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Really bad disruption yesterday (Thursday) in North Somerset due to the closure of the M5 between 21 and 22, a serious accident with a biker and van. Alot of X1's leaving Bristol took hours to get to Weston, one service (35153) left at 16.07 and didn't get to Weston interchange till 22.12. Must have been challenging for all the drivers and passengers on board. 

Double decker bus (33929) overturned this morning near Street, Somerset ,whilst operating a 374 between Bristol and Taunton. Thankfully no serious injuries and bus was only carrying a small number of passengers. However must have been really frightening for all on board. The picture of it looks bad so just glad no injuries.


https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/breaking-police-crash-traffic-travel-9592093

First West of England Bus (33832) has collided with a railway bridge in Twerton, Bath causing extensive damage to the bus. Emergency services on scene but says in the article the bus was returning to depot so hopefully was running empty. Trains still running on the line above.

https://www.bathecho.co.uk/news/community/double-decker-bus-collides-bridge-twerton-108150/

It's been like it down here for the past few months, honestly don't know what First are doing. How confusing it must be for passengers to see a South Gloucestershire Lynx with branding of Yate, Thornbury and Chipping Sodbury on a 2 to Stockwood. Theres currently a Gemini with 1,2,2A branding that has been on a 522 to Bath, done the 349 to Keynsham and back. 17 between Southmead to Keynsham and later the T1s to Thornbury. 

Seems at least in North Somerset we are still getting the badgerline in the main, quite a few transfers from Leicester and Worcester that haven't been painted yet but won't be given First's policy I would imagine. 

They have these in Bath, on the X39 route to/ from Bristol. Absolute joke they are, as you say an accident waiting to happen. You have to cross a cycle lane to get on and off the bus. To be fair there is a warning on the bus both audible and visual on the screen when the stop is announced.  Its still not safe, I couldn't believe it when I first saw it. Previously didn't see anything like it in the West Midlands.

Taken from Coach and Bus week on Facebook 

BREAKING NEWS: First Bus has placed single largest order for Yutong electric buses. The order is for 169 vehicles, to be delivered to four depots in Taunton, Weston-super-Mare, Basildon and Hengrove (Bristol) within the next 16 months, introducing electric buses for the first time at those sites. The order is a mix of single- and double-deck E10, E12 and U11DD models, and is part of an £89m investment from First Bus in a further 178 zero-emission buses and infrastructure across four of its regions.

 A TFL bus has hit a low bridge at Paddington Station, causing damage to the upper deck, not sure of any injuries. 

https://www.gbnews.com/news/paddington-bus-crash-double-decker-roof-crushed-taxi-rank

Birmingham City Council missed a trick years ago by not investing in park-and-ride sites dotted around the middle ring road, ahead of demolishing city centre car parks. We now have the ridiculous situation where the two remaining multi-storey car parks at the Bullring and Moor Street are regularly full on Saturdays, and because they are located on a main entry and exit point for buses to/from Moor Street Queensway, the resulting congestion from drivers queuing to get into these car parks causes the buses to also get stuck and delayed.

I agree I think Birmingham missed a trick by not introducing Bus park and rides. I think it would definitely ease congestion if it were set up right, with the right service and cost. Down here in Bristol, there's four park and rides. Stagecoach run services from Portway and Brisington Park and ride, whilst Metrobus( run by First WOE) operate from Long Ashton and Lyde Green. All four of them are well located not far from motorways and are only £4 return with free parking. I do wonder what it would be like without them. Parking is £3.50 an hour in alot of city centre car parks.

There needs to be a thought about tourists that visit Birmingham and the West Midlands that don't want the hassle of driving in a busy city and trying to find parking. Having a bus park and ride could attract more people to the region hence boosting the local economy and long term it would improve the inner city congestion. Surely the new mayor should look at it. 

Curious to know what garage is running it?

It looks like Leamington are running it. 11218 and 11222 are making their way back down A45 Coventry Road

I know its outside West Midlands, 2 new First West of England routes starting on 7th April

374 Bristol - Taunton
375 Bristol - Bridgwater both 3h 10 minutes end to end

Will interesting to see how they go, gotta be near enough 50 miles each way from Bristol to Taunton. I've got the 376 from Bristol to Street before and that's about 30 miles but at least the scenery is nice for most of the route and it don't stop too much.

In terms of the Midlands I agree about the 76 but I haven't quite rode it end to end. Rode it between Solihull and Harborne and that was long enough. Some old routes were long like the 144 between Worcester and Birmingham, when the X20 ran between Stratford and Coventry via Solihull.

I agree with you, the standard of driving is sometimes absolutely shocking. But do let us remember that the majority of motorists do drive correctly, however the minority of idiots gives them all a bad reputation.

After witnessing a high speed collision on Stoney Lane last Friday morning, I actually get nervous while travelling on buses now - the amount of heart-stopping near misses I see is astounding.

Regarding this incident, I've just seen a video from Instagram that the Birmingham Mail posted. While you can't clearly see what happened, it would seem that someone thought it would be a good/clever idea to try and use the bus lane to beat the queue. What they obviously failed to do was use their mirrors, otherwise they would have seen the bus approaching.

As I've said on numerous occasions, it only takes one impatient idiot to cause an incident that then affects hundreds of others.

Bus lanes are there for a reason, keep out of them!

Since I've moved to the South West I've noticed how much different it is on the roads. You still get idiots but in general people have alot more respect and consequently I enjoy driving much more. It's not to say everyone that drives in the West Midlands is terrible but I think there's a sizeable amount of people who have a sense of entitlement, that they can do what they want with no consequences. So when they get behind a wheel, how are they gonna behave?. That's why in an accident hotspot areas like inner Birmingham they needs to be bus lane cameras, speed cameras and red lights cameras. Bordesley Circus is awful for red light jumping yet nothing is ever done.

In terms of this accident, I'm glad the bus driver is okay, obviously not his fault. Also the passengers and others involved are okay, must have been scary for all onboard. I too Stu was nervous when travelling on some buses in Birmingham, the X1/X2 that goes through Heybarnes Circus is one of the areas. You can just see a car going through the red light as the bus is going through the island. I'm not a fan of an outside lane bus lane so I'm not sure if the road layout around there is better than it was in terms of safety. Are there bus lanes cameras down there as a deterrent to people as I've read that cars have been seen using the bus lane before?

X1(E062) Involved in an RTC on Small Heath Bypass near Asda outbound. Fair bit of frontal damage.

Just seen the video of this, obviously won't post it on here.  Queueing traffic on the inside and middle lanes of the A45 to the island. The bus lane which is the outside lane is clear, bus doing upto the speed limit, a car then decides to venture into the bus lane right in front of the bus, bus driver has no chance to brake.

I really hope nobody is seriously injured, but honestly nothing surprises me about the standard of driving not just in Birmingham but Small Heath in particular. Gotta be thousands without valid licences or disqualified, as there's no driving schools that would teach the standard of driving round there. 

Stagecoach bus leaves the road and ploughs into a garden after the driver suffered a medical episode at the wheel. Happened in Quedgley, Gloucester. Thankfully no passengers injured and driver taken to hospital. All the best to him!

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2024-02-26/bus-ploughs-through-garden-after-driver-suffers-suspected-medical-episode

I found definitely in the West Midlands there is no such thing as queuing for the bus. If I did try and queue, I would just get idiots just pushing in. Worst time was when waiting for the X12 in Solihull Town Centre, lots of elderly people queuing in the bus shelter. Then all of a sudden loads of school kids appear, just stood at front of the queue when they we were all waiting 15 mins plus. I had a go at a couple of them for trying to push in. It's just rude and bad manners to not only push in but to not let elderly passengers on first.

Since moving to the south west it's completely different down here. People actually queue for the bus everywhere, even in Bristol Bus Station. Before First moved the Y1 service from the bus station, the queue would go straight down past other stands during peak times, which would be confusing as you never knew what queue to be in!.

I wonder how many people actually use the local buses to get to football matches though?

In Villa's case id say it's the best form of transport. Parking when I was going as a kid was awful. Remember my dad parking at One Stop shopping centre (1990s)  when we went and we would walk from there, which was about 30 mins. We just hid our colours as they didn't like fans parking there but it was free and no time limit back then. Then when i started going on my own I just got the 997 from Pheasey and walked from Perry Barr greyhound stadium, only 20min walk. 

Currently the train station is completely inadequate and WMT don't always run a reliable service. The parking is terrible so I think Aston Villa should put more investment into making sure supporters can get  to and from VP. It's all good having football specials from Cannock and Tamworth but it's needs to be from all corners of the Midlands.