People power won the day last week when First Bus agreed to reinstate the number 76 as far as Henbury School.
Earlier this year, as part of a review of services in North Bristol, First Bus took the decision to start and terminate the 76 at Crow Lane. The impact of Southmead residents was Immediate. Many of our young people go to Henbury School and the changes meant that children as young as 11 were having to walk across unused wasteland to get to the bus stop, often in the dark. The issue was causing real concern for parents, many of whom had resorted to driving to drop off and pick up their children.
Your local Labour team in Southmead and Henbury decided to take action. I set up a petition on line, and within days we had over 500 signatures and a meeting set up with the Managing Director of First Bus, James Freeman.
At the meeting he agreed to reinstate the service beyond Henbury School, so that it will now start and finish at Tormarton Road. This will be a great relief for many parents. Unfortunately because of timetabling deadline the change won’t come into effect until September, however this will be in time for the new school year and before the dark nights are back!
The 76 will continue to go all the way to Cribbs Causeway in the evenings, and the number 2 route remains unaffected.