All posts in the topic New bus route (Short link)
Summary
- There are 3 posts — by 2 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Peter Goodwin at Dec 03 21:34 UTC
From Bristol Evening Post: 'A disused railway line in South Bristol is being targeted as a possible route for a high-speed bus link. The track runs from Brislington to Arnos Vale, from the Tesco roundabout at Callington Road up to the Sainsbury's at St Philips Causeway. Plans have been in the pipeline for years to use the mile-long line in a bid to ease congestion heading to and from the city centre. Now the West of England Partnership, which governs transport improvements in all four councils in the former Avon area, is working to bring the scheme to fruition. It hopes to submit a bid to the Government for funding for the plan by 2010, with construction possibly starting by 2013.' For more, see http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Plans-new-Bristol-bus-route/article-398183-detail/article.html
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>
PS - sorry about the html code - I guessed wrong!