Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[martyjon]

Not the only cancellation. Whilst having a coffee with an insider today he let slip that he had heard of a proposal to modify the Portishead line re-opening into a, hmm, guided busway using composite recycled rubber/plastic moulded sections laid along the track which would still allow freight traffic over the line to Portbury Docks and give greater coverage of the town by running along the towns highways. He said the accountants are happy too, this scheme has had an under £50 million price tag put on it, putting it at less than half that of the Portishead line heavy rail reinstatement estimate, any Bristol forum members aware of any truth in this.
 

[grahame]

Not the only cancellation. Whilst having a coffee with an insider today he let slip that he had heard of a proposal to modify the Portishead line re-opening into a, hmm, guided busway using composite recycled rubber/plastic moulded sections laid along the track which would still allow freight traffic over the line to Portbury Docks and give greater coverage of the town by running along the towns highways.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/running-buses-along-portishead-railway-2939324

Proposals to replace the long awaited Portishead rail link with a bus service into the heart of Bristol have been put forward.

The proposal – the idea of former computer engineer Barry Cash – would see plans for a rail line scrapped and a commuter bus service introduced along the route instead.


Mr Cash says instead of restoring and upgrading the rail line between Portishead and the city at a cost of tens of millions, a ‘STRAIL’ system should be used.

STRAIL is a system of thick interlocking panels made from virgin and recycled rubber that fit between and beside railway lines.

They are in use at 30,000 locations on five continents to provide level crossings for road traffic to drive over railways and have been in use for 40 years.

Mr Cash says buses could then go along the route – and to the Cumberland Basin where it could join the existing bus route network.

[stuving]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/running-buses-along-portishead-railway-2939324

Proposals to replace the long awaited Portishead rail link with a bus service into the heart of Bristol have been put forward.

The proposal – the idea of former computer engineer Barry Cash – would see plans for a rail line scrapped and a commuter bus service introduced along the route instead.

Is that just an idea hatched by a couple of blokes in a pub on the back of a fag packet, or is there anything moire behind it in terms of backing and knowledge, which the Post haven't bother to tell us?

[chuffed]

This is just the EP rehashing old news yet again. This first came out at about the time of the massive cost increase,and it was roundly derided back then. Now that full funding has been found for a heavy rail scheme...tram train was dismissed as too expensive..... why would you even consider an alternative scheme ? I fear your coffee contact martyjohn, is way behind the curve on this. This needs splitting off back into the Portishead thread. The DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) goes in, in the next few weeks and will probably take 18 months to get through.

[Reading General]

I have an even better idea! We could take those buses and run them along tarmac roads between Portishead and Bristol allowing private car owners to also do the same........................... oh no, hang on!

[alan_s]

New article in evening post:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/running-buses-along-portishead-railway-2939324

This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard.

The route needs major investment to re-lay sections of track which have been ripped up, and for a viable shared timetable to be created with the freight companies which use part of the line.

None of the track has been ripped up, it's still there under all the foliage.   

The buses would be able to pick up from all over Portishead and go straight into the centre of Bristol where eventually it could link up with the current Metrowest bus service.
It would not interfere with the current freight trains using the track, which could be timetabled around the buses.

so if buses can be timetabled around freight trains, why can't passenger trains !!

[stuving]

New article in evening post:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/running-buses-along-portishead-railway-2939324

This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard.

Earlier report and discussion starts here.

[grahame]

This is just the EP rehashing old news yet again. This first came out at about the time of the massive cost increase,and it was roundly derided back then. Now that full funding has been found for a heavy rail scheme...tram train was dismissed as too expensive..... why would you even consider an alternative scheme ? I fear your coffee contact martyjohn, is way behind the curve on this. This needs splitting off back into the Portishead thread. The DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) goes in, in the next few weeks and will probably take 18 months to get through.

I will tidy up later ... in the mean time I did a Google search on the name of the chap said to be behind it - and found this,  this and this for starters.

