Operator reveals 'wish list' for Bristol railways

“Mark - nice list, I agree.

Not quite sure I agree with "A lot of this could be done for less than the cost of the proposed 'rapid-transit' bus" though. Any scheme that involves any sort of metal rails, be it tram or train, is expensive. The last thing I read about Edinburgh's fancy city centre tram scheme in industry news was that costs are currently £454million and rising!! Without loads more public money being pumped in they could quite easily end up with a few bits of track and dug up streets and still no operational tram system.

While bus rapid transit is a lowly bus (despised by many), at least the overall network would be flexible and be able to cater for changes in land use etc. Buses on different routes can use parts of the rapid transit sections as required. In contrast, tram and train routes are fixed and inflexible and very risky on the public purse - for example, there's the Sheffield supertram problem where part of a housing estate (Grange Towers) that the tram originally served was demolished in 2005. It caused financial mayhem as the city had a tram route to virtually nowhere with no passengers. Had it been bus rapid transit they could have re-routed the bus onto normal roads and served somewhere else to keep passenger figures up. But you can't easily re-route a tram or train.”

“What about north Bristol. Bristol parkway is due to have another platform but there is no sign of it yet (due to open end of 09). The addition of services and carriages completley misses routes through parkway and yate.

Parkway now handles over 2 million passengers per year but nothing has been changed for this evergrowing station and part of Bristol.”

“Mark, Stoke Bishop -

Spot on. I agree with everything you say.

Your list should be the 5 year aspiration for our local transport, not this absurd and pricey Bus Rapid Transit that no-one actually wants.”

“I hope they're also still planning on redeveloping Temple Meads station at some point. I always feel like I need a shower when I pass through there. It's very dingy and unpleasant. Not to mention the view from the platform where the trains to London leave from (well, I guess they can't do much to speed up redevelopment of the old sorting office, but can someone take down that disused bridge into the sorting office already?)”

“If this is a 'wish list' then it's pretty tame. The only proposal that involves expanding the actual rail infrastructure and hence the capacity to shift people around is the extra line from Temple Meads to Parson Street. Well, that probably already existed prior to Dr B so is no real achievement. The other proposals similarly fail to excite.

Rail may be Victorian but they did the hard work for us so we may as well now derive some benefit from their system. Here are some ideas: re-open Portishead line; stations at those park'n'rides that are next to lines to reduce reliance on buses; sort out Severn Beach service so that it is a viable route rather than a tourist attraction for masochists with too much time on their hands; use the Henbury freight line for passenger traffic and get a loop going; build some suburban stations on existing lines; trains to have decent-sized guard's van for bikes, prams etc; monorail/tram from Temple Meads into the Centre with intermediate station at Cabot Circus. I've barely started. A lot of this could be done for less than the cost of the proposed 'rapid-transit' bus.”

“George is right. James ¿ this investment should be able to get people out of their cars. At the moment, it is totally understandable that people travel by car due to the problems with public transport, but travelling by train is more relaxing, more comfortable and more efficient ¿ they just need to ensure there is more capacity and that the prices are set so that the cost of travelling by train is cheaper than by car.”

“But, James, the motor car is not a sustainable mode of transport. It's about time that something was done to improve public transport so that we can all travel by bus/train, etc, if we chose to...

At the moment the option to travel by public transport, for many, is often absent, due to over-priced and incomplete services.

Bristol, for instance has an incomplete bus service, serving only those routes that are popular.”

“Yes, there might be some congestion on the railways, but the problem is far worse on Bristol's roads. Given this is the way most of us choose to travel, wouldn't investment in the road network be a wiser choice? How about a third lane down the A38 Gloucester Road, one that changes direction during the day to ease the rush hour in and out?

That makes sense to me, rather than continuing to squander cash on an outdated Victorian mode of transport that none of us want!”

“The report suggets 'An extended passenger line from Bristol Temple Meads to Parson Street to remove the bottleneck'.
I have looked on Google Earth and there are already 3 lines from Parson Street to Temple Meads. There might have been a fourth line at one time - there's certainly room for one.
So why can't they do that now?
The fare structure is already there.
But wait
... extra trains will mean a new timetable so that will take ages to calculate.
...and they will have to negotiate the subsidies from us the taxpayers for running these trains.
That's about 4 years then.”

“At least they have acknowledged the fact that trains between Bristol and Gloucester are inadequate, never mind the rest of the network. The service only ever has 2 carriages, runs just once per hour and is really slow too.”