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Buses in Bristol, Bath and Weston
Mention the city of Bristol, or Bristol Omnibus to any British bus enthusiast and images of L and K types, Lodekkas, LS, MW, RE or VR buses and coaches will come to mind. In the second decade of the 21st century these types have now passed into the history books, but thankfully they can still be enjoyed at various bus events and museums across the country. That being so, there is still plenty of bus interest on the streets of Bristol, Bath and Weston-super-Mare. The main operator nowadays is First West of England that through various takeovers and mergers, operate in what was the mainstay area of Bristol Omnibus. This DVD programme begins in Bristol during two visits in 2015 when the independent transport videos cameras were in the city filming the “Bristols Preserved 2015 & 2016” DVD. In 2018 our cameras returned to Bristol for a more in-depth visit, which shows how much has changed in just three years! On the same day we also filmed the bus scene in Bath. Our visit to Weston-super-Mare was in April 2018 to witness the final day of operations by Crosville Motor Services.
Beginning with the 2015 footage, our locations in Bristol include the Centre, College Green, Colston Avenue, Rupert Street and Baldwin Street. You might see the odd ‘preserved’ bus in the background, but these can be seen in full in the DVD programme mentioned above! Our filming in 2018 begins where the 2015 filming ends - Baldwin Street and Bristol Bridge. We move along to the busy Centre (or Tramway Centre as many of the locals still refer to it!). Plenty of action is seen here as the morning rush is coming to a conclusion. We see the new ADL MMC400-bodied Scania N250UD double-deckers in the green and grey Metro livery for route m3, which began operating on 18th May. They can be seen with ‘free trial’ advertising on their sides. Also seen are similar new double-deckers for the A1 Airport Flyer service to Bristol Airport, although these buses have luggage racks downstairs. They have replaced the Wright Eclipse 2-bodied Volvo B7RLE single-deckers that were filmed on the 2015 visit. The latter buses make an appearance in the Bath section of this programme, refurbished and in their new ‘Discover’ livery for routes that travel into Wiltshire. Further locations include Rupert Street, The Haymarket, Lewins Mead, College Green, Park Street and Queens Row. At this latter location we get a fleeting glimpse of the ADL 400City Biogas double-decker.
Moving to Bath we see action in Pierrepont Street, Manvers Street, Dorchester Street and Broad Quay. The third part of our programme is the visit to Weston-super-Mare to say goodbye to Crosville Motor Services. On that April day Crosville ran their heritage Bristol Lodekka FSF open-topper, formerly DFG81 (891 VFM) in the original Crosville fleet, on the 100 sea front service, along with former Bristol Omnibus 5055 (LEU 263P), a Bristol VRT/SL3/6LXB now with permanent open-top ECW O70D bodywork. Our cameras take a ride on this bus and we are able to hear the sound of the Gardner 6LXB engine in full song! Locations in Weston include Oxford Street, Regent Street, Marine Parade and Royal Parade where we see the smart orange and brown liveried ‘excel’ branded First buses that operate between North Somerset and Bristol. We hope you enjoy your visit to the 21st century version of ‘Bristol Omnibus’!
| Filmed : | 2015 & 2018 |
| Duration : | 65 mins |
| Price : | Within UK - £16 |
| Rest of world - £18 | |
| Format : | DVD -R |
| Picture Aspect 16:9 | |
| Order Ref : | D343 |
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