Letter from Westminster
March 14, 2006 10:26 AM
By Stephen Williams MP in Clifton Chronicle
By Stephen Williams MP in Clifton Chronicle
On the way up to Harrogate for our spring conference we passed Sheffield and I was reminded of my last visit to that city, twelve years ago. I was then an Avon County Councillor and a member of the Planning Highways and Transportation Committee. We were visiting to see the new Sheffield Supertram that had just been opened.
After buying a ticket at the tram stop we took a ride from the city centre out to the Meadowhall shopping centre. At that time Avon was in the advanced stages of a bid to the government for a tram for Bristol. My committee colleagues and I had spent months considering reports. The routes in north Bristol had been planned. A loop around South Bristol was proposed. We even had a name for it - The Westway and there were lots of models and drawings of trams gliding through the Centre. We were optimistic that before the year 2000 Bristol would have its first tram route. Then Avon was abolished and the dead hand of Labour controlled Bristol City Council took over education, social services and transport.
The Westway hit the buffers of political ineptitude.
Last Saturday I took a train from Temple Meads to Severn Beach with members of the Friends of Bristol Suburban Railways. The new Labour MP for Bristol East was there too. As we discussed options for enhancing services on the line I mused on how little has changed in the last decade. The Severn Beach line is still an under used asset. The freight lines from Avonmouth to Filton and from Portbury to Bristol are still closed to passenger traffic. Plans for a necklace of park & ride sites around the city have not moved ahead.
The biggest problem is the bus service. The fares are ridiculously expensive; I often hear that it's cheaper for a family or a group of people to hire a taxi. The buses themselves move around slowly. The only thing that seems to have happened is the 'showcase' bus route along Gloucester Road. This amounts to some bus lanes, better signs at stops and some basic information for waiting passengers. No ticket machines at stops and you still have to stand in the rain at most places. What is 'showcase' for Bristol would be commonplace at best elsewhere.
So what's to be done? As an MP I can only exhort and encourage those who can bring about change. Rail services can only be enhanced by a partnership between central government's Department of Transport, our local councils and the current monopoly provider of buses and trains, First Group. A local government structure that has transport planning powers over the old Avon area would help. But whether it's a mayor or the existing council set up we need some clear political vision. Our local environment and economy depend on that vision being translated into action soon.
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