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grahame
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« on: June 04, 2025, 06:56:18 » |
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From The BBC» Billions of pounds of investment in transport infrastructure in England are set to be announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday.
The money will be spent on tram, train and bus projects in mayoral authorities across the Midlands, the North and the West Country. Good. Looking at Wikipedia , 356 (yes, three hundred and fifty six) new stations have opened in the last 25 years - 100, 50, 98, 69 and 30 in each five year period. Some of these have not been on National Rail lines, but many/most have. How have we done in Wiltshire? ZERO. The last new station was opened in 1937, and there's has been one solitary reopening (in 1985) of a station closed in 1966. It looks like the new announcement is also a duck (zero) for us - we are not in a mayoral authority, even though parts of our county are very much part of the catchment area for WECA» - where the mayoral authority is slated for a headline spend |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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ChrisB
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« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2025, 10:38:08 » |
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£800m for West of England to improve rail infrastructure, provide more frequent trains between the Brabazon industrial estate in Bristol and the city centre, and develop mass transit between Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset You may be selected... |
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John D
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« Reply #2 on: June 04, 2025, 11:33:40 » |
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Government announcement with the amounts and main projects by region https://www.gov.uk/government/news/biggest-ever-investment-in-city-region-local-transport-as-chancellor-vows-the-renewal-of-britainFor West of England £800m £150m to improve rail infrastructure across the region, including funding to support WECA» ’s ambitions for increased frequency of services between Brabazon and the city centre. £200m for Mass transit development between Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. Doesn't say what the other £450m is for. WECA haven't uploaded anything about it, so at moment what else is funded is a mystery. |
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« Last Edit: June 04, 2025, 11:50:45 by John D »
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Noggin
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« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2025, 11:51:33 » |
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I believe it's a little duller than that. Basically the reinstatement of the 2027 to 2032 Mayoral Authority funding settlement which was announced in Oct 2023 but frozen by Labour when they came into power.
It follows on from the 2022 to 2027 settlement which in the case of WECA» , has mainly been bus and road focused, although there's been a fair amount of rail strategic planning with NR» including a study into whether Parkway to Temple Meads could be electrified for less than originally budgeted.
I'm not sure if a detailed pipeline for 2027 to 2032 is in the public domain - the main commitments I can find are reopening Portishead (MetroWest 1b) and Henbury (MetroWest 2).
Mass transit development could be something exciting, but realistically it's probably just bits like moving the busses to the north side of Temple Meads, roadworks along the A37 and A4 corridors to make the busses run faster etc.
I suspect that in the case of WECA it's PR▸ fluff rather than anything meaningful.
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TonyK
Global Moderator
Hero Member
Posts: 6652
The artist formerly known as Four Track, Now!
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« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2025, 16:03:23 » |
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I believe it's a little duller than that. Basically the reinstatement of the 2027 to 2032 Mayoral Authority funding settlement which was announced in Oct 2023 but frozen by Labour when they came into power.
It follows on from the 2022 to 2027 settlement which in the case of WECA» , has mainly been bus and road focused, although there's been a fair amount of rail strategic planning with NR» including a study into whether Parkway to Temple Meads could be electrified for less than originally budgeted.
I'm not sure if a detailed pipeline for 2027 to 2032 is in the public domain - the main commitments I can find are reopening Portishead (MetroWest 1b) and Henbury (MetroWest 2).
Mass transit development could be something exciting, but realistically it's probably just bits like moving the busses to the north side of Temple Meads, roadworks along the A37 and A4 corridors to make the busses run faster etc.
I suspect that in the case of WECA it's PR▸ fluff rather than anything meaningful.
I'm hoping for more than that, although with past years in mind. The devil will be in the dtail, and there isn't much at this stage. |
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Now, please!
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Noggin
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« Reply #5 on: Yesterday at 11:03:45 » |
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I believe it's a little duller than that. Basically the reinstatement of the 2027 to 2032 Mayoral Authority funding settlement which was announced in Oct 2023 but frozen by Labour when they came into power.
