Bristol Underground

[whole diary]

[chuffed]

Are you sure that's not the covered in River Frome ? Used to be a cylindrical blue police type box outside Electricity House which led underground to the culverted river....

[johnneyw]

Are you sure that's not the covered in River Frome ? Used to be a cylindrical blue police type box outside Electricity House which led underground to the culverted river....

Just on an imaginative theme. If the covered part of Bristol Centre is as wide as the Frome, then the tunnel could, just could, have a use if the Frome was alternatively channelled. Fantasy mode enabled.

It was "cut and cover" by design.

[trainer]

Just on an imaginative theme. If the covered part of Bristol Centre is as wide as the Frome, then the tunnel could, just could, have a use if the Frome was alternatively channelled. Fantasy mode enabled.

It was "cut and cover" by design.

Probably not enough Frome.

[johnneyw]

And Bristol really needs another digging up of The Center!

[Red Squirrel]

Argh!

In London, it has been possible to reuse some sections of old tunnels for public transport purposes because they were built as railway tunnels and they aligned in a usable way with existing rail routes. I can think of only one disused tunnel in central Bristol which could conceivably be of any use - the short stretch of the Harbour Railway that runs under Redcliffe Hill - but you'd have to do some very expensive demolition to get to it now. Then there's Staple Hill tunnel, of which least said soonest mended, and there are a couple of tunnels of the 'Port and Pier' Railway, adjoining the Portway, a route that closely parallels two extant railway lines up the Avon Gorge.

It is fanciful to suggest that there's any money to be saved by using culverts, drains and other watercourses, because these are already in use as culverts, drains and watercourses.

And Bristol really needs another digging up of The Center!

Well it does, of course - the final one, where they finally open up the harbour.

[johnneyw]

Yes RS, open the old harbour on the Centre and have river taxis that have real commercial viability.

[Red Squirrel]

I wasn't thinking of it as a transport link - though (hoping you weren't being ironic) it might work as one. I was just thinking it would be pretty. Like Nyhavn in Copenhagen:

[johnneyw]

I wasn't thinking of it as a transport link - though (hoping you weren't being ironic) it might work as one. I was just thinking it would be pretty. Like Nyhavn in Copenhagen:

It was a little of both. There are clearly existing ex train formations that can be better used for a start to a meaningful mass transit network. But later?

[Red Squirrel]

There are clearly existing ex train formations that can be better used for a start to a meaningful mass transit network. But later?

It was 'tunnels' that I was questioning.

Two routes are mentioned in the press piece - Gloucester Rd and Fishponds Rd. I wonder if you have the old Midland line, which would serve Fishponds, in mind when you say 'better used'? Good luck with the cycling lobby; that's the most popular cycle route in the realm; arguably it carries more passengers than a well-used LRT route. How do you define 'better used'?

A Gloucester Road route could only be done in all-new tunnel; Narroways might be a good place to start it and you'd probably want to make a beeline for Southmead and then on to Cribbs - maybe via Henbury.

I have a soft spot for the B&NS because I was brought up near there and, gawd help me, I remember when it had track. It would be a leap of faith to use that for an LRT route though; it's hard enough to fill a bus in that part of South Bristol.

Later? I am guessing that the first route would have to bite the bullet of covering the central area. That's where the billions would be spent, using brand new tunnels (not old sewers) to connect Temple Meads with the (old) University Campus, Broadmead, The Centre and the Bus Station.

Later would be... converting MetroBus?

[Bmblbzzz]

Bet that Evil Turnerl prima donnal of the Carol Rosal Operal company was appearing in Cavalieral Rusticanal..... or perhaps Aidal. She had two daughters Idle and Normal.

One daughter moved east, the other stayed put. Normal for Norfolk, Idle for Bristle.

[simonw]

Here is a crazy idea

• why not complete phases 1, 2 and 3 of MetroWest
• convert Metrobus to a TRAM system and extend
• build miles of cycle tunnels to allow people to safely cycle, or use ebikes

A lot cheaper, and deliverable!

[SandTEngineer]

Personally, I don't think it should go underground at all but instead should go overground like this https://youtu.be/6oAVx6It5MM

[simonw]

the Vancouver Skytrain and Chicago 'L' systems both caused, or followed, high rise city development and appear within and between high rise buildings.

I don't think either approach will work in Bristol, it is not a high rise city, nor should it be. The damage to Bristol would be equivalent to the damage to Birmingham in the 60s/70s with its road policy.

Finishing Metrowest, will dramatically improve public transport in Bristol area, add in a bit of light rail where we have cycle paths, trams and electric buses integrated at MetroWest stations and a few tunnels for slow traffic (cycles, ebikes, etc) then Bristol's transport system would dramatically improve.

[johnneyw]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Points West 6.30pm tonight, article on the mayor's outline "underground" plan.

Also on BBC website local news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-42350706

[Western Pathfinder]

Sounds like a whole lot of money down the drain or pipe dream !.