Transport plans

Joint Local Transport Plan

A 5 year plan for 2006-2011 was produced in 2006 which looked at all West of England transport issues. The West of England Partnership which is a partnership of the 4 local councils - Bristol City Council, North Somerset, Bath & N E Somerset, and South Gloucestershire produced the plan now known as the Joint Local Transport Plan 2.

A new Joint Local Transport Plan 3 which looks ahead to 2026 was published in 2011.

See also www.westofengland.org the Partnership’s website.

West of England Partnership report “Our Future Transport”

October 2008: The four local sub regional authorities submitted a document - Our Future Transport to the Department for Transport. The document represented the first stage of a process that saw the four West of England Partnership authorities - Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire - uniting to express continued interest in developing a bid for a slice of the Government's £1.4bn Transport Innovation Fund early in 2008. This included plans to re-open the Portishead line.

Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study

This was a major study into the future transport needs for the Greater Bristol area covering the 25 years up to 2031. The Government Office for the South West (See GOSW on Local Government page) commissioned the consultants Atkins to do the study. The public’s views on this were invited. In this study the emphasis was much more on buses and roads than railways. The Portishead branch hardly featured at all! One recommendation was for a bridge over the river Avon (est. £110m), which could include a rail link. This would be a very long term plan, and we do not think it makes any sense. (see press articles) A much cheaper and quicker solution would be to reopen the existing line to Bristol. The final recommendations have now been passed to the GOSW, the DfT, and Local councils. The report is now available on-line on the West of England Partnership web site.