It follows on from the 2022 to 2027 settlement which in the case of WECA» , has mainly been bus and road focused, although there's been a fair amount of rail strategic planning with NR» including a study into whether Parkway to Temple Meads could be electrified for less than originally budgeted.
I'm not sure if a detailed pipeline for 2027 to 2032 is in the public domain - the main commitments I can find are reopening Portishead (MetroWest 1b) and Henbury (MetroWest 2).
Mass transit development could be something exciting, but realistically it's probably just bits like moving the busses to the north side of Temple Meads, roadworks along the A37 and A4 corridors to make the busses run faster etc.
I suspect that in the case of WECA it's PR▸ fluff rather than anything meaningful.
I'm hoping for more than that, although with past years in mind. The devil will be in the dtail, and there isn't much at this stage. Perhaps I was too pessimistic? Within that 2027 to 2032 window, we should have in the bag Portishead and Henbury reopening, five new stations and a reworked Temple Meads. I'm not certain around the timelines but the rail/metrobus/cycling infrastructure around Brabazon looks pretty good on paper (though obviously a more frequent rail service would be better) and should be fairly transformational for the Cribbs to UWE "arc". Support for small, incremental rail projects seem plausible - e.g. Narroways to Montpelier tunnel redoubling, Saltford, Ashton Gate, St Anne’s Park and Lockleaze station reopenings and perhaps even Filton Bank electrification. |
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Bob_Blakey
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« Reply #6 on: Yesterday at 11:24:15 » |
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Nothing for Devon & Cornwall - Quelle surprise!
How about this for an idea? Since our government has decided that it can spend £15Bn, of our money, on transport projects why not complete the section of GWML▸ Electrification between Chippenham (ish) and Bristol. A better service for passengers, Ed Miliband would be very pleased with the reduction in diesel emissions, and the NIMBY's in Bath aren't going to vote for you anyway so you can just tell them, politely, to go away.
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TaplowGreen
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« Reply #7 on: Yesterday at 14:01:18 » |
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Nothing for Devon & Cornwall - Quelle surprise!
How about this for an idea? Since our government has decided that it can spend £15Bn, of our money, on transport projects why not complete the section of GWML▸ Electrification between Chippenham (ish) and Bristol. A better service for passengers, Ed Miliband would be very pleased with the reduction in diesel emissions, and the NIMBY's in Bath aren't going to vote for you anyway so you can just tell them, politely, to go away.
How much would it cost & how long would it take? |
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bradshaw
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« Reply #8 on: Yesterday at 18:19:35 » |
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Modern Railways covers the Scottish rolling electrification programme in the June edition. https://www.modernrailways.com/article/scotlands-rolling-programme-cuts-electrification-costs-26Sections of the article are copied below the cost of electrification per kilometre in Scotland had reduced from £2.7 million to £2 million over the course of the past five years
The rolling programme was a fundamental part of the reduction.
we can do slightly better each time because we find slightly better ways of doing it. Retention of skills is absolutely critical to our ability to do that. |
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Red Squirrel
Administrator
Hero Member
Posts: 5523
There are some who call me... Tim
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« Reply #9 on: Yesterday at 18:33:32 » |
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Nothing for Devon & Cornwall - Quelle surprise!
How about this for an idea? Since our government has decided that it can spend £15Bn, of our money, on transport projects why not complete the section of GWML▸ Electrification between Chippenham (ish) and Bristol. A better service for passengers, Ed Miliband would be very pleased with the reduction in diesel emissions, and the NIMBY's in Bath aren't going to vote for you anyway so you can just tell them, politely, to go away.
Once again I see it’s time to play whack-a-mole with the old chestnut about ‘Bath NIMBYs’ blocking GWML electrification. They didn’t. Bath Preservation Trust very rightly insisted that the OHLE▸ was done in a way that didn’t disfigure their city, but they had agreed a scheme with Network Rail when the project was canned. GWML electrification wasn’t blocked by Bath NIMBY’s; Greyling did that. |
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