A quick plug, really, for the Wessex Red bus service that's running in the city - it was formally uLink and it's run for/with UWE, where I work when I'm not a politician. The Wessex Red routes are prefixed with a 'U' and they are mainly (but confusingly, not all) bright red.The routes are a little idiosyncratic as they are designed mainly for UWE and University of Bristol students and staff. However, anyone can use them and they do link very useful places around the city. For example, I think they offer the only service (U5) that links my part of Cotham with Horfield Leisure Centre - my nearest public swimming pool.
While they've been running for a while, I've only just started using them regularly. I used to think that I pretty much had to use my car to get out to Frenchay - buses used to take best part of an hour as I'd have to change in the centre.
The U5 service takes me door-to-door in 26 minutes (off peak - around 35 mins peak time) which isn't bad for a six mile journey and only mariginally slower than the 15 minutes I can manage in a car with a fair wind. The best thing is that it's only £3 for a dayrider ticket and you can get it even cheaper (£2.50) if you use a prepaid smart card!
It's a nice relief to leave my car at home even more - no stress and I can even get a bit of reading done on the way, which is generally frowned upon when driving. And only £2.50 for a twelve mile round trip, using a hassle-free smart card! It's a really good reminder about what value some buses in the city are and how good the rest could be.
Come on First - time to up your game, methinks!
2 comments:
It is just a shame that there isn't an integrated day-rider/season ticket. Even at £4 the First one is so much better value because of the routes it covers. Perhaps at £5 to cover all the rest would be a good idea.
Rick - as I understand it, work is ongoing on this. The ideal situation would be a single smart card which was blind to operator. Even better if it included local trains too.
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