From The Bristol Evening Post: http://tinyurl.com/dacc7
12:36 - 27 September 2005
People in Portishead claim it would be a waste of time introducing a new bus system between the town and Bristol. They say they want to reopen the railway instead. Radical plans were unveiled last week to tackle Bristol's congestion problems and end the daily misery for hundreds of commuters.
The Greater Bristol Transport Study outlined several short-term and long-term strategies as part of a ú500 million scheme to beat the gridlock.
One of the proposals was to introduce a new bus route from Portishead along the busy A369 route into Bristol to cut the high number of vehicles making the daily journey.
But Portishead Town Council chairman Jean Lord said a better way to attract vehicles off the road would be to reopen the existing redundant railway line into the city.
She said: "At the moment, there is a single lane of traffic carrying commuters into the city every morning and a single line carrying them back at night.
"The A369 is very narrow in places, particularly through villages such as Abbots Leigh, so how are they going to widen it to introduce a showcase bus route?
"The only way to beat the congestion and long tailbacks around junction 19 of the M5 is to reopen the railway."
Town councillor David Pasley, who is chairman of the Gordano council's transport group, said: "There are parts of the world where buses with special wheels travel on railway tracks but are adaptable to run on normal roads when they reach their destination.
"This would work perfectly in Portishead if the bus ran on the line into Temple Meads and then joined the road network to travel to such areas as Broadmead."
We Want Railway, Not Buses
Re: We Want Railway, Not Buses
This guy's the CHAIRMAN? God help us. Choose an experimental-at-best, several million pound gimmick project which will undoubtedly cost many millions more than a regular tried-and-tested solution, and then be deemed a failure and scrapped. Yeah, nice one.madhattie wrote:From The Bristol Evening Post: http://tinyurl.com/dacc7Town councillor David Pasley, who is chairman of the Gordano council's transport group, said: "There are parts of the world where buses with special wheels travel on railway tracks but are adaptable to run on normal roads when they reach their destination.
"This would work perfectly in Portishead if the bus ran on the line into Temple Meads and then joined the road network to travel to such areas as Broadmead."
Re: We Want Railway, Not Buses
And that is the chairman of the Transport Group speaking!!!madhattie wrote:Town councillor David Pasley, who is chairman of the Gordano council's transport group, said: "There are parts of the world where buses with special wheels travel on railway tracks but are adaptable to run on normal roads when they reach their destination.
"This would work perfectly in Portishead if the bus ran on the line into Temple Meads and then joined the road network to travel to such areas as Broadmead."
For goodness sake, getting the railway reopened is going to be a big enough struggle, and a huge burden cost-wise, without asking for special buses that can run on rails and will require expensive signalling systems installed to work on the rail network.
And just where exactly would a bus leave Temple Meads and join the road network? Perhaps it will leave via the front doors like the rest of the passengers?! Any adaptation to Temple Meads will add millions to the non-existant budget.
Re: We Want Railway, Not Buses
SNAP!James wrote: This guy's the CHAIRMAN? God help us. Choose an experimental-at-best, several million pound gimmick project which will undoubtedly cost many millions more than a regular tried-and-tested solution, and then be deemed a failure and scrapped. Yeah, nice one.
We must have been fuming and typing at the same time
Still, it took the two of us less than five seconds to see the flaw in Mr Chariman's BIG idea. I wonder how the guy keeps his job?