Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

The spending review is slated for the spring of next year I think.

[Red Squirrel]

Network Rail have posted this YouTube video about biodiversity along the railway:

https://youtu.be/6-IhGDZfndk?si=gbghsSbzHHf7Hep2

Interesting to hear what they have to say about the Portishead route. He uses these phrases when talking about the Avon Gorge::

"a freight railway which is soon to be converted to passenger use"

and

"In a few years time you'll be able to take a train along the Avon Gorge as we're working to reopen the line to passengers"

[chuffed]

 An update from the Portishead Railway group

Dear Member,

It's a couple of months since our last update, so we thought that you would like to know our current understanding of what is going on.

The Treasury spending review, of which the Portishead & Pill line reopening is one small part, is still under way and will continue until March or April next year.

We have been consulting carefully with many sources to understand what that means and we have been able to establish the following:
PRG’s Public Petition, presented in Parliament by Sadik al Hassan MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), was very well and widely received in Whitehall.
The Treasury review will conclude in March/April, presumably in time for the next budget.
The mood in Whitehall about reopening the Portishead line is still positive.
The final decision will be a financial one about spending across the whole of government. The Portishead line will be just a tiny part of that. This could be good or bad news.
No one, including our MP, will know what that decision is until the Treasury review outcome is made public.
What we do know is that the reopening project is still live and that work by the MetroWest team is continuing.
The budget has been reduced (to an undisclosed figure) with the aim of delivering a minimum specification solution.
If funding is secured, the reopened line will still have two stations – Pill and Portishead – as intended.
‘Minimum specification solution’ means things like platforms will be designed for five-car trains, but built to accommodate 3-car trains initially.
There is much discussion about why the cost of repairing existing bridges and tunnels along the line should be borne by the Reopening project, rather than by Network Rail’s maintenance budget for the existing freight line.
The much-delayed Northumberland line to Ashington reopened on 15th December 2024, having followed a remarkably similar path of delays, bureaucracy and constantly inflating costs. It finally cost £298 million to reopen for passengers 18 miles of post-Beeching track that was still entirely in use for freight.
This leaves Portishead as the only other railway reopening project in the country that is currently under way and at an advanced stage of development.
A positive decision on funding next Spring would allow the project to be completed before the next General Election in 2029.
Regards,
Peter
 
Peter Maliphant
Membership Secretary
Portishead Railway Group