New bus route
From:
Peter Goodwin
Date:
Dec 03 21:33 UTC
Short link
It's hard to understand why this story should suddenly turn up - the link was
considered for a potential rapid transit line from Whitchurch a couple of years
ago, but then dropped in favour of a shortlist starting with the Ashton Vale
route, and continuing with one from Hengrove to the Northern Fringe.
The public consultation about the Ashton Vale has just ended, but seems
unlikely to have any influence anyway - long before it finished the West of
England Partnership <A
HREF="http://www.westofengland.org/media/80511/item7-progressreviewdraftapp1.pdf">made
it clear</A> that they're going ahead with a bid next year. The Hengrove bid
follows a year later.
Meanwhile, back in the railway cutting, the plan to build a major road is still
moving ahead. It will certainly attract a lot of traffic, either trying to
avoid the A4 congestion or else coming down St Philips Causeway and heading off
toward the south west by way of the new South Bristol Link (which is another
story!). The bid for the road is scheduled to go in to the government within
two years.
Oddly, it may first become a cycle path - it's one of three routes announced as
part of the <A
HREF="http://www.bristol.gov.uk/committee/2008/ua/ua000/1030_8.pdf">Cycling
City package</A>. That bit sounds good to me, at least until the juggernauts
roll through - though there are worries that Cycling City could finish up
paying the full costs of the land for the road link. There's more on that on
my <A
HREF="http://stockwoodpete.blogspot.com/2008/11/cycling-city-to-pay-for-major-road.html">blog</A>
.