Familiar green bus shelters on the 73 bus route through Bradley Stoke are being replaced with shiny silver ones funded by the Greater Bristol Bus Network (GBBN).
The old green shelters, owned and maintained by Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC), are beginning to show their age and the Council has sruggled to keep them free of graffiti.
Lib Dem Councillor Jon Williams has told The Journal that the new shelters will be owned, cleaned and maintained by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC), saving the Town Council a considerable amount of money.
The 73 route forms one of ten key bus ‘corridors’ identified in the Joint Local Transport Plan of the West of England Partnership, which is formed of the four unitary authorities of Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
Work already completed on the route includes the installation of raised kerbs at fifty bus stops between Bristol City Centre and Cribbs Causeway.
A number of the new shelters have already been installed in Brook Way (see photo above) and it is expected that more will follow.
Cllr Williams says that some stops on the route will have improved waiting facilities and real time information displays, but it is not clear if these features will apply to the Bradley Stoke stops, although Cllr Williams suggests that they will:
“This is really good news for the town. Real time information will enable bus users to plan their journeys and not turn up not knowing when the next bus is going to arrive. My hope now is that the bus services improve in the same way that the shelters have. Unfortunately, First Bus seem intent on making it more difficult to catch a bus rather than easier. “
Cllr Williams’ final point refers to the fact that First Bus has recently axed two routes serving Bradley Stoke (74 and X74) and made changes to the 73 service which mean that it no longer serves MOD Abbey Wood or the Aztec West Business Park.
The total cost of the GBBN is £70 million – comprising £42 million from the Department of Transport, £20 million from First Bus and £6 million from developer contributions, with the balance funded by the four Councils. The money will be spent on bus priority schemes, new buses, real time information systems, bus shelters and service improvements.
Other GBBN projects affecting Bradley Stoke include a new bus priority scheme at the Aztec West roundabout. Implementation of a similar scheme at the Abbey Wood roundabout on the A4174 is currently underway but there is no news of when work on the Aztec West project will commence.
Related Link: Bus improvement schemes in progress (SGC)
