Portishead approved

[anthony263]

I've read the initial service will be a hourly Portishead-Bristol TM- Henbury service

 

[Brush 4]

It can't be a non starter when it started ages ago, as seen in this Timescale from June. Only 1 more 'approval' needed.

Timescales - Portishead Railway Group

Portishead Railway Group - campaigning for the reopening of the Portishead to Bristol Railway.

www.portisheadrailwaygroup.org

 

[simonw]

I've read the initial service will be a hourly Portishead-Bristol TM- Hanbury service

Do you mean Henbury?

 

[WesternBiker]

It can't be a non starter when it started ages ago, as seen in this Timescale from June. Only 1 more 'approval' needed.

Timescales - Portishead Railway Group

Portishead Railway Group - campaigning for the reopening of the Portishead to Bristol Railway.

www.portisheadrailwaygroup.org

I think the "non-starter" bit was referring to the idea of a new swing bridge across the Avon to link to the Severn Beach line...

 

[anthony263]

Do you mean Henbury?

Yes sorry just corrected

 

[lachlan]

I've read the initial service will be a hourly Portishead-Bristol TM- Henbury service

There is an hourly train that runs between Filton and Bristol Temple Meads only, I was under the impression this would be extended to form the hourly service to Henbury. Whether this would also become part of the Portishead service, I don’t know

 

[tigerroar]

That's a big chunk of cash for the railway to spend on a leisure activity, and it would be the railway that is responsible for maintaining a swing bridge in openable condition. And what would be the benefits be for rail passengers over using the existing line to Temple Meads?

You know I'd love to know just how much has been spent on this project since day one and who has got very right from absolutely nothing being done towards getting a passenger train to Portishead. They've wasted enough, they might as well was some more

 

[Brissle Girl]

There is an hourly train that runs between Filton and Bristol Temple Meads only, I was under the impression this would be extended to form the hourly service to Henbury. Whether this would also become part of the Portishead service, I don’t know

It would certainly avoid any additional conflicting moves through the wider Temple Meads area, and also avoid two services terminating at the station, which would eat up some capacity there, especially as there is no south west facing bay available without further track and signalling intervention, which would further add to the cost (which a Portishead shuttle could otherwise have used).

 

[AndrewE]

Not that it comes remotely close to justifying a new bridge, but I bet quite a few Portishead passengers would benefit from the much quicker connection to Clifton Down, which is equally or better located than Temple Meads for a fair chunk of employment in Bristol.

This one really is a non-starter though, even by the standards of the speculative section - we had better return to the realms of reality. Nothing happening on the ground yet, I take it?

Ok then, lobby for a ferry and a better service on the Severn Beach line! However the tidal range would make that a challenge, but ferries work quite well on the Clyde and the Tyne... edit: (and the Thames, of course, just that London isn't at the forefront of my mind!)

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Ok then, lobby for a ferry and a better service on the Severn Beach line! However the tidal range would make that a challenge, but ferries work quite well on the Clyde and the Tyne... edit: (and the Thames, of course, just that London isn't at the forefront of my mind!)

Floating Bridge for pedestrians which opens for shipping. Not a swing bridge in the usual sense but hinged pontoons

Mombasa, Kenya has one here:

4°04'23.3"S 39°39'22.6"E​

-4.073151, 39.656263​

(stick either of those in your preferred mapping service. Google shows it in the 'open for shipping' position.

Known as Likoni Floating Bridge.

 

[AndrewE]

Floating Bridge for pedestrians which opens for shipping. Not a swing bridge in the usual sense but hinged pontoons

Mombasa, Kenya has one here:

4°04'23.3"S 39°39'22.6"E​

-4.073151, 39.656263​

(stick either of those in your preferred mapping service. Google shows it in the 'open for shipping' position.

Known as Likoni Floating Bridge.

and could it cope with the tidal range of 13 metres?

