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.
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Somerset Live, who should be credited - Red Squirrel]
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