Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

The spending review is slated for the spring of next year I think.

[Red Squirrel]

Network Rail have posted this YouTube video about biodiversity along the railway:

https://youtu.be/6-IhGDZfndk?si=gbghsSbzHHf7Hep2

Interesting to hear what they have to say about the Portishead route. He uses these phrases when talking about the Avon Gorge::

"a freight railway which is soon to be converted to passenger use"

and

"In a few years time you'll be able to take a train along the Avon Gorge as we're working to reopen the line to passengers"

[chuffed]

 An update from the Portishead Railway group

Dear Member,

It's a couple of months since our last update, so we thought that you would like to know our current understanding of what is going on.

The Treasury spending review, of which the Portishead & Pill line reopening is one small part, is still under way and will continue until March or April next year.

We have been consulting carefully with many sources to understand what that means and we have been able to establish the following:
PRG’s Public Petition, presented in Parliament by Sadik al Hassan MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), was very well and widely received in Whitehall.
The Treasury review will conclude in March/April, presumably in time for the next budget.
The mood in Whitehall about reopening the Portishead line is still positive.
The final decision will be a financial one about spending across the whole of government. The Portishead line will be just a tiny part of that. This could be good or bad news.
No one, including our MP, will know what that decision is until the Treasury review outcome is made public.
What we do know is that the reopening project is still live and that work by the MetroWest team is continuing.
The budget has been reduced (to an undisclosed figure) with the aim of delivering a minimum specification solution.
If funding is secured, the reopened line will still have two stations – Pill and Portishead – as intended.
‘Minimum specification solution’ means things like platforms will be designed for five-car trains, but built to accommodate 3-car trains initially.
There is much discussion about why the cost of repairing existing bridges and tunnels along the line should be borne by the Reopening project, rather than by Network Rail’s maintenance budget for the existing freight line.
The much-delayed Northumberland line to Ashington reopened on 15th December 2024, having followed a remarkably similar path of delays, bureaucracy and constantly inflating costs. It finally cost £298 million to reopen for passengers 18 miles of post-Beeching track that was still entirely in use for freight.
This leaves Portishead as the only other railway reopening project in the country that is currently under way and at an advanced stage of development.
A positive decision on funding next Spring would allow the project to be completed before the next General Election in 2029.
Regards,
Peter
 
Peter Maliphant
Membership Secretary
Portishead Railway Group

[johnneyw]

Yesterday there was talk of the "fast tracking" of the Filton/Brabazon station and today the Beeb reports similar hopes for the Portishead Line with trains apparently running in two years.
Here's a link to the article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn57yy9xneno

[Witham Bobby]

Yesterday there was talk of the "fast tracking" of the Filton/Brabazon station and today the Beeb reports similar hopes for the Portishead Line with trains apparently running in two years.
Here's a link to the article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn57yy9xneno

£32M spent to date?  Astonishing

A reminder of what the costs of complying with the years of accumulated legislation and consultants tying themselves and everyone else into ever tighter knots are doing to our economy and to the chances of ever getting anything done. 

[Red Squirrel]

Trying to embrace the concepts 'Portishead' and 'fast-tracking' at the same time risks damaging one's mental health...

[UstiImmigrunt]

Putting it bluntly, if this was a line in Scotland the passenger trains would have been running for around 10 years, Wales a little less.

But £32m spent on what exactly?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Consultants. 

[TonyK]

Fast-tracking. After what? 30 years? 40 years? Some say 50 years?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Personally, I measure it from 1964, when passenger services on the line ended and the 'new' station (which was built only ten years earlier) was closed. That was ... erm ... 60 years ago.

Details are on wikipedia.

Chris from Portishead (I can claim that, as I lived there for six months )

[FarWestJohn]

I think the Portishead re opening saga shows up what is wrong with everything in this country.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Perhaps some things, FarWestJohn, but I wouldn't blame everything on the Portishead Line. 

[chuffed]

As a long suffering resident of CfN's temporary abode for 6 months...I would!

No railway, no post office for 2 years, one bank and 3 small chemists who can't replace Boots!....for a town of almost 30,000 inhabitants

If only CfN had stayed !!!!!

[ChrisB]

Posted on Friday From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Up to £50m is still needed to open railway line between Bristol and Portishead, a councillor has said.

North Somerset Council leaders have approved measures to start construction on the line but council leader Mike Bell says the project is still £30-50m short.

Plans to bring the line back came under threat when the Labour government announced it was axing the scheme that was funding it. The Department for Transport (DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)) said it is working with the council as it considers the proposals.

Bell said: "It's all been done, all the hard graft over many many years has been gone through and we just need the funding approval from central government."

He added: "We do need a bit more money to get us over the line, which is always a sticking point."

Bell said the council had been "stuck in a doom loop", as the government's delay in making a decision had increased the costs.

"Now is the time to break that loop," Bell added.

"We've got a good business case. We just need a quick decision."

Restoring the line requires about three miles (5km) of new track.

It was going to be funded by the Restoring Your Railway programme, before it was axed, with new stations to be built in the town centre and in Pill, as part of the Metrowest mass transportation project.

The Portishead link's price tag of £152m was set to have been partly funded by the DfT, which paid upfront costs of around £45m as part of the Restoring Your Railway fund.

This was accompanied by additional funding from the West of England Combined Authority (WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about)) and North Somerset Council.

However, it will be down to the DfT to cover extra costs going forward.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "The government inherited an extremely challenging financial position, including almost £3 billion in unfunded transport projects.

"The Department has contributed £13.8 million to fund the project's business case and we continue to work with the West of England Combined Authority and North Somerset Council as we consider these proposals."

[chuffed]

A further update from the Portishead Railway Action Group


 Dear Member,
 
Latest News:
You may have seen recent press and media comment about ‘Trains possibly running by 2027’. Whilst there will be no news until March about the Treasury review, the source of this story is the North Somerset Full Council meeting held on 14th January, which contained some very positive commitments to deliver the reopened line, assuming the missing funding is made available. For example:
5.1.1 It is anticipated the Full Business Case will be approved by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) by April 2025.
5.3.1 The DfT will continue to act as the project sponsor and will own all the capital delivery risk, for any future cost escalation
 If you’d like to read the whole report, you can find all the papers here under item 8:
https://n-somerset.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=169&MId=1159&Ver=4
along with the latest report to Council:
https://n-somerset.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s6797/08%20MetroWest%20Phase%201%20Report%20to%20the%20Council%2014th%20January%2025%20-%20Final.pdf
 
PRG Website:
Paul Gregory, our long-serving custodian of the award-winning PRG website, is looking to step back from this role. We are looking for 2 people to share the work of managing our website and regularly updating its content. If you have any experience of managing websites, please do email me now! We’d be delighted to hear from you and I can tell you more about what’s involved.
 
Western Gateway Consultation:
You may also have seen coverage of the Western Gateway transport plans. This is unlikely to immediately affect the Portishead & Pill reopening, but it is relevant to the longer term transport infrastructure for Bristol and the wider area. You can find out more here:
https://westerngatewaystb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/3523.Western-Gateway-STP-2024-2050.pdf
and there is also a consultation running that closes this Sunday 2nd February, which you can find here:
https://haveyoursaywesterngateway.participatr.io/
 
Lastly, our AGM^▸ (Annual General Meeting) has been put back until April and will take place once the Treasury funding review has been completed and made public
 
Regards,
Peter Maliphant