Portishead Railway remains in limbo after no mention in spending review
The Chancellor announced funding for rail schemes in the North, the East and West Midlands, and Wales — but the Portishead and Bristol railway was not mentioned

Rachel Reeves’s spending review has passed without a mention of money for the Portishead Railway.

The Chancellor went on a round Britain trip announcing railway schemes in her statement to the House of Commons this afternoon — but one place she did not visit was Portishead. Plans are in the works to reopen the railway between Bristol and the town in 2027 but it needs millions of pounds of funding from the government.

In her statement, Rachel Reeves announced funding for rail schemes in the North, the East and West Midlands, and Wales. She said: “I said we wanted growth in all regions of Britain and I meant it.”

But there was no announcement on whether the funding for the Portishead Railway had made it through the spending review. The West of England Combined Authority is however set to receive £752m of transport funding this parliament under as part of £15.6bn of transport investment across the country announced by the government last week.



£200m of that money will be spent on developing a mass transit to connect Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, and North Somerset. The rest of the funding will cover improving buses, some road improvements, and £150m on rail improvements including increasing the frequency of suburban services.

But that is understood to be a separate funding stream to the funding for the Portishead Railway. Asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service last week if she was still confident that the Portishead Railway plans were looking positive, West of England Metro Mayor Helen Godwin said: “Absolutely.”

The project will see new stations built in Portishead and Pill and the line, which closed to passengers in 1964, connecting the town and village to Bristol Temple Meads once again. The line as far as Pill has already been restored — although work would need to be carried out on this stretch of the line to make the track suitable for passenger trains and not just freight.

[This post appears to be copied from Somerset Live, who should be credited - Red Squirrel]

I always understood that Cochineal was something of an aphrodisiac....

Steve Marsh was at Zwolle having gone from Aachen to Zwolle in a day. He was very taken with the place. At the moment he is living it up in style on the QM2.

3.Didcot Rail Centre museum. I took a photo of the fascinating orange enamelled poster above!

There wouldn't be enough Ha ha's on the screen for me to register my derision....

Barry has now responded and has changed tack. He is suggested TARMACING over the 2.2 miles of railway line, sending buses over the M5 bridge and up the Portway. And where pray, can we fit bus shelters in the Avon Gorge without undoing all the ecological work already done ?

Barry Cash has just posted on nextdoor to say he found the Reform's party political broadcast this week was frightening. I replied to say that his plan to place rubber mats through the Avon Gorge to run buses on , was FAR more frightening.....

It was changed from March/April to July 2025 overnight.

Anyone know why the Full Business case for the Portishead line which was due to be signed off March/April, has been put back to
july 2025... as reported by the Portishead railway group website ?

Worth pointing out that you can reduce the price on the falcon still further by using a concessionary bus pass to reduce the advertised price by half viz £4.05. I was paying £3 one way until the last price rise, you get dropped at the airport bus station and it will pick you up /drop you off at Anchor Road as well as Bond Street.

I hope you paid a visit to one of the smallest and quirkiest museums on the planet in Sudbrook yesterday...almost impossible to miss and an absolute gem to boot....

Or Nailsea and Blackwell as a certain Michael Portaloo kept calling it throughout the programme in the first series of Great British Railways journeys some 20 years or so ago...
Had he bought his Bradshaws guide at a certain well known bookseller in Oxford ??

These are not exactly new...about 30 years ago when easyjet and Ryanair were not around,Transun,an Oxford company ran 'Just for the day!' trips from Bristol Airport. Costing about £250, you got the first and last flights there and back, a hot meal both ways, airport transfers and various options at the destination including guided tours and entrance fees. I remember doing Vienna Christmas markets twice, Seville, Krakow,Prague, Paris, Berlin, Reykjavik twice and Amsterdam. They were generally very well organised, full aircraft and at the time seemed to be excellent value for money.
Transun are still in business and now seem to have cornered the market in Lapland day trips at about five times more  than I paid 30 years ago!

I hoipe Mr Crash lies down ...on a rubber mat obviously.... in front of the first train out of Portishead ..so that it is the end of his pedantic pointless prattling about Portishead. That bird has flown..it is a dead parrot and I for one will be glad when he gets the message and shuts up shop about his pet scheme. What Portishead needs is not more buses , especially as the new all electric Yutongs are coming on stream next month. It will make Barrys buses look like the dinosaurs,if not the dodo.

I too have been given the run around by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Cussed services. I applied for delay repay when The Bristolian out of Paddington was cancelled at six o clock one evening. Getting the split tickets off my phone on to the Pc was a logistical nightmare. When I  was asked for the same information a third time, I sent the reply in Times New Roman font size 72 in BOLD to show how annoyed I was. That got an immediate apology and  an up scale but no resolution yet!

Update: Glad to say resolved in my favour,,,all £6.72 of it. There are times when its not the money that's the important thing, it's the principle carrying things through to a conclusion.