The Bristol Railway Archive

Someone has just told me that Network Rail have recently quoted the cost of re-opening the Portishead branch as being £200 million.

Is that information correct?

How did they get to that big a figure? Does anyone know what is in it?

Not sure I've seen the £200 million figure- but I haven't been looking for it.

Out of area, I did see that Network Rail has made planning application for a single platform station at Soham in Cambridgeshire (to accomodate 4-car trains) at an estimated cost of £18.6m. There will be a footbridge to accomodate a footpath that crosses the line.

That makes £200m for Posit look rather costly. I guess land for the station at Posit will be expensive, as will the traffic disruptions while it is built.

On the Portishead Branch the current signalling is only suitable for freight traffic so will need upgrading. I believe the track itself will also need renewal or replacement. If they had got on with this 10 years ago it surely would not have been this expensive!
I had hoped to ride on the branch on the first day of service, and have been waiting since Richard Cottrell MEP gave a talk in about 1984 on the Avon Metro. I hope I live long enough!

cheers

76026 wrote: Tue May 12, 2020 8:08 am Not sure I've seen the £200 million figure- but I haven't been looking for it.

Out of area, I did see that Network Rail has made planning application for a single platform station at Soham in Cambridgeshire (to accomodate 4-car trains) at an estimated cost of £18.6m. There will be a footbridge to accomodate a footpath that crosses the line.

That makes £200m for Posit look rather costly. I guess land for the station at Posit will be expensive, as will the traffic disruptions while it is built.

The plans show the station to be the Bristol side of Quays avenue so no railway crossing the road at all.
Hopefully, any construction issues will not affect existing road traffic in the area.
The cost of this project has spiralled since it was first announced and the main reasons for the project, bad traffic queues to and from Bristol are largely a thing of the past now anyway. With more people working at home, it will be the "green" budget that pushes it through.

carpetcone wrote: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:03 pm
The plans show the station to be the Bristol side of Quays avenue so no railway crossing the road at all.
Hopefully, any construction issues will not affect existing road traffic in the area.
The cost of this project has spiralled since it was first announced and the main reasons for the project, bad traffic queues to and from Bristol are largely a thing of the past now anyway. With more people working at home, it will be the "green" budget that pushes it through.

When Quays Avenue was originally built there was an awareness that the railway could reopen, but it was assumed that if it did, it could cross Quays Avenue on the level and come to a terminus in the vicinity of Waitrose. But since then, new level crossings have become a complete No-No, so the station now has to be less central than it could have been.

There is a regular discussion of this line on the City fans forum
It's now stretched to 14 pages
https://www.otib.co.uk/index.php?/topic ... /#comments

The line is being discussed in the House of Commons today.

News on teletext today reporting more delays due to environmental, funding and inflation issues. It also says that it was due to reopen in 2024 - past tense! Is it me or is there not the will to get this project over the line? What will the next hurdle/excuse be?

Roy

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... ad-7291526

An extra £25.5m is needed to finish the Portishead railway line project, according to North Somerset Council. The railway line, which will connect Portishead to Bristol, is not expected to re-open until 2024.

The project has been hit with delays, and the council says that because of this, the cost of the scheme has risen unexpectedly to £152m. Council leader Steve Bridger says the council and the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) have now committed an extra £10m to the project, and are asking the Department for Transport to close the remaining £15.5m funding gap.

22A wrote: Tue Jul 05, 2022 7:34 pm Council leader Steve Bridger says the council and the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) have now committed an extra £10m to the project, and are asking the Department for Transport to close the remaining £15.5m funding gap.

Something on the news today to the effect that the DoT are going to cough up the remaining £15.5m. Will it now happen before inflation adds another big chunk to the total cost? Then we have the issue of rail fare increases being linked to the rate of inflation so will anyone be able to afford to use it?

Time will tell!

Roy

There's a story about the announced extra funding on the BBC Bristol website.