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[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

If I've read this correctly, the whole £350,000,000 funding envelope was approved as were all the business case allocations:

https://tinyurl.com/y6pqama6

[ellendune]

If I've read this correctly, the whole £350,000,000 funding envelope was approved as were all the business case allocations:
https://tinyurl.com/y6pqama6

Yes, but from a rail point of view that only included:

8.To approve the Outline Business Case for Bristol Temple Meads Eastern Entrance and award of £2.5m of funding through the Investment Fund as set out in the Feasibility and Development Funding Application.

11.To approve the Outline Business Case for MetroWest Phase 2 and award of £3.519m to develop the Full Business Case noting the need to enhance the Benefit to Cost Ratio to at least 2 by Full Business Case stage.

These are both only outline so they still need a full business case before any full approval. 

From a wider public transport point of view it did include:

6.To approve the Full Business Case for the Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension and award £21.9m of Investment Fund subject to supply of a detailed elemental cost breakdown for the highway works and securing all necessary land.

Which is at least a step closer. 

[Red Squirrel]

...well, and:

12. To approve a further £900,000 to develop a Full Business Case for Charfield Station.

As for:

11. To approve the Outline Business Case for MetroWest Phase 2 and award of £3.519m to develop the Full Business Case noting the need to enhance the Benefit to Cost Ratio to at least 2 by Full Business Case stage.

...I'm not exactly sure what 'enhance the Benefit to Cost Ratio' means in this context, but note that MetroWest 2 is the Henbury line (Henbury, North Filton and Ashley Down stations), and half-hourly to Yate. This is a Big Thing, and funding a full business case certainly constitutes progress towards achieving it - even if it is all frustratingly slow and bureaucratic for those of us who have had no doubt it needs doing for decades.

[martyjon]

12. To approve a further £900,000 to develop a Full Business Case for Charfield Station.

I thought all this had been done in the days of Avon CC and Northavon DC^▸ (Direct Current) and copies nailed into their coffins for burial. £900,000 is a f*****g awful lot of dosh to exhume a coffin, open it, extract the report and re-type it.

I was at the Friday meeting of WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) and as usual it was once again just a talking shop or in Fridays case a mumble shop as the PA^▸ (Public Address) was useless and the WECA Mayors left hand lady had to keep leaning forward and pressing his pa button to connect his mic to the system.

What made my blood boil too was that out of the 4 or 5 WECA meetings I have attended an individual that was down on the Attendance List as REQUIRED once again sent apologies.

What I would like to know is, is that individual being paid an allowance or retainer just to e-mail or whatever, apologies in advance of meetings, is that value for money ?

WECA seem to be dolling out £ millions for this project or other but can't or rather don't want to spend a few pennies resolving some to be easily solved 'snags' with Metrobust although they could be bracing themselves for an as yet unknown bill to fix what might be, from my observations, a developing major problem with the Metrobust Infrastructure in the Stoke Park/Stoke Lane area more of which I'll post on the Metrobust thread itself.

[ellendune]

12. To approve a further £900,000 to develop a Full Business Case for Charfield Station.

I thought all this had been done in the days of Avon CC and Northavon DC^▸ (Direct Current) and copies nailed into their coffins for burial. £900,000 is a f*****g awful lot of dosh to exhume a coffin, open it, extract the report and re-type it.

A Business case from 20 years ago is hardly going to cut the mustard.  There have been major changes, if not in Charfield itself, in the places where people work. So an origin destination survey that is 20 years old is completely out of date.  Costs will also need to be updated. 

[Red Squirrel]

For fear of causing martyjon to burst a blood vessel, that £900,000 is on top of £300,000 already allocated for initial development work. It does seem like a lot, compared with Portway Parkway (which will be £2.23 million for the complete build, according to Wikipedia).

Applying the Squirrel Formula, a £1.2 million business case implies at least a £12 million scheme. For a two-platform, fully-accessible station with (presumably) a car park and (presumably) safe access onto the B4058, that could be about right... However despite spending some time scratting around looking for more details, I can't confirm what's in it.

