Overground not underground, or overground with underground?

On a recent visit to Bordeaux, Marvin Rees posed for a photograph next to a tram which had the name and crest of Bristol on its side in recognition of our twinned city status.

Before the Second World War, Bristol had an enviable citywide network of trams and the reintroduction of this mode of transport is still regularly spoken of as the form of travel which will help solve the city’s transport woes.

Opposition councillors may be talking about trams but for Rees’ administration, something more transformational is the only answer and that means an underground for Bristol.

A Bristol tram in our twin city of Bordeaux – photo: Marvin Rees

Or does it? At the opening of the new Portway Park & Ride station in July, cabinet member for transport Don Alexander told Bristol24/7 that “the media has spoken of an underground but actually what we’re talking about is a mass transit system that has underground sections where it needs to have underground sections”.

Except that Rees has spoken numerous times of an underground. Exhibit A from his mayoral blog from November 2022: ‘All aboard Bristol’s Underground’

Back to Rees the other day in the south of France – where he had hotfooted it to meet King Charles after a brief visit to a climate conferience in New York.

As well as standing next to the Bristol-branded tram, Rees also spoke down the line to Politics West, a clip which was later turned into a soundbite for the mayor’s official social media channels:

“We now have a paper that says this (an underground) is fundable and deliverable and necessary, and we as political leaders need to be in the business of the art of the possible,” said Rees.

“If we want a system that is 100 per cent segregated – which it needs to be if it’s going to bring about that modal shift, genuinely getting people out of their cars – then we need elements of underground, otherwise it cannot be delivered in a city as dense as Bristol and the greater Bristol region.”

The clip featuring Rees talking to David Garmston was conveniently cut before metro mayor Dan Norris’ response saying that a Bristol underground is “not credible”.

Because therein lies the problem. However much Labour mayor Rees is advocating for an underground for Bristol, he neither holds the purse strings nor has the political power to make it happen.

The money needs to come in part from the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), of which Labour mayor Norris is in charge.

Labour mayors Marvin Rees and Dan Norris do not always see eye to eye – photo: Bristol Beacon

Norris has previously categorically ruled out an underground, much to the chagrin of Rees.

Norris’ own officials have now said it is possible – according to the Bristol Post – but Norris called this report “a selective leak and you can do anything with a selective leak”.

“It’s not true I’m afraid,” Norris said from the Politics West sofa on Whiteladies Road when asked about the possibility of a Bristol underground.

“What I would simply say is that I’m glad that Marvin is now accepting that the underground is off the table. He has withdrawn that affectively because he is talking about other things now.

“I have no objections whatsoever to the occasional underpass or a bridge or maybe like the flyover that we used to recognise at Redcliffe in Bristol.

“But what I’d simply say is, it’s not affordable and we will not be having an underground in Bristol.”

Norris said that WECA officials will be looking at mass transit options which are overground in order to make a business case to secure billions of pounds from the government and private sector investors.

He added: “We have to have a solid case. You don’t have a solid case where you’ve got a system that is underground and costs up to £18bn. It’s not credible and it’s definitely not credible in the current economic crisis.”

London’s Elizabeth Line cost £19bn with an underground rail network in Bristol costing up to £18bn according to one report – photo: Martin Booth

The continued clashes between Rees and Norris come as Business West have called for long-term transport investment and a mass transit system.

The well-connected business organisation wants regional leaders to keep progressing work “to help bring forward a proposal for an ambitious and green mass transit system for residents and businesses”.

“Success has to be planned in advance, and we must now do the work that sets out the next stage of our region’s transport ambitions,” said Business West managing director Phil Smith.

“This means carrying on with further studies to look at the business case for an integrated mass transit system. To ensure this business case is as strong as possible, we need to keep all the options proposed on the table.”

Trams appear to already be off the table for Bristol despite their obvious advantages and success in cities such as Nottingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Metrobus was once spoken about as being transformational but it’s just a bus, with a few completely pointless sections of guided rails built solely in order to secure government funding.

Bristol is an ambitious city that should have an underground. One of our mayors wants one. One of our mayors thinks that idea is about as likely as flying cars, or even as likely as a tram in Bristol with the logo of Bordeaux on its side.

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• Rees weighs up advantages of underground versus trams
• Section of secret report into plans for Bristol underground released
• Metro mayor says Bristol will never get an underground
• Following all 44 miles of Bristol’s boundary on foot

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: