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Posted by Jeff Vinter Link: Sustrans' Views on Rapid Bus Transit in Bristol
on 28/2/2008, 7:10 pm
Message modified by board administrator 6/11/2009, 2:12 pm
UPDATE (September 2009): Plans to re-use this railway path for a guided busway between Bristol and Emmerson Green have not been dropped, but merely 'deferred'. The path therefore remains at risk, although it is pleasing to see that there is now opposition from within Bristol City Council to this proposal. Our initial report on the guided busway plan appears below.
The railway path between Bath and Bristol has been the most successful rail-to-trail conversion in the UK ever since it was built in 1977. Currently, it is generating approximately 2.4 million journeys per year.
Now the West of England Partnership has published plans to turn the western end of the route, i.e. the section leading into Bristol, into a guided busway. This will entail building two concrete gulleys on the formation, along which buses can travel at speed, passing much closer to each other than would be the case on the public road. Even if some kind of path is retained, this will alter the character of the route permanently, and destroy its attractiveness and popularity as a traffic-free route.
As if this were not reason enough to object, a similar project in Cambridgeshire (between St. Ives and Cambridge) has now run millions of pounds over the initial estimate, so questions have to be asked about the viability of guided busways. In Cambridgeshire, it will take many, many years to recover the cost of the scheme - possibly generations.
We urge members to click on the link with this posting and support Sustrans in their bid to defeat this damaging proposal. (The petition will be found at the top right of the page.)
Finally, consider this - if part of this railway path goes for a guided busway, how many more could follow in the next 10-20 years?
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