A new bus service that is to run along some of the route of the former 71/72, axed by First Group in September 2011, will bypass the Conygre area of Filton.
Wessex Red has announced that it is extending the route of its no. 13 service, which currently runs between UWE and Bristol city centre, to start instead from the Willow Brook Centre in Bradley Stoke. From there, buses will follow the route of the former 71/72 through Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge before heading down the A38 Gloucester Road to Filton.
But whereas the former 71/72 service then turned left into the Conygre ward, passing along Station Road, Conygre Road and Filton Avenue (and Church Road on the return trip), the new service will remain on the A38 before turning left at Filton Roundabout and heading east along the Ring Road.
The news will come as a disappointment to the hundreds of people who last year signed a petition calling for the 71/72 service to be restored.
The 71 and 72 were replaced for a while by the peak-hours-only U8 but that service ran for just a year before it too was axed in September 2012.
The extended no. 13 will become the second new service to pass through Filton this year. The X18, an express bus service linking Kingswood and Emersons Green with Aztec West began operating on Wednesday 2nd January.
More information and related links:
- Route map of the no. 13 service (Bradley Stoke Journal)
- Timetable of the no. 13 service (South Gloucestershire Council)
- Bus services in Filton (Filton Journal)
