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First West of England

Started by Roy, July 26, 2014, 10:26:31 PM

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Roy

#15
January 08, 2016, 06:42:02 PM
The two electric E400MMC's have arrived in Bristol and are in test for use on route 72.  They are painted all-over turquoise.  I saw one of them in Bristol City Centre on Wednesday - fleet number 39191 (SN65 ZGS). 

Roy

#16
January 08, 2016, 11:31:27 PM
The new buses were featured on BBC Points West this evening.  The feature can be viewed on iPlayer until 7.00 pm tomorrow at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06sflsv/bbc-points-west-08012016.  It starts about 7 minutes in.

Roy

#17
April 11, 2016, 06:35:22 PM
First Leicester's 35170/72/82 were outside Temple Meads on Saturday without fleetnames on rail replacement duties.  The engineering works have been completed on time so I would assume that they have headed north today.

There are two new coloured fronts this month.  37001 has a dark blue front and is branded for services 75 and 76.  From 24 April, buses on service 5 will be route branded with dark green fronts.  This service is currently operated using 06-reg Darts and some of these are currently in all-over white livery (see Tony's photo of 42964 on 8 April).  So it is possible that these will be repainted with green branding rather than the service being converted to Streetlite operation.

Westy

#18
May 06, 2016, 11:26:00 PM
https://www.firstgroup.com/bristol-bath-and-west/news-and-service-updates/planned-changes/8-may-somerset-including-weston-super

I've been down in Burnham this week & 'The Buses Of Somerset' seem a lot better than the local competing independent WebberBus, certainly regarding social media, as I got more sense out of First / Somerset than Webberbus on Facebook re service enquiries.

Until Sunday, Somerset have been operating a massive through route  from Weston Super Mare right the way down to Taunton via Bridgwater.

It appears back in December, the Weston to Burnham section was cut back from half hourly to hourly, for reliability reasons.(However they omitted to inform the Haven Holiday Park me & my sister were staying in, as the reception gave me the old timetable, & I only found out it was an hourly service from the driver. I managed to get an up to date printed timetable from Taunton of all places on Wednesday a day later, as the web wasn't much help, as all the First Bus links I initially found were all blocked for security reasons on my smartphone & Traveline online wasn't much help either! I found out on Thursday that Burnham TIC had the leaflet as well!))

The frequency was, until early evenings(no service after 6pm/7pm) during the week, a 15 minute frequency between Burnham & Taunton, with one of those buses to & from Weston.

From Sunday, the service is split at Burnham, restoring the half hourly Burnham to Weston service & surprisely the Burnham to Weston service will terminate at the Holiday Park I've just stayed in!

Sod's Law or what?

fleetline6477

#19
May 07, 2016, 08:22:17 PM
The pattern for a number of years has been an hourly frequency Weston - Burnham out of season and half hourly in season when the route was 112.

Roy

#20
May 08, 2016, 11:58:50 AM
In fairness to Webberbus, without them Burnham would have a very poor network of services emanating from it.  First have abandoned all corridors except for First West of England service 20 on the Weston-Brean-Weston corridor which started life as Bristol Omnibus Company service 91, and First Buses of Somerset service 21 on the Burnham-Pawlett-Bridgwater-Taunton corridor which was originally Western National 201.

Webberbus have introduced regular services 67 and 76 from Burnham which serve the routes originally operated by Bristol OC - service 37 (Burnham-Wedmore-Wells), 42 (Burnham-East Brent-Weston) and 160 (Burnham-Woolavington-Bridgwater).  The only ex-Bristol OC routes no longer served are the 37A (Burnham-Cheddar) and 140 (Burnham-Bristol), although these both disappeared a long time ago.

As fleetline6477 says, the service pattern on the Burnham to Weston section was traditionally hourly in the winter and half-hourly in the summer and this was certainly true until the 112 and 21 were combined into a through service.  In fact, in the 1960s, the half-hourly through service from Burnham to Weston only operated in August, with hourly through services for the rest of the summer, and 4 through journeys per day in the winter (most journeys operating Highbridge to Brean only).

Westy

#21
May 08, 2016, 05:02:11 PM
Ok fair enough, but as a tourist, why couldnt they get their act together with supplying information to key places along the route, especially Webberbus.

As I said to First Somerset on Facebook, not all tourists drive!

Westy

#23
May 12, 2016, 07:23:50 PM
Quote from: Roy on May 12, 2016, 06:43:51 PM
Webberbus have gone bust today!

http://www.yeovilexpress.co.uk/news/somerset_news/14489750.BREAKING__One_of_Somerset_s_main_bus_companies_folds/

Excuse me if I don't shed a tear, especially after using them last week!

Politely answering a question on social media doesn't bust a gut. ( At least First answered my query)

One thing I will say, the buses were decent. We wasnt talking Travel Express condition!

Mind you, should have guessed after Midland stopped answering social media queries, then they got sold to Arriva!

Adam 404

#24
May 12, 2016, 07:36:22 PM
Quote from: Roy on May 12, 2016, 06:43:51 PM
Webberbus have gone bust today!

http://www.yeovilexpress.co.uk/news/somerset_news/14489750.BREAKING__One_of_Somerset_s_main_bus_companies_folds/
I think they were too ambitious starting the competitive Taunton town services with First. I think that it is quite a shame with the quite modern fleet they have. Could they have not just gave up on their competitive routes??
Unlike @Westy 's experience, I have had problems with First (The Buses of Somerset) not turning up on a Sunday meaning I missed my train from Taunton Rail Station. Thankfully, Trevor of First Great Western got me on the next train free of charge after learning the situation I was in. First refused to answer phones in my attempt to find out if it would arrive.
On another visit to Somerset, Webberbus managed to stick to the schedule unlike first.
I feel their booklet timetables were awkward to use, particularly on the website. Couldn't routes of been separated more effectively?
Webberbus weren't perfect either but certainly gave First a run for their money at times. Service 28 was still packed while the 18 was about half full.

JoNi

#25
June 27, 2016, 10:08:52 PM
New First Kernow liveries were launched on Friday:
Route 6 "The Mousehole": Pink and Grey
Routes 14 & 18: Red
 Route 56 "Atlantic Coaster"Aquamarine (similar to Arriva)
Routes U1 & U2:Blue
All other routes: Light Green (close to the former Western Greyhound green)

598

#26
June 28, 2016, 11:18:09 PM
Quote from: JoNi on June 27, 2016, 10:08:52 PM
New First Kernow liveries were launched on Friday:
Route 6 "The Mousehole": Pink and Grey
Routes 14 & 18: Red
Route 56 "Atlantic Coaster"Aquamarine (similar to Arriva)
Routes U1 & U2:Blue
All other routes: Light Green (close to the former Western Greyhound green)

Where did you find this out from?

winston

#27
June 28, 2016, 11:32:55 PM
Quote from: 598 on June 28, 2016, 11:18:09 PM
Where did you find this out from?

Railway Forums posted by FSW Official

V89MOA

#28
August 28, 2016, 02:34:21 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37158521
First Leicester Streetdeck vs First Bristol MMC.
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