Will the Portishead railway ever be re-opened?

By anna20093 at 12:06 on 28/07/09

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Will the Portishead railway ever be re-opened?

By anna20093 at 12:06 on 28/07/09
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I really hope so- there has been a petition some time ago, who knows what they're aiming for. I think its about 10 years away from what people have been saying!!

By Possetlady at 15:58 on 28/07/09
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I think that Network Rail was going to carry out an evaluation of the potential for opening the line to Bristol Temple Meads, but whether that process has even started yet, I don't know. I imagine that it will take quite a while, too, but it must look promising if Network Rail have agreed to look into it.

By johnny2009 at 12:09 on 29/07/09
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The current position with the Portishead Railway is as follows.
North Somerset Council (NSC) have sponsored the line and have a consultants report that said there was no reason not to open the line.
NSC have asked Network Rail to proceed with Stage 3 of the GRIP process(Guide to Railway Investment Projects). The GRIP process has 8 Stages. Stage1 was the sponsorship, Stage 2 was the consultants report. Stage 3 is Option Selection. Stage 6 will be construction.7& 8 Testing and opening.
In parrallel NSC have applied for £25m capital funding from the South West Regional Assemblies Regional Funding Allocation (RFA2). The funding should be available post 2014.
For more information visit www.portisheadrailwaygroup.org
Alan Matthews. Chair Portishead Railway Group

By Chairmanprg at 14:03 on 31/07/09
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Thanks Chairmanprg, I didn't realise things had got that far...this sounds like it will actually happen. Good work.

By johnny2009 at 17:01 on 04/08/09
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It seems to me that if we never had a Labour governent then Liam Fox would have had a much better chance of getting this line up and running.
I wonder if people realise just how spiteful these Labour members of parliament can be, especially if you vote a Conservative M.P into office.
They do not forget.

By scally50uk at 17:37 on 20/08/09
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There's a ring of truth to scally's comment - they can't seem to get over the class issues that nobody else cares about. Remember the fox-hunting ban. Who else really cared about that by the time they got round to voting on it. And going back to railways, remember that when they were in opposition, they said they'd re-nationalise the railways...what happened to that then??? It costs a small fortune to travel on the trains now!

By clpearson at 09:37 on 21/08/09
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It will be if Bristol City get planning permission for their new stadium. The help it would give not only to go and watch football and to shop and work in Bristol, or to shop at Tesco's!

By redcliff_bay1 at 22:44 on 05/09/09
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