Metrowest Status

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Radio Bristol news bulletins today have Banes Council and our Marv talking about tram/train or light rail options between Severn Beach and Westbury. Probably a bit more of their occasional headline attention grabbing stuff or equally possibly an excuse for further inaction but worth mentioning I thought.

Given that BaNES are involved, I presume we're talking about Westbury, Wilts rather than Westbury-on-Trym... in which case, unless my rail atlas is out-of-date, isn't there already a heavy rail connection?

[Red Squirrel]

Were they talking about the JSP? It is worth looking at the infrastructure statement as updated in April 2018 (here), if you haven't already; the map in Figure 3 gives some indication of what is on the table - stations at St Anne's, Saltford, Ashley Hill, Ashton and Charfield, 'rapid transit' (not MetroBus) to the Airport, north-west Bristol, along Bath Road and - oh, along the Bristol-Bath cycle path by the look of it... lucky old Thornbury might get MetroBus and a cycle path (they must have upset someone!).

_{Edit: Oops! No points for proofreading}

[martyjon]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Radio Bristol news bulletins today have Banes Council and our Marv talking about tram/train or light rail options between Severn Beach and Westbury. Probably a bit more of their occasional headline attention grabbing stuff or equally possibly an excuse for further inaction but worth mentioning I thought.

Given that BaNES are involved, I presume we're talking about Westbury, Wilts rather than Westbury-on-Trym... in which case, unless my rail atlas is out-of-date, isn't there already a heavy rail connection?

Correct, but they are talking about a Light Rail vehicle using that route. Can you imagine a Light Rail vehicle alone interspersed with heavy rail traffic on the busy Bristol to Bath main line, I can't.

I'm no electrical expert but I would have thought that to install a transformer to supply the required power to propel a light rail vehicle in that light rail vehicle from 'a future 25Kv OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) supply' would be so heavy as to make it a, err, heavy rail vehicle anyway. I wish people like Marv and Tim would engage their brains before taking the brakes off their mouths.

[johnneyw]

R.S,     Joint SP was not mentioned in the article but it wasn't at all in depth.

Westbury on Trym, I am sure, was not the Westbury mentioned. Isn't W-O-T the intended terminus for the underground rapid transport link to the future Steepholm International Airport?*

Looks like perhaps like the whole of Metrowest is becoming tram/light rail as that was also an earlier proposal for the Portishead Line.


*That bit might just have been just made up by me.

[martyjon]

R.S,     Joint SP was not mentioned in the article but it wasn't at all in depth.

Westbury on Trym, I am sure, was not the Westbury mentioned. Isn't W-O-T the intended terminus for the underground rapid transport link to the future Steepholm International Airport?*

Looks like perhaps like the whole of Metrowest is becoming tram/light rail as that was also an earlier proposal for the Portishead Line.


*That bit might just have been just made up by me.

Like it but you got the wrong 'Holm', Steep Holm would be like St. Kilda, too much cross wind, but Flat Holm would be ideal as the location of Flat Holm International Airport as the main runway could be constructed to run East to West.

[johnneyw]

R.S,     Joint SP was not mentioned in the article but it wasn't at all in depth.

Westbury on Trym, I am sure, was not the Westbury mentioned. Isn't W-O-T the intended terminus for the underground rapid transport link to the future Steepholm International Airport?*

Looks like perhaps like the whole of Metrowest is becoming tram/light rail as that was also an earlier proposal for the Portishead Line.


*That bit might just have been just made up by me.

Like it but you got the wrong 'Holm', Steep Holm would be like St. Kilda, too much cross wind, but Flat Holm would be ideal as the location of Flat Holm International Airport as the main runway could be constructed to run East to West.

No,no!  Much too sensible!

[johnneyw]

Were they talking about the JSP? It is worth looking at the infrastructure statement as updated in April 2018 (here), if you haven't already; the map in Figure 3 gives some indication of what is on the table - stations at St Anne's, Saltford, Ashley Hill, Ashton and Charfield, 'rapid transit' (not MetroBus) to the Airport, north-west Bristol, along Bath Road and - oh, along the Bristol-Bath cycle path by the look of it... lucky old Thornbury might get MetroBus and a cycle path (they must have upset someone!).

_{Edit: Oops! No points for proofreading}

Looks like the Bristol Bath Cycle path is doomed to a Metrobustrocity. Haven't they learnt yet?

[Red Squirrel]

Looks like the Bristol Bath Cycle path is doomed to a Metrobustrocity. Haven't they learnt yet?

Whether they've learnt or not, the cycle path is indicated as non-MetroBus rapid transit.

[johnneyw]

Looks like the Bristol Bath Cycle path is doomed to a Metrobustrocity. Haven't they learnt yet?

Whether they've learnt or not, the cycle path is indicated as non-MetroBus rapid transit.

Phew, my misreading then.

[TonyK]

Like it but you got the wrong 'Holm', Steep Holm would be like St. Kilda, too much cross wind, but Flat Holm would be ideal as the location of Flat Holm International Airport as the main runway could be constructed to run East to West.

Two runways on Steepholm, or a triangular layout like Blackpool or Gloucestershire would solve that problem, although windshear  could pose difficulties. There  is an airfield on Lundy,  big enough for a light aircraft (but ring for PPR  so they  can clear  the sheep),  although it is not for  the  novice! I like the idea of Flatholm with two intersecting runways,  but it will never happen.

I have landed into a 20 knot wind at Filton,  which gave me some idea of what it was like to be a Harrier pilot. Every  aircraft certified for use has a  "Maximum Demonstrated Crosswind Coefficient", which in the case of a PA28,  the aircraft I was in, is  17 knots.  My instructor said that figure simply means that someone  has done that during  the testing phase of development. He had landed one in a 54 knot  crosswind, but never wanted to do that ever again.

[simonw]

Triangular runways, why not go circular and be sure the wind is on your side!

[Red Squirrel]

[snip]

To complicate calculations, a significant number of residences that were built in Melksham Without can only be reached by road from the Town, and the whole thing got so absurd that a number of chunks of the without were moved within a couple of years back.

...if only they could do something similar with North Bristol Without, East Bristol Without, etc!

[simonw]

I started this subject almost two years ago (Jan 2017) with the question is MetroWest dead.

Well two years on, not much progress has been made, but the prerequisite Filton Four Tracking is now done, but not much else.

Will Metrowest be delivered, and if so what and when?

From my perspective, the quality of rail services from|to Bristol have not improved, but deteriorated over this time and I cannot see any improvement over the next twelve months.

[Red Squirrel]

As you say the biggest obstacle - Filton Bank - has gone; hopefully Bristol East will follow.

Nothing happens quickly in this game, but I think there is hope that WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) could soon start to look like an ITA^▸ (Integrated Transport Authority), and as FOSBR^▸ (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways) have pointed out MetroWest could start to look like an almost ready-made WECA-wide rapid transit network:

[johnneyw]

This reminds me of a question I was asked at Redland Station by my brother during a recent visit. Two years ago or thereabouts, new card readers were installed along the Beach Riviera stations. These seem to be conspicuously unused. Was there supposed to be an accompanying installation of compatible card charging machines to follow? What was the point of these?