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The Newbridge Park + Ride stands to benefit from an improved public transport service to the City Centre.

The existing bus service is adequate for the current P+R facilities, but it is clear that the small size of this site is suppressing a much larger demand than can at present be accommodated. There are plans to increase the capacity of the site but this would soon overwhelm the existing bus service with a very large demand at peak periods, falling off to one which was uneconomic throughout much of the day.

An apparently easy option would be to increase the number of buses serving the site. This could add to the city's congestion problems because certain parts of the present road routes are congested and there is limited space available for setting-down and picking-up passengers in the City Centre . Furthermore there would be no economies of scale or improvements in loading patterns to be gained by this approach.

Other solutions have been sought:

BUSWAY PROPOSALS

A bus-based 'Rapid Transit' system, utilising the old Midland Railway alignment, has been proposed; but this would suffer from a number of serious disadvanteges:

• The point-to-point nature of rapid-transit assumes that the City Centre would be the major destination of potential passengers; whereas, in Bath, sources and destinations are actually widely diffused over the whole area.
• The track would have a seriously adverse environmental impact on the Western Riverside site.
• The track between Newbridge and the Western Riverside would be isolated from the surrounding residential areas and would be under-used for a large part of the day.
• The relatively uncongested road route could be used, so as to allow residential areas to be served. With a bus-based scheme the extra stopping, loading and restarting time of a bus could cause delays to the service.
• The access routes from the eastern end of the Western Riverside site to the City Centre are unsuitable for an intensive bus service.
• If this were a guided busway, the vehicles would need to be specialised and may not be suitable for ordinary routes
• There would be no economies of scale
• The railway alignment is a valuable future asset for longer-distance communication with Bristol and beyond, it would be inappropriate to use it for local journeys

TRAMWAY PROPOSALS

The route between Newbridge and the City Centre should be considered in two parts. An off-road Western Riverside alignment which will by-pass congested inner-city roads; and the Western Riverside to Newbridge alignment, part of which can run on the wide and relatively uncongested Newbridge Road. A number of advantages would accrue from operating on these alignments and from using trams:

• Other sources and destinations such as the Royal United Hospital and Upper Weston could be served at reduced infrastructure cost and with easy access from the Newbridge Park + Ride.
• By serving residential areas, additional off-peak demand would be created which would improve the operating economics of the system.
• Trams stop and restart more quickly than a bus, extra stops along the route would not significantly delay the fast service.
• A tramway alignment across the Western Riverside would have negligible environmental impact
• The access routes from the eastern end of the Western Riverside site to the City Centre are entirely suitable for a tram service; which, in any case, need not be as intensive as a bus service for the same number of passenger journeys.
• By linking with the proposed tramway network on the City Centre Circle, passenger interchange would be made extremely easy, thereby encouraging the use of public transport.
• There would be no single setting-down or picking-up point in the City Centre, multiple stops would ease congestion.
• Because the economics of tramway operation allow the use of conductors, there would be no delays in the city centre caused by one-man operation.
• Economies of scale would result from a more intensive service because a tramway has running costs which are low compared with the fixed infrastructure costs.
• The western end of the railway alignment would remain available for future long-distance public transport. See B&NES "Rapid Transit" proposal for Western Riverside

OPTIMISING THE CHANGEOVER POINT

The choice of changeover point from reserved track on the Western Riverside to street track on Newbridge Road will mainly be influenced by the balance between avoidance of traffic congestion and optimising accessibility for passengers.

Windsor Bridge Road - TfB preferred option
Advantages	Disadvantages
Catchment area (500 metres walking distance) includes Audley Park Road and theTennyson Road - St.Johns Road area, which has high housing density.	Would require considerable traffic management at northern end of Windsor Bridge to allow trams priority over queueing traffic
Serves play area of Royal Victora Park.	May need extra road space in Windsor Bridge Road
Could use existing Windsor Bridge	Bridge structure was not designed for trams, some additional engineering work may be needed.
Although in the short term this option involves more work, in the long term it will give the best public service. Tramway planning should always be long-term and, for that reason, this is the route preferred by TfB

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Eastern end of Locksbrook Road
Advantages	Disadvantages
Avoids a short sometimes-congested stretch of Upper Bristol Road between Windsor Bridge Road and Locksbrook Road	Traffic management measures would still be needed on some of the Upper Bristol Road and additional measures would be needed at the junction between this and Locksbrook Road
Could use existing railway bridge to cross river without additional engineering work	Old railway bridge could become a liability when repairs are needed.
Better access to part of Locksbrook Road	Does not serve Royal Victoia Park or Park Lane and is a greater distance from the Audley Park Road area

Station Road
Advantages	Disadvantages
Avoids a long stretch of the Upper Bristol Road and Newbridge Roads between Windsor Bridge Road and Chelsea Road	The junction between Station Road and Newbridge Road is very restricted in space and has an adverse camber. Construction of a satisfactory alignment could necessitate demolition of some surrounding properties (which TfB would not advocate)
Could use existing railway bridge to cross river without additional engineering work	Old railway bridge could become a liability when repairs are needed.
Better access to some of Locksbrook Road	Does not serve Royal Victoria Park, Audley Park Road or theTennyson Road - St.Johns Road area

East of Station Road
Advantages	Disadvantages
Avoids Newbridge Road and Upper Bristol Road entirely	Difficult of access
Dedicated fast service	Hospitals/Upper Weston Route would need to be constructed separately
Uninterrupted by stops	Does not serve large areas of Lower Weston, Newbridge Hill area - would run almost empty for much of the day.
Could use existing railway alignment	Parts of this alignment may need reconstruction and could become a maintenance liability
	Railway alignment may be needed in future for long-distance transport link

Upper Weston Hospitals Lansdown (P+R) Larkhall Batheaston, Bathford Newbridge (P+R) Western Riverside  City Centre Circle Churchill Bridge ( Lambridge P+R?) Bathampton Twerton Oldfield Park Bear Flat Bathwick University (P+R) Whiteway Southdown Odd Down (P+R) Combe Down

For further information see:

B&NES "Rapid Transit" proposal for Western Riverside
Western Riverside Route
Upper Weston and Newbridge routes
Guided busway
Western Riverside reports
Guide to prospective developers
City Centre Circle
Interchange
Segregation of tramways
Speed of boarding with conductors
Peak demand
Pollution

Other Maps

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