Great Western Coffee Shop

I referred in another thread (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=21249.msg260926#msg260926) to an event discussing Bristol-related transport topics, organised by Bristol Civic Society, which I attended. The speakers were:

James Freeman, Managing Director, FIRST West of England
Adam Crowther, Head of Strategic City Transport, Bristol City Council
Jason Humm , Head of Transport at West of England Combined Authority (WECA)
Matthew Golton, Deputy Managing Director, GWR

The Civic Society have now put up their presentations here (visit the page and click on the speaker's name to see their slides), so you can see what we would have seen if the overhead projector had been working properly: https://www.bristolcivicsociety.org.uk/whats-happening-with-transport-in-bristol-in-2019/

There wasn't much that was new in any of this to anyone who follows these things, but you do at least get a flavour of how things are progressing - in particular, the perceived success of metrobus, the general growth in bus usage and the transition to biogas buses. Mayor Rees plans to increase bus usage to 20% (I'm not sure by when); slide 12 of Adam Crowther's presentation shows how metrobus is planned to grow over the next five years, and his slide 15 shows the 'Rapid Transit Corridors' - including the East Corridor, which does look suspiciously like they are eyeing up the route of the busiest cycle path in the land. Again.

One thing which stood out for me was the lack of any reference to expanding or refurbishing Temple Meads... I think I overheard someone saying something about an announcement later in the year, but they also mentioned a figure of around £130 million (if I heard correctly) which for a station of that size and sensitivity sounds like it would barely cover the cost of the paint. We'll see. Another thing that struck me was how keen WECA and Bristol are to talk up their planned public transport improvements whilst barely mentioning the massive sums they hope to spend on road schemes such as the South Bristol Orbital (£133 million)  and Jct 18a on the M4 (£428 million).

I wondered whether that money was just for the roof, but a little digging has that down as £15m.

I would be very surprised if someone, somewhere wasn't working on a masterplan for Temple Meads which included an eastern entrance, new station buildings to the north, some kind of E<>W walkway underneath, re-reinstatement of the platforms in the old shed, some kind of passive provision for electrification etc. However I rather suspect that they will be reluctant to share it until they have reasonably solid timelines, sources of funding and it's all been unofficially squared with the Council, University, English Heritage etc.

There are also a lot of unknowns - I don't think that the University's plans are finalised, there's nothing official for Arena Island, there's no formal date for Portishead reopening, I don't think there is an official date for when Bristol Panel will be decommissioned etc, so it's easy to see why the current approach might be "make do and mend" for the next few years.


 

Very much so: https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/portfolio-items/temple-meads-redevelopment/