Finding a sensible solution to Bristol’s transport woes

How much will an underground cost Bristol? That’s currently an unknown answer but initial ideas for a tunnel as part of the ‘Western Harbour’ development were scrapped before even being revealed to the public due to being prohibitively expensive.

On Tuesday, a golden motion which will be debated at full council says that only by comparing all transport options “will Bristol be able to most wisely spend funding and deliver a world class mass transit system in a timely manner”.

The motion is being proposed by Emma Edwards, the Green councillor for Bishopston & Ashley Down, who wants a £5m feasibility study recently announced by mayor Marvin Rees to include other alternatives rather than “putting all our eggs in one basket” with an underground system.

“If an underground was viable, we probably would have had it by now.”

“It seems to have been in the pipeline for a while. The idea has been kicked around by the mayor for quite a long time, but now we’re getting to a point where we’re building all these housing developments. We are growing. And we are having things like the Clean Air Zone, we are telling people to drive less. We have to put a mass transit system in soon. We have to have a public transport system that works.”

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“Personally, I would love trams.”

“But this is exactly the point I am getting away from. It’s not about personal likes. Marvin might have a vision of having an underground. I might have a vision of having a tram system. Somebody else might have a vision of having all bio-buses or Japanese-style electric trolley cars. But it’s not about what we want, it’s about what can we deliver the fastest. What can we start tomorrow? I’m not going to say this motion is saying trams over underground because we need to do this study and find out what is best.”

Bristol’s tram network used to cover most of the city – photo: Bristol Archives

“What are our options that we can start doing now?”

“It’s the urgency that I’m trying to get across with this motion… Right now we are a growing city in climate emergency with a changing climate, and we haven’t got anything coming. Nothing is happening. Even if that thing was really cracking down on pavement parking and getting those cycle lanes in and have properly demarked bus lanes, increase the number of buses and bring the prices down so people can use the buses. And then in five years those bus lanes can be turned into tram lines. That to me is a logical progression.”

“If I was cabinet member for transport, I would like a working place parking levy.”

“This was was our last golden motion. It would raise the money to start implementing mass transit. I think that was a huge missed opportunity (the motion was passed but with an amendment that said it would have to be approved by the administration). There has to be a carrot and stick. Encouraging people to drive less is about giving them better options but also not making driving the most attractive option, which it still is. Making businesses take the burden of that cost and encouraging a lot less commuter traffic, that to me is a first start.

“Every time a cyclist dies on the road, we have failed.”

Things have got to change… There is still a target for road deaths and we are trying to make it lower. Why isn’t that zero? I would make our target for road deaths zero.”

“I do everything.”

“I’ve got a car. I cycle. I use the trains. I use the buses. I do whatever is the simplest thing, which is usually walking if I’m going into town. If it’s raining I take the bus or I cycle. I don’t cycle much in town as it’s quite dangerous. I cycle more if I’m going out to the suburbs. If I’m going into the middle of the countryside, I will drive. If I’m going city to city, I’ll take a train. I will take the quickest option and it’s usually not the cheapest option. It shouldn’t be cheaper going by road than catching a train.”

“There are people who do need to drive.”

“There are people who are elderly or have a disability, but if all the people who don’t have to drive are using other things, then we’re not left with terrible air, clogged roads, traffic and dangerous driving.”

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“We need to get people behind something.”

“I haven’t seen many people enthused about an underground. When I talk about trams, people can visualise it and it makes them excited. People have a nostalgia for trams and they can also see them as futuristic.”

“Solutions have got to be well thought out.”

“Otherwise they are just ideas. I think there is a problem in Bristol, and I have found this since becoming a councillor, that we have a consultation about a consultation about a consultation. Things can get pretty circular and inverted. Let’s just look at Western Harbour, doing all this public engagement but not actually getting very far with it.”

“I just can’t see an underground in Bristol happening.”

“If it was going to happen, I would want to make sure that they had addressed things like flooding, cost, environmental impact. If they have done all that and it has come out better than trams or spending money on greening buses and other infrastructure and active travel, and they have said that this is genuinely the best option, I would not argue with it. But they have to do that first. And they have to do that quickly… Other cities are doing things. I don’t see us cracking on with anything at the moment and that concerns me.”

“We are trying to get to carbon neutral by 2030.”

“That has to shape all of the things that we do, especially transport. And that involves getting people out of cars and into other things. If the buses in Bristol were adequate, they would be being used more and there wouldn’t be as much traffic. We clearly need something better than what we’ve got. I do, however, commend the reopening of old stations and the opening of new ones, like at Ashley Down in my ward and Portway Park & Ride.”

“Really small solutions can work.”

“They don’t have to be big. We are not reinventing the wheel here… For example, e-cargo bikes are an old idea made better and really exciting… E-scooters are a good idea as long as they are managed properly… These are forward-thinking ideas that take inspiration from past ideas, which is what modern trams do. The modern, quiet, electric trams are not like the old cable car trams like we used to have. They are much more forward-thinking.”

Main photo: Martin Booth

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