Timetables published this week confirm that the 73 bus service will be extended to terminate at the Approach Road stop in the Aztec West Business Park from Sunday 3rd September 2023.
However, on weekdays fewer than a third of journeys will go as far as Aztec West, with these being at off-peak times only (arriving between 10:23 and 14:57). The remainder of weekday journeys will finish at the Eagles Wood stop in north Bradley Stoke, which has been the terminus since January 2022 when the service stopped running to Cribbs Causeway.
The extension to Aztec West restores service to the Newleaze and Woodlands Park stops on Woodlands Lane as well as stops Aztec West C & D at the top end of Bradley Stoke Way.
None of the restored stops are served by the M1 MetroBus service, so passengers wishing to transfer between the 73 and MetroBus (e.g. to access Cribbs Causeway) will still have to walk some distance to make connections at stops Aztec West A & B on Gloucester Road.
Operator First West of England says it has no plans at present for the 73 service to return to Cribbs Causeway and it has been silent on the town council’s demand for the axed south-eastern loop of the route (along Baileys Court Road and Webbs Wood Road) to be restored.
The service frequency remains unchanged at half-hourly throughout the day.
New cross-city link
As previously reported, from the same date the 73 service will be merged with First West of England’s 92 service to create a cross-city route extending from Aztec West / Bradley Stoke all the way to Hengrove / Whitchurch in south Bristol.
A typical timetabled journey time for the whole new route between Aztec West and Belland Drive, Whitchurch, is 1hr 53min.
Travel times between Bradley Stoke and Bristol city centre remain more or less the same.
The route section between the city centre and Hengrove / Whitchurch is not served late at night – during the week the last departure from Whitchurch is at 21:15 and the last arrival at 22:15.
New stops at Temple Meads
Passengers who currently use the 73 to access Temple Meads Station should note that the service will no longer stop on the station approach road. Instead buses will halt at stop T1 on Temple Gate when travelling from Bradley Stoke to Whitchurch and stop T4 on Redcliffe Way when travelling towards Bradley Stoke (see map below).
Regression
Unfortunately, the timetable change also brings with it some reductions in service, for example on weekdays the total number of journeys on the route is reduced from 39 to 36. This manifests itself through a shortening of the overall service hours; for example:
- First journey from Eagles Wood now 06:05; previously 05:00
- Last journey from Eagles Wood now 23:11; previously 23:24
- First journey from Temple Meads now 05:34; previously 04:30
- Last journey from Temple Meads now 21:42; previously 23:35
- Last journey from city centre now 22:48; previously 23:42
Timetable and route map
At the time of writing the new timetable and route map is only available via the Travelwest website:
- Bus service changes September 2023 (Travelwest)
UPDATE (16/08/23): Timetable and route map now published on the First West of England website:
The new timetable and route maps may also be viewed as PDF files downloaded from the Traveline SW website:
- Timetable for service 73 from Sunday 3th September 2023 [PDF, 157kB; on Dropbox]
- Route maps for service 73 from Sunday 3rd September 2023 [PDF, 4.7MB; on Dropbox]
Tip: The full list of stops on the extended route is shown in the PDF version of the timetable.
