City centre traffic plays havoc with Nailsea bus timetable

The boss of a Nailsea bus company has complained to Bristol City Council about city centre traffic chaos.

North Somerset Coaches boss David Fricker has blamed poor traffic management in a letter to city council public transport officer Ian Saywell.

Mr Fricker said: “This week has seen such dreadful congestion getting in and out of the city.”

And he cites the route through Hotwells from the A370 as especially bad.

In his letter Mr Fricker said: “I must now formally raise the issue of the apparent lack of management of the peak hour traffic flows in and out of the city from the A370 and ask what plans there are to improve this rapidly worsening problem on our side of the city?”

A Rapid Transit scheme may sort out the problem in the long term but Mr Fricker wants ‘urgent action’ now.

The variety of roadworks at Hotwells in addition to the continued closure of Bridge Valley Road is causing terrible congestion, said Mr Fricker who is asking why the work couldn’t have been done during half-term?

Work on the new bus stops at the Mardyke pub started immediately the schools went back in January and we are still without the outbound bus lane plus coach companies have to contend with further work at Dowry Square and Merchants Road, he said.

Inconsiderate parking outside student accommodation and collecting rubbish at 8am is blocking parts of Hotwells Road at peak times leading to queues of traffic backed up to the Long Ashton by-pass.

Mr Fricker added: “The real difficulty we are facing though is the daily havoc around the centre between 5-5.30pm.”

He blames the non-sequenced traffic lights and poor lane markings saying sometimes it takes as long as 35 minutes to get from Union Street to the Hippodrome.

Mr Fricker likened the experience for his X54 drivers as taking part in ‘wacky races’ and says his passengers who are trying to support public transport are getting increasing frustrated.

A Bristol City Council spokesman said: “"We are currently carrying out a number of roadworks in the Hotwells area which are resulting in some delays.

“In addition to work on Bridge Valley Road, there is also work being done in connection with the Greater Bristol Bus Network as well as works for Bristol Water.

"These are being carried out in unison in order to minimise the period of disruption for motorists and we are maximising road capacity during peak hours in and out of the city.

“The work being carried out by Bristol Water is about to finish and the work being done GBBN which is for the benefit of buses is due to end at the beginning of March.

“The work on Bridge Valley Road is scheduled to end in June this year.

“We regret any inconvenience to drivers and are doing our best to keep any delays to a minimum.

“However, these are essential works and we are continuing to monitor traffic management."

North Somerset Coaches was founded in 1969 and operates from its Southfield Road depot.

It operates a number of school runs as well as local, seaside and Nailsea to Bristol routes using a fleet of modern buses.

As well as its single and double deckers it also owns a number of vintage buses it hires out.

Apart from the city centre traffic concerns the company is worried that government funded concessionary fares vital to its business are under threat following multi-million pound cuts to North Somerset Council budget.