After routine cutbacks by First, demand has grown for more Ulink routes. Western Eye talks to UWE Travel Planner Steve Ward on what students can expect from the ever popular bus service and how the potholes in Car Park 20 are shaping up… How has Ulink developed since it first began its service last year? The decision to launch Ulink seemed like a big one at the time. Students with longer memories will remember at best an hourly service between the city centre and campus in 2007, with nothing at weekends or after 6pm. We quickly realised after Freshers’ Week last year that Ulink had become a victim of its own success, and asked Wessex Connect to pull out all the stops and provide us with more vehicles to cope with demand. In trying to bring in major improvements to bus travel quickly, we learned a great deal during the first year of operation – particularly about the importance of getting the timetable exactly right and the nightmare of Bristol’s traffic! By later inviting the public to use the service we hoped to be able to sustain the service right through the holidays. We have managed this – just – but a major challenge is to get even more of the public using the service, for their commute into and out of town. If we can keep the service growing like this it will develop into a year-round network. Ulink suffered from some initial teething problems such as lack of ticket licences and not enough frequent services, particularly during the first term. Although these problems were resolved throughout the year, are you making any preparations for the beginning of term? With any new service there’s something of a leap into the unknown. We knew how many students living at Frenchay were using the service and quickly realised that it was more popular than we expected with other students too. This year we have the benefit of hindsight, so there will be three times more buses between Frenchay and St Matts at the start of term, and a double deck bus for the U4 on the M32. Every route will be at least half-hourly during the day. Will there be any changes to the frequency and lateness of buses run at night? This year every route will have a higher frequency, and every route will have a last bus from the city centre no earlier than 9.30pm. We’d like to run even later than this, but first we have really got to focus on getting students to their daytime lectures on time as the number one priority. During the summer we’ve spent a huge amount of time driving round the routes with the Ulink drivers, making sure we get the timings exactly right. Of course whether you drive or get the bus to UWE, accidents sometimes happen on the roads, resulting in gridlock. But there will be no tolerance of buses running early or late without good reason. First have got rid of their popular 99 and x84 services – do you think this is this a response to the popularity of the Ulink? This is certainly a disappointing move: First seem to be suggesting it was down to competition – we had hoped it would instead encourage them to improve or diversify their services, rather than cutting back. Will Ulink be providing services in response to this? Our response to this is to introduce a double deck bus for the U4 on the M32, and to introduce a new U5 route (see map). The bonus here is that students living on We could not allow the hundreds of students who live around £1 single fares have been a popular introduction over the summer period, are there plans to keep this fare structure? The main aim of the temporary £1 fare was to try to get the public using the service. This seems to have been reasonably successful – especially with commuters. While £1 is simply not a sustainable price for a bus ticket, we will still price them well below other services in the city; in effect the public will be subsidising student travel. Are there any plans for anymore routes throughout the year? From the start of term students who buy a Ulink pass can also use Wessex Connect’s 581 service. As well as linking Frenchay and St Matts campus you can travel to exotic locations like All Frenchay residents will have an added bonus with the opening of Cabot Circus shopping centre this autumn – for the rest of 2008 they will be able to travel there free on the 984 service via the M32; every 15 minutes during weekends for as long as the shops are open. Will there be any changes to the price of parking for students this year? The price of parking for full-time students will rise this year. Students need to buy parking tokens from the outlets shown on www.uwe.ac.uk/hsv/transport/cp.shtml . These can be bought in bulk at the start of term for 75p a day or online (store.uwe.ac.uk). The simple dilemma we have at UWE is that we are limited in how much parking we are allowed by the council, but every year more students buy cars. That’s why in early 2008 all students were invited to respond to a consultation on what we should do about over-demand for parking – and hundreds of you gave us a clear answer that you would be prepared to pay more for parking, but only if all the money went into transport improvements (including buses and car parks) and there was a daily charge rather than an annual permit. That is exactly what we are doing. Of course many students feel they have no option but to drive to campus, but for these students I am sure we will see some relief of the parking situation and improvements to the management of it. Have there been any improvements to the condition of the car parks (potholes etc)? That’s something we’re working on right now! Car Park 20 is very heavily used, and because it’s only going to be there for another 3 years we need to ensure we’re keeping it in good condition all the time. We also want to mark out the spaces better to ensure car parks are more efficient. Also we’ll be regularly policing the 2+ spaces in Car Park 1, so if you park with a passenger you should have a very good chance of finding a convenient spot. Finally, we’re getting rid of wheel-clamping for minor offences, such as not displaying a valid parking token – these will be handled through £5 fixed-penalty notices, reducing our clamping costs and reducing the pain to you if only minor rules are broken. |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |