Bristol connections: Metro, Bus Rapid Transit, PTE, ITA and local councils - discussion

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

AAUI? Got me this time:

Apple Attachment User Interface?
Asosiasi Asuransi Umum Indonesia?
Automobile Association of Upper India?

Nope, none of these quite seem to fit...

[chuffed]

 Shouldn't that be AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) ....As I Understand It ....

That esteemed organ, the Bristol Post which is printed in Didcot, is reporting that the re-opening of the Portishead line is to be put back a year to December 2018. Although it is at GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) 4 , it has to wait for the rest of the proposed metro lines to go through the GRIP process. The actual work would only seem to take about 9 months to complete, but it is all the vast bloated bureaucracy of planning, consultancy and over-engineering that ramps up the cost... an estimated eye watering  ^55 million... which just seems to beggar belief for just 3 miles of flat line! What would Brunel think ? I suspect he would be spinning in his grave so fast that he could probably power the entire electrification programme single handed ...or should that be single bodied ?

[ellendune]

Shouldn't that be AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) ....As I Understand It ....

That esteemed organ, the Bristol Post which is printed in Didcot, is reporting that the re-opening of the Portishead line is to be put back a year to December 2018. Although it is at GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) 4 , it has to wait for the rest of the proposed metro lines to go through the GRIP process. The actual work would only seem to take about 9 months to complete, but it is all the vast bloated bureaucracy of planning, consultancy and over-engineering that ramps up the cost... an estimated eye watering  ^55 million... which just seems to beggar belief for just 3 miles of flat line! What would Brunel think ? I suspect he would be spinning in his grave so fast that he could probably power the entire electrification programme single handed ...or should that be single bodied ?

He was never one for building railways to a low budget.  His reputed to have said "not the cheapest, but the best". Over-engineering was, it could be argued, his hall mark and the reason why he is admired after all these years.

[Red Squirrel]

That esteemed organ, the Bristol Post which is printed in Didcot, is reporting that the re-opening of the Portishead line is to be put back a year to December 2018. Although it is at GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) 4 , it has to wait for the rest of the proposed metro lines to go through the GRIP process. The actual work would only seem to take about 9 months to complete, but it is all the vast bloated bureaucracy of planning, consultancy and over-engineering that ramps up the cost... an estimated eye watering  ^55 million... which just seems to beggar belief for just 3 miles of flat line! What would Brunel think ? I suspect he would be spinning in his grave so fast that he could probably power the entire electrification programme single handed ...or should that be single bodied ?

When I was younger I knew a bloke who was doing an apprenticeship (yes, that long ago!) in Heating and Ventilating. "How much would you quote to hang a radiator?" he asked one night in the pub after a stimulating day at Nollidge College . I replied that I'd take the length of time it takes to do the job and multiply it by the hourly rate, then maybe add 10% or so for contingency. "Aha!" he cried triumphantly (sorry if this is getting a bit Jeffrey Archer) "you then need to multiply by three". The logic being that you always hang a radiator three times; you hang it, then you move it because it's not quite in the right place, then you take it off for the decorators and hang it again when they've gone.

This is how I see the Somewhere-in-the-West Metro developing, if it develops: build extra tracks up Ashley Bank, then slew (or 'slue' for those of you who prefer Usanian spelings) and resignal for new (two-platform) stations at Ashley Hill and Horfield (thus increasing their cost by maybe 100%), then resignal (and slew) again and add extra platform faces so local trains can use the fast lines...

It all makes work for the working consultant to do, to paraphrase Flanders and Swan.

[Red Squirrel]

'Bristol Post' thinks it can hear the dulcet tones of a Fat Lady singing:

IT looks like the fight to get four tracks re-instated to the north of Temple Meads has been won. That is great news and proves that if rail campaigners, trains companies, councillors and local MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) make a strong enough case then we can attract investment and get improvements to our railways.

So now it's moving its attention to the Parson St section:

We need to press to get agreement for the new line to Parson Street when the work on Filton Bank goes ahead.

(see http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/need-push-extra-line/story-19216105-detail/story.html)

All good stuff. I may soon be changing my name to 'Two Tracks Now' (referring, of course, to the Severn Beach line between Narroways and Clifton Down)... and then there's the B&NS... or am I getting ahead of myself again?

[TonyK]

All good stuff. I may soon be changing my name to 'Two Tracks Now' (referring, of course, to the Severn Beach line between Narroways and Clifton Down)... and then there's the B&NS... or am I getting ahead of myself again?

Steady!!

[Red Squirrel]

This piece in Bristol 24-7 is to my mind an interesting take on Bristol Mayor George Ferguson's thinking: "Stop the Dibleyite commuters parking in Bristol's residential suburbs, and their leaders will have to agree to an ITA^▸ (Integrated Transport Authority)".

Who's to say he's wrong?

[JayMac]

He's gonna have to trade in those red trews for some green corduroy and sandals at this rate...

[trainer]

I can't see that any politician will be under pressure to do something because a neighbouring authority has parking problems.  If their electors care they might try to pressure them, but unfortunately, people like me who support an ITA^▸ (Integrated Transport Authority) and who live outside the City of Bristol, find it difficult to persuade politicians (or indeed those who elect them) of its importance.  They are more immediately concerned with farmers and the ins-and-outs of badger culling and making sure Weston-super-Mare divests itself of undesirable, if successful, businesses such as drug rehabilitation units (declaration: I was at one time connected with this industry).  Other authorities have problems around whether nuclear power stations will be replaced.

