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1970
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Journey by Journey / Bristol (WECA) Commuters / Re: Metrowest Status
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on: July 04, 2019, 16:47:14
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They're unlikely to get far with that, as Mayor Rees is opposed to them.
Well... the next Mayoral election is in 2020. At least one major party is promising to abolish the role if they win. Meanwhile, Ashley Down Station is part of MetroWest 2, which may open in 2021 but us old hands might want to sprinkle condiments on that date. Bottom line: Rees will most likely have moved on to pastures new by the time the station reaches GRIP▸ 4/5. |
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1971
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Journey by Journey / Bristol (WECA) Commuters / Re: Metrowest Status
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on: July 04, 2019, 09:27:09
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From Bristol LiveResidents are concerned plans for a new train station in Bristol will increase anti-social parking on their streets.
Ashley Down is one of three new stations to be built as part of the MetroWest Phase Two project which will see a passenger service return to the Henbury line for the first time in decades.
But residents in Ashley Down Hill - which is known for heavy congestion and idling street parking - are worried about the number of commuters the new services will bring into the area and fear current parking issues will worsen.
Chris Ge is in favour of the new railway plans but he said: "The roads around will need a residents parking scheme in place, otherwise it will just turn into another commuter park and ride."
Jacquelyn Haskins agrees more public transport is needed in Bristol but "We do need residents' parking scheme (RPS) as well as a new station."
The key thing here is that the people quoted are not objecting to the station - they just want an RPS. |
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1972
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Journey by Journey / Bristol (WECA) Commuters / Re: Cheddar Valley Line and Borders Railway - a comparison
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on: July 03, 2019, 17:40:30
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Fitting new railways along old routes is not without challenges! The central section of East West Railway is a case in point: many houses have been built on the old alignment at Sandy, and the Mullard Observatory and Cambridge Guided Busway occupy the old route at the Cambridge end, and so it has been decided to find a completely new alignment. However, Cambridgeshire's flat open countryside allows a lot more leeway for this than is available for the Strawberry Line, which threads its way through a tight pass at Shute Shelve before following the line of the Mendip Hills to Wells. There is some, but not much, wiggle room. Would it be possible to squeeze a single track in alongside the Axbridge Bypass, and by Strawberry Way in Wells? Or would a cut and cover tunnel be possible at one or other of these locations? Would a new alignment be needed to the west of Cheddar? If all this seems impossibly ambitious or expensive, how about this: Highways England plan to invest (sic) £1.4 billion to 'improve' a roundabout on the A1 . This scheme will, they say, cut 10 minutes off the commute between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet. How would you spend £1.4 billion? |
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1973
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Journey by Journey / Bristol (WECA) Commuters / Cheddar Valley Line and Borders Railway - a comparison
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on: July 02, 2019, 12:11:08
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A discussion elsewhere on this forum set me wondering about how mid-Somerset compares with the Scottish Borders: The Borders Railway, from the point where it branches off at Newcraighall, is about 40km long and serves the following populations: | Shawfair | ? | | Eskbank | 12342 | | Newtongrange | 5341 | | Gorebridge | 5777 | | Stow | 718 | | Galashiels | 12600 | | Tweedbank | 2101 | | ----- | | Total | 38879 |
The Cheddar Valley line, from Yatton to Cranmore, was about 32km. If reopened, it could serve the following populations: | Congresbury | 3497 | | Banwell | 2919 | | Winscombe | 4500 | | Axbridge | 2057 | | Cheddar | 5755 | | Wells | 10536 | | Shepton Mallet | 10369 | | ----- | | Total | 39633 |
The Borders Railway cost about £300 million to re-build. Rebuilding the Strawberry line would probably cost something similar. The Borders line is currently one-ended - it connects the Borders with Edinburgh. The Strawberry Line would connect at both ends, giving access to Bristol, Bath and Westbury. It's not the most direct route to Bristol or Bath, but decent line speeds ought to be possible. The scheme cost for the A358 scheme, for comparison, is £250-500 million and, for Jct 18a of the M4, £428 million.How would you spend the money? |
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1974
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Climate Change Emergency - Implications for UK Transport Strategy
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on: July 02, 2019, 10:21:44
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don't build roads. No-one is any worse off That's a fine standpoint to take if you live in a conurbation with thousands of jobs/costumers/lots of alternatives to private car and goods vehicle use available, and plenty of other destinations/users and customers to share the cost of a diverse transport offering. And it's wrong! If however you are in (say) a small Somerset market town that lost its (slow and underused) rail links to the Bristol area in the 1960s, and is not close to a junction on the M5, you are always going to lose if the road network is unimproved. Fare stage buses will take ages to get to the main towns and cities where the best choice of jobs can be found. If you run a business, your products will take longer to get to your customers, and you will have to pay your drivers or haulier for that extra time. Your suppliers will have to spend longer delivering to you, so the choice of supplier will be less and you will be less likely to get a good deal from them. If you are a strategic director of a national retail chain, you are more likely to close a branch in a small town with poor road links where the cost of a delivery vehicle being on the road for longer mitigates against its viability. I am all in favour of measures to reduce the impact of transport on the environment (Electrification Now!). But it has to be recognised that there's more to this than simply stopping building roads. It's replacing the fossil fueled vehicles of today with electric vehicles charged by an electric grid run off renewables and nuclear generation that looks likely to be the answer. Condemning communities with poor transport links to ever increasing economic disadvantage is not. I'll put my soapbox away now..... This is all about priorities, and we're rapidly running out of time. |
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1976
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Climate Change Emergency - Implications for UK Transport Strategy
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on: July 01, 2019, 08:48:11
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Snipe at the road building by all means but at least offer a practical alternative.
There is a very practical alternative to building roads: don't build roads. No-one is any worse off - the existing routes remain - and the money and resources saved can be redirected towards projects that work towards achieving carbon reduction goals, rather than working against them. The argument about using less fuel cruising at 60 mi/hr only works if it doesn't occur to anyone else that there is now a quicker and easier way to get from Winterhay Green to the M5; there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. If it helps, I can tell you that my school run would be an awful lot easier if they'd built the 6-lane motorway that was planned from Montpelier to Clifton; they didn't, and we have to get by on the train or bicycle, on foot or by car on 'unimproved' roads. Funny thing is, when you tell people now about the Bristol Outer Circuit Road plans of the 1970s, their jaws drop in disbelief. |
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1980
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Journey by Journey / Bristol (WECA) Commuters / Re: Bristol Temple Meads Station redevelopment
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on: June 29, 2019, 06:27:42
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From platform three go down the steps to the underground subway ,and as soon as your feet hit the floor look to your left and there is a blue line on the floor that leads to the passenger lift, walk towards the lift and the doors that lead to the passageway are on your left hand side, it's not a public area inside ,so I will not go into any further details.
I've been through that way on a couple of occasions, and don't remember signing an NDA▸ either time... sadly all I can remember is that it's really scruffy down there, and they advise you not to touch the walls because toilet waste from not-retaining toilets heads that way under gravity. |
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