[TonyK]

As mentioned elsewhere on this forum, on Friday WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) was set to authorise funding for the next phase of development of a number of public transport improvements. If you found the Bristol Post article a bit hard to read, then this one from Bristol 247 contains largely similar information, without the clickbait and other irritating entrained clutter that is the hallmark of the Post these days. Actually the content is so similar, you could almost believe that both organs had simply quoted a press release...

Surprisingly, as far as I can see nothing has been made public about this meeting or its outcome on the WECA website, and Tim Bowles didn't mention it directly at the Community Rail Conference yesterday...

Both contain the same mention of Portbury, followed later by Portway. Does WECA's press office know the difference?

[martyjon]

WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) seem to be dolling out £ millions for this project or other but can't or rather don't want to spend a few pennies resolving some to be easily solved 'snags' with Metrobust although they could be bracing themselves for an as yet unknown bill to fix what might be, from my observations, a developing major problem with the Metrobust Infrastructure in the Stoke Park/Stoke Lane area more of which I'll post on the Metrobust thread itself.

Well here is my report of my observations.

To begin with a preamble.

When the Metrobus Infrastructure was constructed the promoting body decreed that to build the Stoke Park/Stoke Lane/Begbrook section with its Bus Lane it would close Stoke Lane to all traffic. Uproar ensued from road users. Alright, we'll allow single line working but this was in the opposite direction to what was the shorter morning peak. This closure was to facilitate the removal of a large volume of a hillside, construct a reinforced concrete wall up to 5 metres high and the Bus Lane with its lone Bus Priority Traffic Signal. In addition a concrete gully was built which has quite a steep fall and provides a very nice waterfall in torrential rain. There is also a man made earth gully which is interspersed with 'cute little concrete dams', about 5 or 6 in total. The water from both these gullies seem to disappear into manholes which are probably in turn connected to the M32 as built drainage system.

Preamble over.

About a month ago I noticed a white van parked on the grass next to the bus lane, a trailer and a mini digger at work scooping out the earth gully and reprofiling the banks. A few days later I noticed white vans in the sloping field in the quartile between the M32 and the Stoke Lane M32 overbridge at the base of the plateau on top of which sits the Mustard Mansion. After another downpour the mini digger returned together with a fleet of white vans and I observed what could be land slippage. I also noted that the grass on the Bus Exit Road which had shot away in this warmer summer weather and was thigh high had been flattened and there was a brownish discolouration of the tarmac here on the Bus Exit Road which had not extended onto the main M32 carriageway itself. To cut the cackle a later travel through this area on the m3 saw the Stoke Lane Bus Lane coned off, the Bus Priority Traffic Light switched off, a set of temporary traffic lights set up to control single file traffic over the Stoke Lane M32 overbridge and partway up the incline of Stoke Lane at this point. Also of note is the appearance of what looks liked a packaged unit in a white painted container the size of which I have seen on lorries emblazoned with the logo 'POWER ELECTRICS'.

I am travelling in that direction later this morning and I'll post an observation update later.

[Red Squirrel]

Meanwhile, some progress to report on Ashley Down station - as Bmblbzzz points out in this post: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11558.msg267538#msg267538 - and a press release from WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about):

Multi-million pound investment for rail across the West of England gets the green light

Better connections and more frequent rail services are coming down the tracks after the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) approved a further £3.5m investment in the MetroWest project.

The funding was approved by WECA on 14 June to support the next stage in the project, which aims to deliver additional infrastructure and train operations by the end of 2021 to provide:

A half hourly service for Yate local station on the Bristol Parkway to Gloucester line, through the provision of an additional service between Bristol Parkway and Yate
An hourly service for a reopened Henbury Line with new stations at Henbury and North Filton. A new station will also be constructed at Ashley Down, on the existing Filton Bank (between Filton Abbey Wood and Stapleton Road).
The WECA Committee has also agreed to take forward ambitions for a brand-new rail station serving Charfield and the surrounding towns and villages, with a further investment of £900,000 to develop the full business case.

West of England Mayor, Tim Bowles, said: “Rail is a key part of my ambition to improve public transport in the region, giving people more sustainable ways to travel.

“This includes improving the Severn Beach line to provide direct services to Bath and Westbury, re-opening Henbury station and more frequent services to Yate. We also have plans to open new train stations in Portishead, Henbury, Portway and Charfield.

