North Bristol rail loop would ease congestion

Transport campaigners and a would-be MP have backed renewed calls to reopen a stretch of freight-only railway to passengers to ease congestion in north Bristol.

The issue of reopening the Filton-Henbury line to passengers was highlighted again over Christmas after congestion on the roads around the Cribbs Causeway shopping complex saw some motorists stuck for up to three hours.

Jon Edwards, commercial director at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway, said: "We have never seen so many people arrive in such a short space of time – we think people just held back from shopping hoping for last-minute bargains.

"The last thing we want to do is annoy any customers who have to wait in traffic."

Reports of the traffic chaos prompted Western Daily Press reader Robert Harris to write a letter outlining the case for reopening to passengers the freight line which skirts Cribbs Causeway, with a new station near the shopping complex.

Mr Harris, of Stinchcombe, near Dursley, Gloucestershire, said: "Look at a map and you will see just how close the freight railway through Filton and Henbury to Avonmouth passes Cribbs Causeway.

"The north Bristol freight line crosses under the A38 a short walk away from Filton College, where there would be significant custom for a regular train service.

"The line skirts Filton airfield and should be diverted for a passenger service underground, below the runways, to the shopping centre. It also crosses the A4018 at Henbury where there would be scope for a park-and-ride facility.

"At Avonmouth, the line joins the Severn Beach line, where it could combine to create a northern loop service from Temple Meads-Filton Abbey Wood-Filton College and Airport-Cribbs Causeway- Henbury-Avonmouth-Clifton Down-Montpelier-Lawrence Hill-Bristol Temple Meads.

"There is easily enough custom for this to make sense and take commuters' and shoppers' cars off the road."

Charlotte Leslie, prospective Conservative MP for North Bristol and ardent public transport campaigner, agreed.

Earlier this year she wrote to Sir Simon Day, chairman of the South West Regional Assembly, to implore the partnership to include the plan in its bid for central Government funding.

Yesterday, she said: "Bristol is urgently seeking a solution to its road congestion problem and yet the infrastructure is already there."

Bristol City Council let the site where Henbury station stood be sold by the British Rail Property Board at auction to an unnamed developer for £750,000. South Gloucestershire declined an option to buy it.

Earlier this year, Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways joined the battle to reopen the Henbury loop rail link, urging members of the public to send postcards to the West of England Partnership of local councils.

It would cost millions of pounds from the Government, First Great Western and Network Rail to get it running, plus local authority subsidies.

The West of England Partnership says the Henbury Loop is in its long-term plans but is not feasible right now.