Bristol, Bath and the West

Performance Statistics

These figures help us monitor performance and might help explain to our customers why a service may not have been running to time.

General traffic congestion, road traffic accidents, bad weather, road works and temporary lights are just some of the issues we face on a daily basis. We constantly monitor our services and the conditions on the road to help us gather information that will help us to run our services to time.

As a part of the monitoring process we constantly aim to achieve standards of punctuality and reliability set by Traffic Commissioners who are responsible for the regulation of the bus and coach services in the United Kingdom.

The required standards are 95 % punctuality where a vehicle can be NO MORE than 1 minute early or 5 minutes late at any terminus point.

More recently, First invested in a state of the art control room in Bristol which allows us to track our vehicles at all times. The advanced technology not only shows where every bus is but also enables the operators to immediately identify if a bus is running early or late and communicate direct with the driver to quickly resolve the situation.

The information contained here are some of the major factors which have impacted on our ability to consistantly achieve the standrads our customers should expect. We hope that you will find the information informative and helpful.

Somerset & Avon businesses " June 2008.

Punctuality across the Somerset & Avon business for the period was 87%, with reliability performing at 99.60%

Bath delivered a 91% punctual performance
Weston delivered a 85% punctual performance
Somerset delivered a 84% punctual performance

Major disruptions to service affecting service punctuality

· The A370 was closed on Sunday 25 May at Backwell due to a major road accident. Service 353 was diverted via Clevedon and services 362 and 363 were diverted via Wraxall.
· Flooding on the A358 caused service 28 to be delayed by 45 minutes on Monday 26 May. On the same day service X26 was delayed due to tailbacks on the M5.
· On Tuesday 27 May Bristol Road in Wells was closed all day, it was therefore necessary to divert service 376. There were also road works in Patchway causing delays to services 309 and 310.
· Delays were caused to service 14 due to erratic parking in Somerville Way, Bridgwater, at times the service needed to be diverted.
· Road works delayed service 126 at both Winscombe and Cheddar on Monday 2 June.
· Temporary traffic lights delayed services 21 and 21A on Taunton Road, Bridgwater and at Marine Drive, Burnham-on-Sea. Queuing for petrol on Taunton Road, Bridgwater also caused delays to these services on Monday 16 June.
· Traffic on the Batheaston by-pass was tauiled back to the A4 with delays of up to 40 minutes for services 231 and 232.
· Traffic queuing for petrol on Wednesday 18 June at Sainsburys, Bath caused delays to services 5 and 10.
· On Friday 20 June the road was closed between Midford and Hinton Charterhouse, service 267 diverted via Wellow and Peasdown.



First Bristol " June 2008

Punctuality across the Bristol business for the period was 84.4%, with reliability performing at 98.1%

Major disruptions to service affecting service punctuality

· Signalisation of junction 3 of the M32. All motorway services were affected to varying degrees. Work scheduled to be completed on 29 August.
· A Road Traffic Incident on Tuesday 27 May blocked the M4 slip road East motorway services and caused delays on surrounding roads
· On Wednesday 28 May the Portway (from Bridge Valley Road to Sylvan Way) was closed due to a serious incident from 16:30 until midnight. This caused severe delays on Whiteladies Road; Portishead bound services and M32 services. Also an accident on M32 outbound beyond Eastgate caused severe delays to services X42, X62, X73 and X84 adding to the congestion due to the closure of the Portway.
· At 20:30 on Tuesday 3 June near the road works on Cromwell Road cars parked caused an obstruction in that location and delayed services.
· On Saturday 7 June Police closed Stapleton Road due to an armed siege. Services 4, 24, 48 and 49 were diverted.
· An excessive number of taxis were parked in Union Street on Tuesday 10 June. Buses were forced to stop in the middle of the road temporarily blocking it. This resulted in delays in the area and raised safety concerns.
· Resurfacing works blocked Julian Road on Tuesday 17 June, with two buses stuck in the system because no notification was given.
· On Wednesday 25 June significant congestion at Ashton Gate due to a Bon Jovi concert. Major disruption to services.