Residents of an estate that's less than a mile and a half from Bristol city centre say they have been 'forgotten' again, after cuts to their bus services have left young and old furious.
People living in Ashton Vale face having no bus service in the early mornings, after 7pm or on Sundays after First Bus decided to overhaul the routes and timetables into the estate for the second time in two years.
The ‘island’ geography of the Ashton Vale area, and the fact that the main road into the estate is under a low bridge has proved a huge challenge for First Bus, who are having another go at sorting a bus service for the area.
READ MORE: Council gives major update as road set to close
The latest attempt to change the services in and out of Ashton Vale will come into force on January 30, and have left people living there angry.
An unpopular and little-used shuttle bus is being scrapped, and a new service - the 23 - is to start at the end of the month.
But the new 23 bus will only run once an hour, will only start at 7am and stop at 7pm, and won’t run on Sundays. People living in Ashton Vale said this means NHS workers won’t be able to get to and from work, young people won’t be able to access youth or sports clubs, and people without cars won’t be able to go out in the evenings using public transport.
Furious residents gathered on Saturday and told Bristol Live how they feel let down by the changes. One man said when he moved to Ashton Vale eight years ago, they had a bus into the city centre and on to Southmead Hospital every 15 minutes - now a series of cuts will mean that’s a quarter of the service it was before.
One pensioner, Jane Caines, said: “A lot of people here in Ashton Vale are disabled. I can’t walk all the way down to the Robins on a Sunday to go out. Why should I have to walk seven o’clock in the evening, from the Robins to up here if I want to go out? Why? It’s not fair.
“If we lived in a village, we would expect it, but we live in the centre of Bristol.
“We’ve got no buses on Sundays from January 30. We’ve got none after 7pm, and we got none early mornings. We’ve got a few people working for the NHS, needs a bus in the mornings, and they are saying ‘well it’s only two people’.
"But we’re still numbers, we still need to be counted. Why should we have to go without buses because of the bridge, and because they’ve put on double deckers? This is a waste of time, this shuttle bus,” she added.
Another resident said: “We’re always forgotten. We’re always down the bottom of the list for everything. We’ve been campaigning for years for all sorts of things and they don’t do anything.”
The Ashton Vale challenge
For years, the number 24 bus served Ashton Vale and residents living there were happy. It was a single decker bus that went right into the large estate and connected it to Bedminster, the city centre, and then on a winding route around Bristol which took in Easton, Lockleaze and ended at Southmead Hospital.
It was a popular bus service, especially the link between Southmead Hospital and the BS5 postcode, so in the autumn of 2019, First Bus decided to upgrade it to a double decker bus.
There was one problem, however. At the south-western end of the route, the double decker bus could not get under the low railway bridge just off Winterstoke Road, that is the main road into Ashton Vale.
Ashton Vale is, in terms of urban geography, almost an island. It’s bordered on two sides by railway lines, and the other two sides are the open fields of south west Bristol. There are only two roads in - one under the low railway bridge, and the second over a small hump-back railway bridge that buses can’t go over.
A third road into the estate was added recently, connecting Ashton Vale’s industrial estates to the new South Bristol Link Road, but accessing that way involves going out to Long Ashton and back into the city via the A370 - which is a traffic jam at rush hour.
So the first attempt to solve the problem of a double decker bus under a low bridge was to stop the 24 service at the Robins pub, close to the bridge, and link the estate up with a shuttle bus, the 24a.
That was agreed with local residents after a series of angry meetings between residents and bus company bosses.
But the solution didn’t quite work - it was a challenge to time the shuttle bus meeting up with the main 24 bus at The Robins pub, and people voted with their feet and usage of the shuttle bus dwindled - it was more hassle than it was worth.
Then six months later, the pandemic hit, affecting public transport use again, and now, as part of a range of bus service changes, a second attempt is being tried by First Bus.
The main 24 bus route is being increased for the busiest times, but the 24a shuttle bus is being scrapped, and instead a new 23 bus is being introduced that will be a single decker service from inside Ashton Vale to the city centre and back again.
It will only run once an hour, only between 7am and 7pm and not at all on Sunday.
“Given the current challenges, we have to act prudently within available driver resource, and this has resulted in having to make some difficult decisions, for example on Sundays, where buses will no longer continue to Ashton Vale, Langley Crescent,” said a First Bus spokesperson.
“This is the result of the combination of very low usage from Langley Crescent on Sundays and not being able to add an extra bus to the service on this day, which would be required to improve the current punctuality.
“The situation is similar during early mornings and evenings, which we appreciate will cause inconvenience to a small number of customers. Others will benefit with all service 24 journeys simplified and the needs to cross over the road to reach Hendre Road stop at certain times removed,” she added.
“We do not wish to leave Ashton Vale unserved and therefore as part of the changes, service 24a will be replaced by a new service, 23, linking Ashton Vale with North Street, Bedminster and the City Centre. This will operate at similar times to the current 24a service, but at a lower frequency of around hourly as a result of the longer route.
“Ashton Vale continues to be served additionally by metrobus service m2 from the Ashton Vale stop on the guided busway, providing earlier morning journeys than service 23. We are continuing to review this situation alongside WECA,” she said.
But the residents of Ashton Vale said that is not good enough.
Bernice McKendrick and Ann Pring said they both work for the NHS in the city centre, and are among thousands of people who work at the city centre hospitals that work shifts that start at 7.30am and end at 8pm. They now will have to find another way of getting to and from work.
It is not just pensioners or NHS staff. Martin Floyd is a father with two children. “It’ll affect my children as well as pensioners.It’s not just the elderly or the NHS workers who are affected by this.
“My daughter goes to guides and other clubs. Having the bus stopping at 7pm means young people won’t be able to go into clubs and stuff in Bedminster in the evening. It basically means no one here will have a social life.
“There are loads of people who work here to in all the industrial units and you see them getting off the bus to start night shifts, or finishing early mornings. What will they do?” he added.
What do you think? Sign in and join the conversations in the comments below
Another resident, Kim Shepherd, pointed out Ashton Vale, with a higher proportion of bungalows than many areas of Bristol, has a higher number of disabled people placed there by the city council.
“My daughter is in a wheelchair. The shuttle bus system was a challenge,” she said. “One problem is that the 24 used to go to Southmead Hospital, which was great for a lot of people. This 23 will only go into the city centre.”
Residents of Ashton Vale have written to First Bus to ask for the decision to be reconsidered and said they would not give up their fight for a better bus service, which is more frequent than once an hour, serves the area earlier in the morning, in the evening and on Sundays
Want our best stories with fewer ads and alerts when the biggest news stories drop? Download our app on iPhone or Android
