According to Network Rail:
Commuters between Portishead and Bristol are a step closer to benefitting from a new rail link as the project to restore the disused railway through North Somerset reaches a new milestone.
Network Rail has appointed VolkerFitzpatrick as the primary contractor for the programme, which will see stations built in Pill and Portishead as part of the Government’s Restoring Your Railway scheme. The appointment of VolkerFitzpatrick follows the Department for Transport announcement of planning consent in November last year.
The £6.14m contract is part of the scheme to reopen the line, which is funded by the Government’s Restoring Your Railway fund, Department for Transport, West of England Combined Authority and North Somerset Council.
Once complete, the new passenger service will connect 50,000 residents to the railway network by reopening a line that was closed in 1964. The scheme is part of the MetroWest programme, which will bring suburban services to more stations across the west of England.
Over the next 12-18 months the project will complete the detailed design phase, as well as ground and ecology surveys and enabling works, while preparing the full business case for decision makers.
"Decision makers" is ominous, isn't it? By definition, if a decision is to be made, it can go either way (or there can be more than two options to choose from). But at least the cart is still trundling on down the road, even if the horse is stalled waiting for that case* of business to be delivered.
* Presumably twelve bottles? Though at this point my metaphors are in a tangled mess under the sofa.
