Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

The only stations included in the current scheme are Pilning Pill and Portishead.


Edit by RogerW 1930 16/01

[johnneyw]

Stop press, the real reason that the Portishead line achieved it's DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) in the age of celebrity "culture".

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/frasier-star-kelsey-grammer-buys-8043921

[JayMac]

Stop press, the real reason that the Portishead line achieved it's DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) in the age of celebrity "culture".

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/frasier-star-kelsey-grammer-buys-8043921

Cheers for that link.

[chuffed]

The line has had its annual vegetation clearance and looks as if trains could be running tomorrow ! If only....

[grahame]

The line has had its annual vegetation clearance and looks as if trains could be running tomorrow ! If only....

There are sometimes you wish that this was possible:

[TonyK]

Stop press, the real reason that the Portishead line achieved it's DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) in the age of celebrity "culture".

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/frasier-star-kelsey-grammer-buys-8043921

Just in time for the new Frasier series, with Nicholas Lyndhurst.

(I knew someone who was in a film starring Kelsey Grammar, a rather fractious French man who lived next door but one to us. He played a rather fractious French waiter.)

[stuving]

According to Network Rail:

Commuters between Portishead and Bristol are a step closer to benefitting from a new rail link as the project to restore the disused railway through North Somerset reaches a new milestone.

Network Rail has appointed VolkerFitzpatrick as the primary contractor for the programme, which will see stations built in Pill and Portishead as part of the Government’s Restoring Your Railway scheme. The appointment of VolkerFitzpatrick follows the Department for Transport announcement of planning consent in November last year.

The £6.14m contract is part of the scheme to reopen the line, which is funded by the Government’s Restoring Your Railway fund, Department for Transport, West of England Combined Authority and North Somerset Council.

Once complete, the new passenger service will connect 50,000 residents to the railway network by reopening a line that was closed in 1964. The scheme is part of the MetroWest programme, which will bring suburban services to more stations across the west of England.

Over the next 12-18 months the project will complete the detailed design phase, as well as ground and ecology surveys and enabling works, while preparing the full business case for decision makers.

"Decision makers" is ominous, isn't it? By definition, if a decision is to be made, it can go either way (or there can be more than two options to choose from). But at least the cart is still trundling on down the road, even if the horse is stalled waiting for that case* of business to be delivered.

* Presumably twelve bottles? Though at this point my metaphors are in a tangled mess under the sofa.

[sprinterguard]

The comment about "while preparing the full business case for decision makers." is somewhat worrying. Hopefully that means what dull shade of grey concrete to use at Portishead station rather than binning off the whole project.

[ChrisB]

Would this be referring to GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) being set up in the meantime & future decisions being taken by them as 'decision makers', not the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)?

[Red Squirrel]

I don't think we should read to much into this.

The current phase (should I say era? Aeon?) of the project is the preparation of detailed designs and the full business case. Having looked at the full DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) pack, I am surprised that there is still design and business case work to do, but we are where we are. As to the business case: this is the final part of the DCO process. And who better to make that decision than a Decision Maker?

[TonyK]

I don't think we should read to much into this.

The current phase (should I say era? Aeon?) of the project is the preparation of detailed designs and the full business case. Having looked at the full DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) pack, I am surprised that there is still design and business case work to do, but we are where we are. As to the business case: this is the final part of the DCO process. And who better to make that decision than a Decision Maker?

I have been a Decision Maker in another area of the public domain. That doesn't matter much - it just seems rather radical to have someone actually making decisions on the Portishead line. As to the current phase*, we might just slip from Jurassic to Cretaceous this time. With the ink dry on the VolkerFitzpatrick contract, I should imagine that the decisions to be made will be more "How" than "If".

*Not that sort, ET.

[grahame]

I think we've been here before - from North Somerset Times

In an interview with Radio Bristol on February 14, Steve Bridger, the leader of North Somerset Council, confirmed that plans to reopen Portishead Railway will be going ahead.

Barry Cash, a member of the Portishead Busway Campaign, is questioning this decision. He says: "Mayor Norris and North Somerset Council plan to spend £152 million re-opening the Portishead railway line.

"Yet a dedicated bus route would provide a better service. This would cost about £20m. That leaves about £130m to spend on the missing buses. Forty-Two bus services, subsidised by local Councils, will cease in April.

"The planning has cost £21m and taken 21 years, without moving a single passenger. A train may have been a good idea 21 years ago. Times change."

There are also concerns regarding the impact that this could have on our fragile climate. Barry continues: "The major issue is that rather than helping with the climate crisis, year on year the reopened railway would significantly increase net greenhouse gas emissions.

"Reinstating the trains will increase greenhouse gases by 1000 tonnes per annum. What is the point of running nearly empty trains doing 2 mpg, especially in a climate emergency? A bus doing 11mpg makes more sense."

The case for buses with the figures given still looks like a colander to me, and the rail case presented with a different and negative bias to the road case. I do agree that the 21 years is too long.

[TonyK]

I think we've been here before - from North Somerset Times

Barry Cash, a member of the Portishead Busway Campaign

"A" member, or "The" member?

[Red Squirrel]

I think we've been here before - from North Somerset Times

In an interview with Radio Bristol on February 14, Steve Bridger, the leader of North Somerset Council, confirmed that plans to reopen Portishead Railway will be going ahead.

Barry Cash, a member of the Portishead Busway Campaign, is questioning this decision. He says: "Mayor Norris and North Somerset Council plan to spend £152 million re-opening the Portishead railway line.

"Yet a dedicated bus route would provide a better service. This would cost about £20m. That leaves about £130m to spend on the missing buses. Forty-Two bus services, subsidised by local Councils, will cease in April.

"The planning has cost £21m and taken 21 years, without moving a single passenger. A train may have been a good idea 21 years ago. Times change."

There are also concerns regarding the impact that this could have on our fragile climate. Barry continues: "The major issue is that rather than helping with the climate crisis, year on year the reopened railway would significantly increase net greenhouse gas emissions.

"Reinstating the trains will increase greenhouse gases by 1000 tonnes per annum. What is the point of running nearly empty trains doing 2 mpg, especially in a climate emergency? A bus doing 11mpg makes more sense."

The case for buses with the figures given still looks like a colander to me, and the rail case presented with a different and negative bias to the road case. I do agree that the 21 years is too long.

I had a civilised chat with Barry Cash at the 'Future of Transport in Bristol' meeting on Saturday. His position was that transport planners should look to the future, not the past, for solutions. On that we could agree. We didn't agree on how these terms should be defined, however!

Barry has a history of opposing the Portishead Railway and has proposed a number of alternatives. His latest idea appears to involve laying a road up the gorge. This would presumably involve some widening of the trackbed to allow buses to pass, along with crash barriers and other interventions. Might be difficult in a SSSI, and it's not clear how the existing freight trains fit into his plan. My guess is that £20 million is a low estimate.

I could propose that Community Payback people with wire brushes could reopen the line for quite a lot less than Barry's £20 million, but that would be just as absurd.

[grahame]

Barry has a history of opposing the Portishead Railway and has proposed a number of alternatives. His latest idea ...

I could propose that Community Payback people with wire brushes could reopen the line for quite a lot less than Barry's £20 million, but that would be just as absurd.

Has anyone suggested one of these, thus sharing the waterway's footprint without digging an underground.