Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

Portishead Rail moves a step closer

A major scheme to reopen the Portishead to Bristol railway line has reached an important milestone.

Hurrah! We have a committee meeting scheduled in 3 weeks' time!

I wonder if this would be called significant progress in any other country?

[Red Squirrel]

Opening of Portishead railway line now delayed until 2024
The pandemic has caused another delay to the long-awaited project
Delays due to the coronavirus crisis mean the first trains on the reopened Portishead line will not run until December 2024.
...continues

Source: Bristol Live

C'est la pande/mie!

[johnneyw]

There's a cynical voice in my head that's questioning if this would have been so delayed had it been a road.

[ellendune]

New Civil Engineer is reporting that:

Network Rail has launched a search for contractors to build the proposed Portishead to Pill rail line.

Works include detail design, surveys, environmental and ecology, civils, track, highways, signalling and telecoms, buildings, M&E and E&P. The estimated value of the contract is between £50M and £100M.

They also report that:

However Natural England also said that Network Rail has made “little progress on implementing agreed measures” in its Site Management Statement (SMS) and Vegetation Management Plan (VMP), which would ensure the conservation and enhancement of ecology and vegetation on the route.

Leads me to ask why would they when planning approval has not been granted?

[stuving]

Leads me to ask why would they when planning approval has not been granted?

The examination is due to close on 19th April. They've negotiated two procedural deadlines and five process ones, and there are only four hearings and two more deadlines to go. The draft DCO has already gone through several versions (I've not been to look at it, though). After that, the maximum allowed times for the inspectors to write the recommendation (three months), for the SoS to think about it (three months), and for waiting for a judicial review (six weeks) takes us to 30th November. Of course the first two bits could be done quicker.

Presumably NR think it will take them that about that long to do the pre-contract stages of this, i.e. selecting contractors and talking about how they'd do things. And shouldn't they know?

[ellendune]

Leads me to ask why would they when planning approval has not been granted?

The examination is due to close on 19th April. They've negotiated two procedural deadlines and five process ones, and there are only four hearings and two more deadlines to go. The draft DCO has already gone through several versions (I've not been to look at it, though). After that, the maximum allowed times for the inspectors to write the recommendation (three months), for the SoS to think about it (three months), and for waiting for a judicial review (six weeks) takes us to 30th November. Of course the first two bits could be done quicker.

Presumably NR think it will take them that about that long to do the pre-contract stages of this, i.e. selecting contractors and talking about how they'd do things. And shouldn't they know?

Selecting a contractor yes, but why would they actually carry out:

However Natural England also said that Network Rail has made “little progress on implementing agreed measures” in its Site Management Statement (SMS) and Vegetation Management Plan (VMP), which would ensure the conservation and enhancement of ecology and vegetation on the route.

before grant of planning permission.. ..unless planning permission is a foregone conclusion and is just box ticking. In which case the whole planning permission exercise is a very expensive waste of money.

[stuving]

Selecting a contractor yes, but why would they actually carry out:

However Natural England also said that Network Rail has made “little progress on implementing agreed measures” in its Site Management Statement (SMS) and Vegetation Management Plan (VMP), which would ensure the conservation and enhancement of ecology and vegetation on the route.

before grant of planning permission.. ..unless planning permission is a foregone conclusion and is just box ticking. In which case the whole planning permission exercise is a very expensive waste of money.

That was taken from NE's deadline 5 submission, which is a bit convoluted so needs reading more than once! But, as I understand it:

• The applicant for the DCO is WECA, but most of the land is NR's and NR will do much of the work
• so WECA is making promises about protecting the enviroment, and compensating for any necessary damage, which NR will implement
• but NR already has commitments to NE about how it manages its land to improve environment quality - these are the "agreed measures"; they predate the DCO application
• and NE has not been impressed with NR's performance so far on this score, and keeps nagging them about it
• so NE are sceptical about how well NR will implement WECA's promises - NR is a huge industrial organisation; WECA ... isn't
• NE think NR are double counting some measures as new ones for the DCO, when they are already committed to doing them anyway
• I may be reading between the lines a bit there, but you'd need to go back through the whole DCO archive to make sure

[TonyK]

I may be reading between the lines a bit there, but you'd need to go back through the whole DCO archive to make sure[/li][/list]

I don't know about DCO. OCD seems closer to the mark. I have now reached the point where I wonder how this is all being done so cheaply.