MP 'quietly confident' over Portishead line

Seemingly doomed plans to reopen the rail line from Bristol to Portishead could still go ahead, after the area's metro mayor said he was "quietly confident".

Long-running plans to bring the railway back came under threat after the new Labour government announced it was axing the scheme funding it.

But now Dan Norris has given fresh hope that it will be chosen from a list of railway schemes around the country similarly at risk.

"I would argue our Portishead line is so close to starting that it puts it in a good position to go forward," he said.

After claiming to have found a £22bn black hole left in the country’s finances by the Conservatives, Chancellor Rachel Reeves scrapped the Restoring Your Railway programme to save £85m.

However, a total of £152m had already been committed from the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), the Department for Transport and North Somerset Council for the “shovel ready” Bristol to Portishead scheme.

Mr Norris told the Weca overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Monday: “They were clearing the trackside of trees and various other foliage with a view to doing significant things in the spring and getting on with the tracks.

“We’ve very close to doing it. That puts us in a strong position because we’re literally at the point of putting shovels in the ground.

“Economically it makes a lot of sense compared to the other lines that are in contention against us.”

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the West of England mayor said another project, the Henbury line, was on track “as much as these projects ever are".

He said: “It’s been interesting being the region’s mayor, because I’ve learned how slow some of the organisations are.

“The deadlines are pretty meaningless, which is very frustrating because we work with our unitary authorities to try to make sense of these timetables so we can fit in other things."

Mr Norris added he was "puzzled" as to why the UK could not operate as other countries in Europe do.

“They’re able to build tracks, plan them, get on with them, fund them and anticipate them arriving with much greater accuracy than we ever seem able to do," he said.

“I suspect that’s slightly above our pay grade to get sorted but we should rightly draw attention to our disaffection with that.”

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