The South Glos Post

Rail campaigners in South Gloucestershire have welcomed assurances by the industry that local services will improve.

It follows concerns raised by South Gloucestershire Council’s transport chief about disruption that has been occurring on local rail services, particularly cancellations affecting passengers on key commuter services on the Severn Beach line and the Gloucester-Yate-Bristol Parkway-Bristol Temple Meads line.

On various occasions, there have been cancellations or curtailments to morning peak trains which have been attributed to shortage of crew, trains late from depot and train breakdowns.

On the Severn Beach Line, the main casualty has been the 07.18 from Severn Beach which has been either cancelled in entirety or curtailed to start at Avonmouth – stranding passengers at Severn Beach.

In addition, cancellations have also been occurring on other lines, including:

• The 6:26am train from Bristol Parkway to Temple Meads and destinations beyond (this is the first train of the day in that direction from Bristol Parkway and used by passengers with onward connections at Temple Meads)
• Local services on the Gloucester – Yate – Bristol Parkway – Bristol Temple Meads line
• Local services on the Cardiff – Newport – Patchway – Bristol Temple Meads line

More: First Great Western chief gives assurances »

Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council

The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced that the Great Western Main Line will be electrified between London and Cardiff, with electrification including Bristol Parkway station in South Gloucestershire.

South Gloucestershire commuters using Bristol Parkway station will benefit from the £1 billion electrification scheme which will bring faster journey times between London and Bristol, lower carbon emissions, fuel and maintenance cost savings and a brand new fleet of Inter City Express trains.

In addition, the DfT announcement opens up the exciting possibility of fast and frequent electrified suburban services through South Gloucestershire and linking up with the wider West of England sub-region.

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

South Gloucestershire Council’s Conservative administration has given the green light to transport schemes designed to improve road safety and beat traffic congestion across the district.

As part of this financial year’s Local Transport Capital Programme, building work will start on the district’s first park and ride facility – a £1.2m scheme at Parkway station.

Already-announced changes to the controversial 2+ lane on the ring road will be completed in an effort to respond to Downend and Emersons Green councillors’ calls for radical action to ease congestion.

And further reducing the number of casualties, which are already at a record low, will be a central aim of this year’s transport programme with a number of road safety schemes planned.

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Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council

Stoke Gifford campaigners have blasted the Highways Agency for forcing South Gloucestershire Council to withdraw a planning application to provide a new Park and Ride facility behind Bristol Parkway station.

The congestion-busting scheme would have provided around 200 parking spaces adjacent to Hunts Ground Road in Stoke Gifford (and near to Parkway Station) and helped tackle the issue of the station’s own car parks becoming full during the week and spilling out onto residential streets.

Local residents and commuters would have been able park there and then use Parkway train station, or get a bus from the station.

The planning application was submitted earlier in the summer, but has now been withdrawn after the Government’s Highways Agency threatened to issue a ‘Direction of Non-Approval’ unless the Council proved there was a local parking problem.

The Highways Agency’s intervention is despite it being responsible for the ‘strategic road network’ (eg. motorways) – not the local road network surrounding the proposed Park and Ride site which is the responsibility of South Gloucestershire Council.

Conservative councillors for Stoke Gifford, Keith Cranney and Justin Howells, have blasted the actions of the Highways Agency, saying:

“We are astonished at the actions of the Government’s unelected Highways Agency.

It is not even responsible for the local road network, yet it is poking its nose in Stoke Gifford affairs and claiming there are no local parking difficulties.

Many of the Agency’s claims are just plain bonkers and local residents will be asking rightly what planet the Highways Agency is living on.

Maybe they should come and view the Stoke Gifford area so they can see for themselves the difficulties that our residents have to deal with before they make such ridiculous statements and undermine efforts to tackle these issues.”

They added:

“We badly need a number of initiatives to tackle parking and traffic problems in the area and park and rides are part of the answer.

One of the other main solutions is the construction of the new Stoke Gifford Transport Link and we are pleased that South Gloucestershire Council is continuing to press the Government to urgently fund it because this should have been built years ago.”

South Gloucestershire Council has advised that it plans to resubmit a revised planning application shortly.

Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council