Metrowest Status

[whole diary]

[simonw]

About five years ago the government provided £94M to fund the first phase of MetroWest, that essentially involved new line to Portishead, two new stations, four tracking to Filton and more frequent trains.

However, over recent months it appears that the essential Bristol East Jn work has disappeared from schedules, Portishead line is being reviewed due to cost and the cascade of rail stock to the west country will be reduced.

Is Metrowest dead, delayed or am I being too pessimistic?

[grahame]

I have an answer from official sources for you, simonw  ...

The latest report on MetroWest to the West of England's Joint Transport Board on 13 January 2017 flags up significant cost increases are expected for Phase 1 (re-opening the line to Portishead with new stations at Pill and Portishead and half hourly services on the Severn Beach Line and local stations to Bath Spa).  The report can be found at: 

http://www.westofenglandlep.co.uk/meetings/joint-transport-board

Current cost of Phase 1 is £58m.  Revised costs from Network Rail are expected at the end of January 2017 and will be reported to the Joint Transport Board on 17 March 2017.  Regrettably timescales have changed with Phase 1 now planned to open in December 2020 (formerly May 2019).

Good news is the four tracking of Filton Bank is happening and is due to be completed by December 2018 at a reported cost of £91m.  Four tracking is essential to provide the additional capacity needed to run the new MetroWest Phase 1 and 2 services. 

Similarly remodelling Bristol East Junction is required for both MetroWest Phase 1 and 2.  The news there is positive with Network Rail re-allocating £15m from the electrification budget to developing design work in Control Period 5 (2014 to 2019).  Full funding, however, is yet to be confirmed although Network Rail appears confident Bristol East Junction will be complete by December 2019.

MetroWest assumes the cascade of Class 165/6 "Thames Turbos" from the Thames Valley area as lines there are electrified.  Delays to electrification delay the cascade and the full rolling stock picture is still unclear.  The first units of the cascade have, however, started with two trains due to go into service on the Severn Beach Line on 3 July 2017.  A further 8 units will be in service by December 2017. 

So whilst there are major concerns about costs MetroWest is far from dead and work on both MetroWest Phase 1 and 2 continues.

[simonw]

Thanks for that.

[Noggin]

If you've got a few minutes, it's worth having a trawl through the papers and reading the nitty gritty. Seems like GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have plans to run a smartcard pilot on the Severn Beach line, and there are also proposals to extend services from Yate up into Gloucestershire with station reopenings.

[simonw]

Yep, I have heard that, but no extra trains can run until Filton four tracking has been has been completed (Dec 2018), and Bristol East Jn (Dec 2019), although longer trains may be possible soon.

An extra train will run, I believe later this year from BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) to London via BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains), so that is one extra connection to add the current (00, 30, 41, 45 minutes past the hour) time intervals.

Finally, smart ticketing would be fantastic if it linked local trains and buses, with reasonable daily|weekly|monthly caps on cost. Just having separate bus and rail smart cards costing about £20pw each is not a great idea.

[grahame]

... although longer trains may be possible soon.

I've heard comment on 5 car trains on "The Beach" ... but also that platform edging at Severn Beach itself has been taken away at the outer end of the platform (recently?) so that 3 cars is now the maximum that can run there.    Tempted to post this in "rumour mill" as I have no confirmation of either story, but perhaps some member(s) in the know can quickly say what's happening.

[ChrisB]

Three car max at Severn Beach has already been metioned in another thread?

[grahame]

Three car max at Severn Beach has already been metioned in another thread?

Prossibly.

I've just had a look at the databases ... and the current size of the "messages" table (uncompressed) is 165 Mbytes.   War and Peace has 587,287 words (I have not checked in person!) which is perhaps 3 or 4 Mbytes.   And it gets increasingly difficult not to repeat things (or indeed find things that you suspect may have been talked about in the past.    Actually it's quite remarkable how some of the moderator team find such repetitititions and join things up, and manage to do so in the most part in a positive way even as far as the poster of the duplication is concerned.

