Second Severn Crossing

[madhattie]

I was just thinking about this (while herding the fifteenth shoplifter this week out the front door).

When the Second Severn Crossing was being designed, did they ever give consideration to building a combined Road/Rail bridge?

I can't understand why they didn't grasp the opportunity to build a fast modern England-Wales link and close down the rather leaky and expensive to maintain Severn Tunnel.

The route of the bridge so closely follows the route of the railway that it wouldn't have even needed much work at either end to link to the structure.

[clive]

Second severn crossing was privately funded, as there was an existing bridge that was under capacity but already there the government gave the owners a 25 year concession on the new and existing bridge. returns being gained from the tolls, on both bridges. So no alternative to car users other than to use the bridges or go via gloucester. rail would not have made economic sense as the existing tunnel would still be there (no private finance guru would ever take it on) so no incentive for the railway to pay to cross a new bridge.