“Improved and more frequent rail services will give people better access to jobs, link new homes and communities with employment areas and encourage more people to use public transport. This is just part of the picture. Our long-term Investment Strategy proposes £350m for transport over the next 20 years.”

The West of England Joint committee has also confirmed a £500,000 allocation to the MetroWest scheme, and in April the Transport Secretary committed an extra £31.9m to complete the funding needed to reopen the railway to Portishead and Pill with two new stations. The Severn Beach line extension to Bath and Westbury is also on track for 2021.

[...article continues]

Source: WECA

[johnneyw]

Curious quote there from WoE mayor Tim Bowles "We also have plans to open new train stations in Portishead, Henbury, Portway and Charfield".
I'm referring there to Portway where my impression has been that it is now just about at the mechanical digger and orange high viz jacket stage but maybe no one has told him.

[martyjon]

Talking to Metrobus drivers there was an accident where a vehicle smashed through a ranch style type fencing on the UWE bound side of Stoke Lane. The vehicle plunged into the field and sort of bulldozed / spewed a volume of earth which looked to all and intense and purposes like a landslip with soil scattered all over the bus exit lane. The temporary traffic lights and the coning off of the Bus Lane was to facilitate the replacement of, 'a £1000 wooden fence with a £100,000 stretch of steel crash barrier probably claimed off the luckless motorists insurance', a Metrobus drivers words, not mine.

However this does not explain the presence of the mini digger on two occasions reprofiling the earth gully and the appearance of the white containerized equipment package, I shall keep my eyes alert.

[johnneyw]

Although is article on the Bristol Live site begins with a local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)'s campaigning to have a new station at Lockleaze the subject moves on to renewed demands for a Henbury Loop rather than a spur. It may not be a totally dead parrot yet.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/should-new-railway-station-lockleaze-3002323

[martyjon]

Although is article on the Bristol Live site begins with a local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)'s campaigning to have a new station at Lockleaze the subject moves on to renewed demands for a Henbury Loop rather than a spur. It may not be a totally dead parrot yet.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/should-new-railway-station-lockleaze-3002323

A new station at Lockleaze, laffable. This pohwser ought to have done his homework but like me seems to suffer similarly to me of the opening of mouth before the brains engaged syndrome.

A new station could be provided for Lockleaze at the site of the former Horfield station but the site is so close to Filton Abbey Wood that the driver wouldn't even get a Turbo up to speed to move out of first gear before having to commence braking for the other station.

To provide a station at Constable Road would need either the relief lines slewing west or the main lines slewing east to provide adequate room to accomodate a down relief platform between the up main and down relief lines at a cost of millions, where was he at the planning stage of Filtons 4 tracking, in year 10 ?.

[grahame]

From Bristol Live

Residents are concerned plans for a new train station in Bristol will increase anti-social parking on their streets.

Ashley Down is one of three new stations to be built as part of the MetroWest Phase Two project which will see a passenger service return to the Henbury line for the first time in decades.

But residents in Ashley Down Hill - which is known for heavy congestion and idling street parking - are worried about the number of commuters the new services will bring into the area and fear current parking issues will worsen.

Chris Ge is in favour of the new railway plans but he said: "The roads around will need a residents parking scheme in place, otherwise it will just turn into another commuter park and ride."

Jacquelyn Haskins agrees more public transport is needed in Bristol but "We do need residents' parking scheme (RPS) as well as a new station."

[Red Squirrel]

From Bristol Live

Residents are concerned plans for a new train station in Bristol will increase anti-social parking on their streets.

Ashley Down is one of three new stations to be built as part of the MetroWest Phase Two project which will see a passenger service return to the Henbury line for the first time in decades.

But residents in Ashley Down Hill - which is known for heavy congestion and idling street parking - are worried about the number of commuters the new services will bring into the area and fear current parking issues will worsen.

Chris Ge is in favour of the new railway plans but he said: "The roads around will need a residents parking scheme in place, otherwise it will just turn into another commuter park and ride."

Jacquelyn Haskins agrees more public transport is needed in Bristol but "We do need residents' parking scheme (RPS) as well as a new station."

The key thing here is that the people quoted are not objecting to the station - they just want an RPS.