In new news .... another thread ....

[Noggin]

Just to add to this, of course the first elections for West of England Mayor are coming up in May, so at some point soon purdah will kick in and no-one will want to talk publicly about Metrowest until they are over and the views of the new administration are known.

Of course it will quite possibly be significant that North Somerset chose not to join in, and that unless they are prepared to chip in some more dosh, then it's possible that Portishead won't happen (at least not in CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019)/6) and any money in the pot will end up being spent within the other three authorities instead. Suggestions have been made that the focus could change to upgrading the Severn Beach line and reopening the Henbury line instead. 

It's also worth considering that Ladbrooke's odds have the Lib Deb candidate as evens, Conservatives at 11/10 and Labour at 7/1. The Lib-Dem candidate is strong and an ex-Bristol West MP^▸ (Member of Parliament). The Conservative candidate is a South Gloucestershire Councillor. I'm not sure that either offer much encouragement for getting much done in the way of railways, particularly where it requires the cooperation of Bristol's Mayor. But we live in hope.   

[JayMac]

Suggestions have been made that the focus could change to upgrading the Severn Beach line and reopening the Henbury line instead. 

That would serve IRNS (Independent Republic of North Somerset) right! 

An area whose politicians seem to want to ignore the fact they are right next to a big city.

[Bmblbzzz]

I don't think it's fair to call them an "Independent Republic". I think they're more closely modelled on Liechtenstein... 

[trainer]

I don't think it's fair to call them an "Independent Republic". I think they're more closely modelled on Liechtenstein... 

You mean they're rich and leech off all the count(r)ies around them without contributing back?   

[chuffed]

Perhaps NS needs to invoke Article 48 of the Weimar Republic 1918-33 in order to get the damn thing built. Given the current leadership, I don't think it could punch its way out of  a wet paper bag.

[Noggin]

Suggestions have been made that the focus could change to upgrading the Severn Beach line and reopening the Henbury line instead. 

That would serve IRNS (Independent Republic of North Somerset) right! 

An area whose politicians seem to want to ignore the fact they are right next to a big city.

Not sure what you mean? Severn Beach and Henbury lines are mostly Bristol with a teeny bit of South Gloucestershire. My point is that with south Bristol resignalling being deferred and North Somerset not joining in on the regional deal, it's easy to see how the focus could move north of Temple Meads, leaving North Somerset sidelined and Portishead on ice. 

As for North Somerset - the irony is of course that by not joining in, the population balance is roughly 50/50 between Bristol and SG/BANES, whereas if North Somerset joined in, the balance would be far more in their favour. Perhaps they are holding out to join Devon and Cornwall in some kind of West of England superstate?

[Bmblbzzz]

Suggestions have been made that the focus could change to upgrading the Severn Beach line and reopening the Henbury line instead. 

That would serve IRNS (Independent Republic of North Somerset) right! 

An area whose politicians seem to want to ignore the fact they are right next to a big city.

Not sure what you mean? Severn Beach and Henbury lines are mostly Bristol with a teeny bit of South Gloucestershire. My point is that with south Bristol resignalling being deferred and North Somerset not joining in on the regional deal, it's easy to see how the focus could move north of Temple Meads, leaving North Somerset sidelined and Portishead on ice. 

The way I understood it, that was BNM's point: that N. Somerset want access for their residents to the big bad city but don't want to join in with the administration of the region, and as a result[?] they don't get that access.

As for North Somerset - the irony is of course that by not joining in, the population balance is roughly 50/50 between Bristol and SG/BANES, whereas if North Somerset joined in, the balance would be far more in their favour. Perhaps they are holding out to join Devon and Cornwall in some kind of West of England superstate?

I wrote to MEPs^▸ (Member of European Parliament) the other day (nothing to do with railways, transport or regional government) and as a result discovered that "the South West of England" includes... Gibraltar! I look forward to a different sort of Avon-Rock Railway!