Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

The location proposed in 2014 for Ashton Gate Station is about 500m closer to Parson St Jct that the old site, just south of Barons Close. All the details are here: https://travelwest.info/app/uploads/2020/05/MetroWest-Stations-Package-Ashton-Gate.pdf

[johnneyw]

Hopefully this is the final nail in the coffin for the
rubber matted  Guided Bus Barry Cashway idea.....

I wouldn't be so sure of that.......

https://www.northsomersettimes.co.uk/news/24927819.bus-service-makes-sense-expanding-portishead-rail/

[chuffed]

Mr Cash has never obviously travelled on the Translohr rubber tyred system of Clermont Ferrand. Not for the faint hearted or those of tender derrieres. I think that letter represents the last gasps of a dying enterprise.

[Red Squirrel]

Yes, the content of Barry Cash’s letter is quite similar to his response to the DCO^▸ (Development Consent Order, or Driver Controlled Operation (that is, operation and dispatch of the train solely by the driver even with another member of staff on board)). I’ve tried to establish how big the membership of his Portishead Busway Campaign is, but as far as I can tell it’s just Barry.

I believe he lives in Bishopston, Bristol. So why he has devoted so much time and effort to try and deny Portishead it’s railway defeats me.

He recently had a letter published in a local freebie maligning the new station at Ashley Down (which is at least somewhere near where he lives!) so we can expect more of the same from him as MetroWest develops. For editors, he’s an easy go-to guy for the anti-rail angle.

[TonyK]

A slack day at the letters desk at the North Somerset Times then. Some will just never admit that they have lost the argument, do they? I doubt that any of his protests or submissions were taken at all seriously, but he really needs to concentrate on the day job. That circus needs its clown fully focused.

[grahame]

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/portishead-railway-line-group-criticised-9996451

I am not sure whether I should be giving that space.  All for expression of different views and bringing all the ideas out, but isn't now the time with a decision made and so many parties aligned in the view that the public transport connection to Portishead should be restored as a railway for parties that think it is not an ideal solution to let them get on with it.

The Portishead Bus Campaign is in the press again telling everyone "The Portishead Busway Campaign has labelled the return of trains between Bristol and Portishead as "ill-conceived", "scandalous" and "pure kneejerk nostalgia"" ... and suggesting again their solution of a rubber matted bus way. All they (who are they - I can only find one name associated with it) in my view is to break the consensus - they (or Barry) want(s) better public transport and so do we - a shame to divide the public transport advocates and risk ending up with nothing. 

[Red Squirrel]

I wouldn't have.

[infoman]

Be nice to see some actual names to the PBC group,as opposed to spokespersons.

[Red Squirrel]

I’ve not been able to find evidence that this campaign has any members other than Barry Cash.

[eightonedee]

Did his parents, sensing his antipathy to railways at a very early age, decide to name him after a railway scrapyard? Is "Cash" a reference to Cashmore's, another prolific breaker of railway stock? Is his middle name "Beeching"?

[johnneyw]

There's a part of me that's tempted to write to the local news papers claiming to represent the "Portishead Rubber Mat Resistance Group" although, in reality, I don't actually think that would be particularly constructive.

[TonyK]

I wonder why Barry Cash has opted for anonymity in his latest tour of the local papers with his flagellated necrotic equine? Is he worried that nobody will take it seriously if he does? As if nobody who has heard of this will fail to realise he is the spokesman (and chairman, secretary, treasurer, member etc).

[Chris from Nailsea]

I wonder why Barry Cash has opted for anonymity in his latest tour of the local papers with his flagellated necrotic equine?

That's a good one, Tony. 

CfN.

[chuffed]

I hoipe Mr Crash lies down ...on a rubber mat obviously.... in front of the first train out of Portishead ..so that it is the end of his pedantic pointless prattling about Portishead. That bird has flown..it is a dead parrot and I for one will be glad when he gets the message and shuts up shop about his pet scheme. What Portishead needs is not more buses , especially as the new all electric Yutongs are coming on stream next month. It will make Barrys buses look like the dinosaurs,if not the dodo.

[Red Squirrel]

Barry’s vision is of a world where he can drive wherever he wants, and park when he gets there. It’s interesting, then, that he is accusing public transport advocates of living in the past.