Sadly, as so often round these parts, parochialism rules and the regional vision gets lost in a miasma of bucolic isolationism.  I genuinely hope I'm wrong, as this point of view makes me depressed. 

Having written this I am now changing my signature.

[Red Squirrel]

I can't see that any politician will be under pressure to do something because a neighbouring authority has parking problems.

Except that a premise of the RPZ is that a lot of the commuters causing the problem live outside the city boundary. And actually that could well be true, given that large parts of what to any reasonable person (Banham excepted) is plainly 'Bristol' are indeed outside the city boundary. If those denizens of Bradley Stoke who work in central Bristol suddenly find that they can no longer park in Redland, maybe they will put pressure on their local politicians to do something positive. Like help set up an ITA^▸ (Integrated Transport Authority).

[John R]

As I recall the fourth track to Parson St was not in the draft plan for 14 to 19, so I suspect it might be an uphill struggle to include it.

Though I agree it seems a very simple enhancement, and very beneficial, particularly if the Portishead line goes ahead. With slowly increasing freight traffic in the area (I saw two freight trains heading northbound through Temple Meads simultaneously last night - vans from Portbury and the log train from Heathfield), including the additional movements into the Liberty Lane depot (which by definition will be moving very slowly through Parson St and thus occupying the lines for longer), means that together with the Portishead services the sole down line would be very busy.

However, I thought I read though that any 4 track proposal would involve switching to an up/down/up/down configuration, which would require much more work at Parson St. I would have thought that a cheaper solution would be to simply extend the current disused track beyond Parson St and having a relatively fast converge onto the main. This would enable through down services to get ahead of stopping services or stay clear of those waiting to cross to the yard or Portishead line.  

[JayMac]

They are more immediately concerned with farmers and the ins-and-outs of badger culling and making sure Weston-super-Mare divests itself of undesirable, if successful, businesses such as drug rehabilitation units.  Other authorities have problems around whether nuclear power stations will be replaced.

It goes without saying that it's a knotty problem. Those drug addicted pro nuclear farming badgers need appeasing.

Get them on side then Hinkley C is a done deal.   

[TonyK]

The use of RPZ as a means to an end is an interesting one. Trouble is, though, that the tenure of the Mayor in Bristol is only four years. The red-trousered one has said he wants a second term, but the RPZ will be close enough in memory for someone to run on a ticket of abolishing it. The three years left will probably not be long enough for the benefits to be appreciated, and of course public transport will not have improved because we don't have an ITA^▸ (Integrated Transport Authority), and the whole argument becomes circular and self-perpetuating.

I am all in favour of an ITA, not least because the only projects brought forward by the ineffective and incompetent West of England Partnership have been badly handled and have little prospect of changing anything. The park and ride sites around Bristol are not the solution either - P&Rs^▸ (Park and Ride) have been shown to actually increase traffic, even if it is kept from the centre of the city. Good quality and cheap public transport, where one ticket covers every way to travel, is what is needed.

[Red Squirrel]

It's interesting watching the politics of this one play out, especially here in Ashley ward.

Jon Rogers (erstwhile Lib Dem councillor for Ashley), whose failure to get elected as Mayor was speedily followed by him losing his council seat to the Greens, is acting as a focal point for disaffection with the RPS.

Meanwhile the Greens, who we can safely assume to be supportive of the aims of the RPS, now find themselves belatedly having to at least appear lukewarm about it. They accuse the Mayor of having ' an unconventional approach to consultation', and have to at least give lip service to representing the views of a vociferous 'anti-RPS' lobby.

Oh, and the anti-RPS lobby keep shouting to anyone who'll listen that there is no parking problem in St Andrews. Which there isn't, at the moment... but if I was a commuting motorist who'd just been booted out of Redland and was looking for somewhere else to park, I might well hear what they are saying and head over to St Andrews; a short walk from Montpelier station with it's easy links to Clifton or central Bristol... all of which rather makes George Ferguson's point that the only sensible approach to an RPS is a comprehensive one...

[TonyK]

Dr Jon Rogers still thinks of himself as a public figure, it seems. He asked on twitter how his former constituents can make his their views known to the mayor. I suggested they could channel those views through their elected councillors, and didn't get an answer. Seems that the new intake in Ashley ward thought that because they were elected, that meant that most of their electorate agreed with them. Turns out most of them, or at least the 20% who voted, disagreed with Dr Jon.

On other matters, I have had my eyes turned towards Roadworks.org, where I read that roadworks are scheduled from 25 July 2013 to 25 January 2015, including a full week closure:

High impact, delays likely
 Location :  Berwick Road to number 358 Stapleton Road
 Description :  Structural and masonry repairs to railway bridges. Road closure for 1 week within this period.
 Current status:  Advanced planning
 Traffic lights, etc:  Road closure
 Queries should be addressed to Bristol City Council quoting reference QF010TC1266
 Work info last modified 13:00 on 23/05/2013
 Last updated on roadworks.org 18:03 on 07/06/2013
 Data source Bristol City Council

Four Track, Now?