 

[Parham Wood]

I've read the initial service will be a hourly Portishead-Bristol TM- Henbury service

It really annoys me that after all this time and money they can't run a 30 minute interval service from the start. It is supposed to be a commuter line.

 

[Mag_seven]

Ok folks we need to ditch the speculative stuff about floating bridges etc and stick to discussing the actual line reopening scheme itself. Thanks.

 

[tumbles]

You know I'd love to know just how much has been spent on this project since day one and who has got very right from absolutely nothing being done towards getting a passenger train to Portishead. They've wasted enough, they might as well was some more

It’s probably in excess of £30m already. North Somerset Council will be financially ruined if it doesn’t go ahead..

 

[The exile]

The trouble with the Severn Beach line is the route it takes from Sea Mills onwards.. now if it could continue along the old port and pier route right up to the suspension bridge and then somehow route across to the old Harbour lines..

The trouble with that argument is that the section inbound from Clifton Down is by far the busiest (and that's not just the obvious fact that you would expect a branch line to get busier the closer it got to its junction - there's a heck of a lot of intermediate traffic that never touches Temple Meads.) It would be interesting to see what effect a widely-available rail/ bus single ticket to "Bristol Centre" would have on public transport usage (available for rail / bus interchange at whichever of Clifton Down, Montpelier, Stapleton Road, Lawrence Hill, Temple Meads or Parson Street was most suitable).

 

[norbitonflyer]

T

The latest appears to be same time as branch to Henbury opens as part of Metrowest phase 2 which is late 2024 (presumably December timetable change).

But in another thread Henbury is reported to be delayed to 2025/26

New Station calendar

BBC local news article: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-66358683 Once again, the PR team is forgetting about Filton Abbey Wood with their ‘first new Bristol station for 96 years’ statement. I suspect the station will attract a few passengers from nearby housing, as well as park...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Snow1964]

Somerset live news is reporting the Bats and ecology work is now complete

A new ‘bat corridor’ has been created along a busy route out of Portishead as part of plans to re-open the town's defunct railway line. Trees have been planted along the A369 Portbury Hundred to provide an alternative bat corridor for the nocturnal creatures living along the route of the proposed new line.

A maintenance plan is now in place to ensure the saplings are fed and watered over the coming months. The work is part of a package of ‘ecology enabling works’ for the new MetroWest line.

Other work included securing ecological licences to carry out work to protect Great Crested Newts, badgers and the propagation of Bristol Rock Cress. A total of 1,200 metres of reptile fencing has also been installed at multiple locations along the disused line and in the Ecology Park at Portishead.

Somerset rail line to be reopened as work to protect bats complete

A series of "ecology-enabling works" have been carried out over the summer

www.somersetlive.co.uk

 

[zwk500]

Somerset live news is reporting the Bats and ecology work is now complete

Although the headline seems to be getting a little ahead of itself (quote from linked article)

Over the coming months, the project will complete the detailed design phase, as well as the ground and ecology surveys and enabling works, while preparing the full business case.

If there's a business case being prepared, then there's presumably still a decision to be made.

 

[rheingold103]

If there's a business case being prepared, then there's presumably still a decision to be made.

If true then sadly a further symptom of our current day GB railway. Avoid the risk of physically 'doing' anything and spend the budget on setting up tiers of bureaucracy, writing reports and reviewing them - then writing more reports.

 

[JKF]

Surprised legislation on GCNs hasn’t been repealed yet, it came from the EU originally I believe, due to Europe-wide scarcity. In the UK they’re quite common (according to ecologists I’ve worked with) so always seemed quite onerous for affected developments. I guess it would be a tough sell politically to a nation of nature lovers!

 

[AlbertBeale]

Surprised legislation on GCNs hasn’t been repealed yet, it came from the EU originally I believe, due to Europe-wide scarcity. In the UK they’re quite common (according to ecologists I’ve worked with) so always seemed quite onerous for affected developments. I guess it would be a tough sell politically to a nation of nature lovers!

GCNs?

