Proposal for Bristol to get an Underground

[LiftFan]

A £2.5bn "mass transit" underground for Bristol has moved a step closer.
Elected mayor Marvin Rees said the city needs a "three dimensional solution" to its transport problems using "underground and over-ground" routes.
The council has commissioned a £50,000 study to determine if it is financially viable.
Mr Rees is also looking to bid for £3m to examine rock samples to look at how the project could work practically.
That money, from the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), would include looking at existing tunnels under the city.
The planned line would connect the city's airport and Temple Meads railway station linking on to the Cribbs Causeway shopping centre.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-41152221

It's a distant prospect for now, but Bristol is a city that just keeps growing and its already filling up with more cars than it can handle. Will this system be needed after the "Metrobus" scheme is finished? It would be nice to see Bristol get a mass transit system as so far to get from Temple Meads station to, say, Cribbs Causeway you have to take an hour long bus journey, lots of which is stuck in traffic in the city centre. Whilst you can take a train to closer stations it is usually a fair walking distance after, although with the rise of online shopping who knows the fate of the out of town complexes? All these questions do seem to conflict on whether Bristol actually needs a metro style system.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It like most cities would benefit from one, but I think there's a lot that could be done before you got there, e.g. wiring the Severn Beach line and operating a much more frequent high-acceleration EMU service.

 

[Searchlight]

I would have thought a DLR type system, would be whats needed in Bristol,
possibly re-using old railway alignments, where possible. Much tunnelling would
be required, as "cut-an-cover" as used for most Metros, would be too disruptive.
The geology under Bristol is complicated, and much more difficult than London Clay.......It will not be cheap. This is why Birmingham abandoned Tube idea in
favor of Trams (Midland Metro). Anyone who thinks Tramways are expensive, should remember Metros are five times the cost! There are abandoned coal mines under Bristol......Another complication! I can t see this government paying for it, especially as Bristol is Labour Controlled. Only London seems to get the cash. Would be nice to have though!

 

[Clip]

I would have thought a DLR type system, would be whats needed in Bristol,
possibly re-using old railway alignments, where possible. Much tunnelling would
be required, as "cut-an-cover" as used for most Metros, would be too disruptive.
The geology under Bristol is complicated, and much more difficult than London Clay.......It will not be cheap. This is why Birmingham abandoned Tube idea in
favor of Trams (Midland Metro). Anyone who thinks Tramways are expensive, should remember Metros are five times the cost! There are abandoned coal mines under Bristol......Another complication! I can t see this government paying for it, especially as Bristol is Labour Controlled. Only London seems to get the cash. Would be nice to have though!

London does get cash youre right however as explained so many times on this forum it also has businesses who also put into the pot for the schemes too - Does Bristol have enough to do this ? From memory they paid 25% of the funding for crossrail.

Back on topic surely a decent tram system would be better for Bristol? Ive always thought so when visiting.

 

[LLivery]

It would be great to see but I just don't see how Bristol has a large enough population to justify it.

While we're at it, extend to T&W Metro into Western Newcastle and Washington; build a Metro in Manchester from Prestwich to Southern Manchester and a few more lines/extensions in London.

 

[J-2739]

It would be great to see but I just don't see how Bristol has a large enough population to justify it.

While we're at it, extend to T&W Metro into Western Newcastle and Washington; build a Metro in Manchester from Prestwich to Southern Manchester and a few more lines/extensions in London.

As well as a proper transit system for West Yorkshire.

 

[overthewater]

How about spending the money on the bus network and improve bus lanes, thus saving alot of money.

 

[LLivery]

How about spending the money on the bus network and improve bus lanes, thus saving alot of money.

That's only really a short term solution though. There is only a certain about of buses a road can handle and of course, not all roads can have bus lanes. Manchester's Oxford Road and London's Oxford Street are both full of buses; all it causes is traffic, pollution, and annoyance. We need a better balance of rail, light rail and metros in our cities.

 

[Mag_seven]

Bristol does not have a good record when it comes to planning and implementing such schemes. A while back there was a well developed plan for a tram / LRT network but inter local authority bickering meant that it never happened.

 

[LLivery]

As well as a proper transit system for West Yorkshire.