[Robin Summerhill]

Some further posts might be joining us shortly because this is beginning to be discussed on "M4 diversion around Newport scrapped" thread, and they could really do with being moved to this thread.

However, someone over there asked if this scheme is something thought up by two blokes in a pub on the back of a fag packet. I have some sympathy with that view...

It looks like the idea has its origins in the Turn Railways into Roads campaign from the late 1950s, which was rubbished then and has not really advanced very far now. Then, as now, the practicalities have not been thought about:

You have, currently, a single track railway line. Even allowing for the railway land on either side, this is not wide enough for a single carriageway road, let alone one that would allow buses to pass (in order to get them in and out of Portishead in the peak, virtually empty buses have to go the other way). The profile of a railway line (ballast and track forming a sort of mound) is incompatible with running road traffic over it so this STRAIL stuff would need to be provided each side of the trackwork, presumably on some sort of trestle that could take the weight of a bus and also not interfere with the drainage arrangements below it.

Would a bus fit through the tunnel on the line? How would you stop other road traffic from trying to use it?

These are just issues that spring immediately to mind without thinking too deeply about the "proposal." Others will come to me in time, as they may well have come to other readers already.

There is however a passage in quotation marks virtually at the bottom of the story, but the journalist gives no indiation of who they are quoting: "Changing the scheme from rail is not something under consideration given the funding is now in place and the DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) application process is in its latter stages."

My first thoughts are that Mr Cash should stick to his day job of engineering computers...

[alan_s]

Earlier report and discussion starts here.

Thanks.  Sorry, no idea the BEP were recycling old articles, must be a slow news day!

[grahame]

I have merged in posts that started as asideshoot of some Welsh topic 

Original at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=21707

[Red Squirrel]

Earlier report and discussion starts here.

Thanks.  Sorry, no idea the BEP were recycling old articles, must be a slow news day!

I'm not sure it was even that - I suspect that a database error at the Bristol Post has caused two old stories to collide and pop out with a new date.

Barry Cash's concept of turning the whole line into an axial level crossing is ironic, given the impossibility of building a conventional one at Quays Avenue... and the second half of the story is a re-run of the news about the DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) process starting, which doesn't relate to Mr Cash's idea at all.

[grahame]

Some further posts might be joining us shortly because this is beginning to be discussed on "M4 diversion around Newport scrapped" thread, and they could really do with being moved to this thread.

They have indeed been joined in ... hope the cobbling together isn't too bad.

My first thoughts are that Mr Cash should stick to his day job of engineering computers ...

A sentiment I'm inclined to agree with.  It is, though, excellent to test ideas / plans / directions against independent ideas; in this case the alternative offered just confirms in my mind that the scheme being pressed forward officially is an excellent one, especially compared to that from Mr Cash.  I could come up with a number of other elements in addition to Robins which I see being - err - very serious concerns.

[TonyK]

Quite. I'm not sure why we're dignifying this idea by discussing it!

Red Squirrel's very valid thinking is worth dragging up from a few months ago. This idea is no more. It has ceased to be. It is an ex-idea, all suggestions that this idea is still a going concern are from this moment inoperative. If you hadn't nailed it to the Bristol Post, it would be pushing up the daisies, etc etc.

In any case, give MetroBust a scheme costing £40 million, and they'll find a way to at least treble it, then have to redo it after a couple of years because of having used cheaper recycled condoms instead of new rubber from Malaysia, just to spite the Mayor's besties.

Nah. An even slower news day than usual.

[grahame]

From Grimsby Live

Boris Johnson says he would reopen Suggitts Lane level crossing if he becomes Prime Minister

Q: What has this to do with Portishead?
A: Perhaps this would allow a level crossing in Portishead to be (re)opened allowing trains closer in

Q: Would Boris have the time to meet promises like this amongst the great affairs of state
A: I really have to wonder ...