 

[JKF]

GCNs?

Great-crested newts

 

[zwk500]

I guess it would be a tough sell politically to a nation of nature lovers!

It would be a very quick sell to a nation of 'Brussels cant tell me what to do' and people who want houses though.

 

[uglymonkey]

Are they ever going to put one piece of ballast or an additional inch of rail on the track bed? How many years is it now? Just seems a project for lawyers and consultants to earn even more money.

 

[zwk500]

Are they ever going to put one piece of ballast or an additional inch of rail on the track bed? How many years is it now? Just seems a project for lawyers and consultants to earn even more money.

The consultants would be quite happy to see the line built and move onto another project. There's hardly a shortage of proposals for them to look at. The delays to the project seem to largely come from Ministerial decisions.

 

[WesternBiker]

It would be a very quick sell to a nation of 'Brussels cant tell me what to do' and people who want houses though.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more pressure for the legislation on bats to be amended - populations are recovering (up around 40% since 1999), and our climate is favourable for them (compared with parts of the EU, which is why the legislation was arrived at in he first place).

The alternative view is that the data shows the measures are working...!

 

[zwk500]

I'm surprised there hasn't been more pressure for the legislation on bats to be amended - populations are recovering (up around 40% since 1999), and our climate is favourable for them (compared with parts of the EU, which is why the legislation was arrived at in he first place).

The alternative view is that the data shows the measures are working...!

Natural conservation is always a tricky issue, because populations can be very sensitive to short-term changes. It is also hard to judge how much of the increase is down to the measures and how much is down to better reporting in the face of a conservation effort. Loosening restrictions would have to be done carefully and slowly to prevent the cycle just going right back to needing strong protections.

Having said that, there is a very strong case for the UK to take a proper look at the environmental legislation inherited from our time in the EU (Much of it was UK legislation not EU it must be pointed out) and decide whether it's applicable to an island nation with a distinct climate as opposed to a continental polity with wide climatic variance. Tbh we could have made the case for exceptions while in the EU, probably we do have a lot more than people know about but the Newts get all the press.

 

[nw1]

If true then sadly a further symptom of our current day GB railway. Avoid the risk of physically 'doing' anything and spend the budget on setting up tiers of bureaucracy, writing reports and reviewing them - then writing more reports.

Sums up contemporary life it seems!

In many jobs, many people seem to spend more time doing pointless, soul-destroying bureaucracy than anything useful - partly I suspect to ensure that nothing happens that might give the tabloids an excuse to stir up their foaming-at-the-mouth readership.

I'm actually supportive of the environmental measures, but given they've been "passed" now, why don't they just build the goddamn thing rather than spending time doing bureaucratic claptrap.

Natural conservation is always a tricky issue, because populations can be very sensitive to short-term changes. It is also hard to judge how much of the increase is down to the measures and how much is down to better reporting in the face of a conservation effort. Loosening restrictions would have to be done carefully and slowly to prevent the cycle just going right back to needing strong protections.

Having said that, there is a very strong case for the UK to take a proper look at the environmental legislation inherited from our time in the EU (Much of it was UK legislation not EU it must be pointed out) and decide whether it's applicable to an island nation with a distinct climate as opposed to a continental polity with wide climatic variance. Tbh we could have made the case for exceptions while in the EU, probably we do have a lot more than people know about but the Newts get all the press.

To be fair the climate of SE England is considerably different to that of NW Scotland.

 

[zwk500]

I'm actually supportive of the environmental measures, but given they've been "passed" now, why don't they just build the goddamn thing rather than spending time doing bureaucratic claptrap.

Because nobody wants to sign the cheque without being able to budget for how much it will actually cost.

 

[nw1]

Because nobody wants to sign the cheque without being able to budget for how much it will actually cost.

Have they not done the economic assessment already though, very early on? Seems a bit strange to get this far without considering the economics of the line previously. I'd have thought that would be done at the start, as a "filter" to decide which lines should re-open and which should not.