's about already as it rings muffled bells, and I seem to be staring a thread very late in the day - or rather very late in the decade due to the (lack of) speed of legal activity.

Can anyone fill me in?

Can our merge master from somewhere near Backwell find the relevant started thread and merge?

A clue from https://www.catribunal.org.uk/cases/14047721-david-courtney-boyle. Southern, Gatwick Express and Thamslink - each operating trains from Brighton to London - and perhaps misleading people by appearing to compete with each other?  That's my reading of it but I could be wrong, and if I am, sorry for my misunderstanding - happy to add a correction.

 
I'd really like Temple Meads not to put me into snark mode every time and, the reasons it does, it would be easy to turn some of them around. Spend more than a few minutes and you'll quickly encounter passengers who are struggling with public transport's idiosyncratic ways, and its not difficult to find staff being dismissive towards them.

A general point: when it comes to airport connections, why are passengers heading for an airport often given priority treatment when it comes to bus stops - the airport flyer bus being the only service with a stop close to the station entrance? The number 8 stop there will probably have been a bit of a lifeline for people with poor mobility travelling to Temple Meads from other parts of the Bristol bus network and the new location is ... unconvincing and the eastern entrance stop is a poor replacement, it's less secure and, on the walk from the station, exposes people to a *lot* of weather.

The new station entrance. A big board shows 'Next fastest trains' to destinations, and their departure times, but doesn't that need to have some way to factor in the walking times from the east entrance to the platform and then to the train, as many of the listed departures will be well out of reach 5 to 10 minutes before they disappear from that list? (Personal experience of this in that at 16:22 it was still directing me to the 16:22 departure some way across the station rather than saying 'In through the gates and up to platform 13 for the 16:30' which, by the way, is non-stop to your destination'. )

Then, people will need directions for onward travel and particularly the new stop for the number eight, visible from the entrance but at a considerable distance - and the walking route to the bus isn't obvious. (Hint, ignore the steps and ramp that look as though they might take you to the bus stop, keep close to the university building and that'll take you straight there).

Within the new entrance, there are information screens, including this one which may be displaying onward destination information - and an out-of-date map of the station itself:



... about five seconds after you attempt to engage with this dense mass of text (that for many is rather too small to read), you'll find that the information board will turn the page and display one of its seven or so other more vacuous pages in its carousel. That £23 million pound space really needs some printed information boards. That would save the several members of staff from being understandably snarky to passengers when they're asked for the nth time where the No 8 bus is.

The main entrance, the top of the ramp at the former stop for the number 8, a notice with passenger advice on the change of location would be good, and indeed we have this, and there are issues:



The ad-hoc use of the train shed as a car park - that's so 1960s, as is the vehicle route to it that crosses the walking route for people approaching the main entrance.

Turning to the west side *major* passenger exit from the station, is this environment (and attitude) the best that the railways can do? How about a solid white line for vehicles, plus a pedestrian-priority crossing - and a mahoosive virginia creeper for that palisade fence?

 
Let's see if it actually runs, there have been many paths from Wolverton that were in, but then cancelled (sometimes twice).

There are still lots of 3 car units at Wolverton (and some have been there for 18 months), so potentially could be more than one unit coupled

 
I'm reminded of this video from the line, a wedding party at Mitcheldean Road. Thoughts of travelling from there into the Forest of Dean would have been far from their minds, particularly as this was filmed in the late fifties and the line to Drybrook had seen the rails lifted during the first world war - without so much as use by a single train in service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeL0uYzH2hY&t=2s

 
Bath's most recent iteration of 'Post office'. That aside, you wonder how losing that slew of shops impacts magazine sales.