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Bristol

'Rapid Transit'
  A body called the West of England Partnership consisting of Bristol City Council, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire councils has been coordinating public transport in the Greater Bristol area.Under its aegis it has undertaken preparing plans for Rapid Transit. Unfortunately under pressure from the Government their proposals have been centred on improvements to the bus network under the title of the 'Greater Bristol Bus Network' (GBBN) and is now concentrated on so-called 'Bus Rapid Transit'.After a false start when plans to run along a cycle path on the old Midland rail line were abandoned after public pressure a process to find routes to enable receipt of Government funding rather that any real benefits of the route itself produced a proposal for a busway to link Temple Meads station to he Ashton Gate P+R site via the City Centre. This despite the existence of both a rail line along the harbour and connections to the Portishead rail line which could both be used to serve the area. This proposal has been interlinked with other proposals for a new football stadium and greenbelt housing.

Read George Ferguson's article in the Bristol Evening Post on the subject.

A second phase, the South Bristol Link is now under consultation.

Rail Improvements:

The Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways (FOSBR) have suggested forming a Greater Bristol Metro with half hour services on all the local lines including reopening the Portishead line to passenger traffic. The LRTA has supported this proposal but has suggested considering the use of tram trains to link the rail services with a connection from about Lawrence Hill via the centre and on to somewhere in the region of Bedminster or Parson Street, this would improve the visibility of the rail service as well as avoiding rail bottlenecks and so enabling a more frequent service.

The Network Rail Route Utilisation Study seems to have ignored recent patronage increases in local rail use and by treating each line in isolations rather that a whose has put a dampener on the Metro proposals

Independent Transport Authority (ITA):

Many transport campaigners in the area believe that the WoEP is far to complacent in its attitude and having once given in to government pressure to accept an inferior solution it is now trapped in that even if it realises its plans are inadequate it cannot risk the danger of losing allocated funding if it were to change its mind. To this end the Transport for Greater Bristol Alliance (TfGB) is pressing for an Independent Transport Authority (ITA) to take over the transport functions of the WoEP. Bristol City Council has supported this move but the other three council have blocked the move.

Read George Ferguson's article in the Bristol Evening Post on the subject.

LRTA leaflets (pdf):

  • Tram-train
  • Quality transport

    Previous information about the earlier tram proposals see the earlier Bristol Page

    Page created and maintained by Brian Lomas
    E-mail: bslomas@lrta.org

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