Agreed. Leeds not having a light rail of some sort when Nottingham has one is baffling.

 

[LLivery]

Bristol does not have a good record when it comes to planning and implementing such schemes. A while back there was a well developed plan for a tram / LRT network but inter local authority bickering meant that it never happened.

I do keep hearing this. It's just typical of the so many idiots in charge in this country, isn't it. :roll:

 

[Searchlight]

If Bristol was in Germany, it would have had an U-Bahn decades ago.
So, would Birmingham, Leeds, and probably Southampton/ Portsmouth.

 

[JamesRowden]

How about spending the money on the bus network and improve bus lanes, thus saving alot of money.

That's only really a short term solution though. There is only a certain about of buses a road can handle and of course, not all roads can have bus lanes. Manchester's Oxford Road and London's Oxford Street are both full of buses; all it causes is traffic, pollution, and annoyance. We need a better balance of rail, light rail and metros in our cities.

Bristol would need to ban or greatly discourage car/taxi use for buses to be the solution to road network capacity problems. It would be technically practical but very difficult politically.

 

[Busaholic]

Bristol does not have a good record when it comes to planning and implementing such schemes. A while back there was a well developed plan for a tram / LRT network but inter local authority bickering meant that it never happened.

It doesn't need inter local authority bickering, though. If Bristol was a person it would be the one locked alone in a room having a raging argument with itself. If the bookies are taking bets, I'd sooner take a punt on the Loch Ness monster being found than Bristol ever getting a light rail system: and, yes, it's because I've lived there that I have that opinion.

 

[A0wen]

If Bristol was in Germany, it would have had an U-Bahn decades ago.
So, would Birmingham, Leeds, and probably Southampton/ Portsmouth.

Utter balderdash. The 6 cities which have U-bahns are at *least* 3 times larger than Bristol.

Cities the size of Bristol in Germany don't have u-Bahns.

 

[Searchlight]

I stand by my assertion. Bristol pop. 454200 (I think this is a bit on the low side actually) Nuremberg with a U-Bahn, pop. 498,900. Dusseldorf,
with a U-Bahn, pop586,217. These figures are not "Three times the size of Bristol".

IF Bristol had a U-Bahn, would anyone really be saying, "Buses could do the job?"

Some places Need a Rapid Transit system, because of local topography, not just on population figures. Bristol is one of those places.

 

[LLivery]

Indeed Nuremberg is roughly the same as Bristol and has 3 U-Bahn lines. Dusseldorf is a hybrid Tram-Metro system.

 

[A0wen]

The Nuremburg U-bahn goes outside the 'city' area in into the 'Metro' area.

Bristol's 'metro' area population is 1.0m, Nuremburg's 'metro' population is 3.5m

The longest line in Nuremburg's network is about 12 miles long - so assuming the 'centre' point is the city centre - it reaches 6 miles either side.

That would take in places like Keynsham and Portishead which are not Bristol.

Given Bristol's location - a port, unlike Nuremburg - perhaps an even fairer comment would be a line reaching 12 miles out of Bristol - that takes you to Bath.

 

[Mojo]

It doesn't need inter local authority bickering, though. If Bristol was a person it would be the one locked alone in a room having a raging argument with itself. If the bookies are taking bets, I'd sooner take a punt on the Loch Ness monster being found than Bristol ever getting a light rail system: and, yes, it's because I've lived there that I have that opinion.

I stand by my assertion. Bristol pop. 454200 (I think this is a bit on the low side actually) Nuremberg with a U-Bahn, pop. 498,900. Dusseldorf,
with a U-Bahn, pop586,217. These figures are not "Three times the size of Bristol".

Bristol itself is so much larger than just the City of Bristol (council) area, the contiguous urban area which includes parts of the four ex-Avon districts including the most important part known as the "Northern Fringe" in South Gloucestershire (where most people living and working would consider it to be a part of Bristol) is over 617,000 and the ex-County of Avon with a population of more than 1 Million, which is only marginally smaller than Tyne & Wear.

Since the creation of the Combined Authority (which doesn't include North Somerset), bickering over things like this should be a thing of the past; if it weren't for this the Tram would probably have happened in the early 2000s.