Trains every half hour to new Bristol arena 'unaffordable'

"Not enough passengers" would use a rail service planned for Bristol's new arena to justify running trains every half an hour, says Bristol's mayor.

Mayor Marvin Rees has faced new calls to support increased frequency of trains on the new Henbury spur line.

He said a future growth in passenger numbers could later lead to more frequent services but it was not in the current business case.

Currently trains to the YTL Arena are planned to go once an hour.

Concerns have been raised that the hourly service will be "out-of-kilter" with the amount of new homes being planned.

Thousands of new homes are being built near the planned North Filton train station but residents there will have to wait up to an hour for the train service running through Ashley Down and then to Temple Meads.

The line will run to Henbury, after North Filton reports The Local Democracy Reporting Service.

During a member forum meeting at Bristol City Council on 13 December, Councillor Mark Weston, leader of the Conservative group, said: "The service frequency on the Henbury spur line will be totally out-of-kilter to the phased new town development.

"However, I understand the junctions, signalling and track would be able to handle 30-minute passenger trains as opposed to hourly services.

"I would ask the mayor if you could look again at the business case.

"Since it was first done, you have the arena moving up into the area, which wasn't there at first, but also the YTL section of development with 2,700 homes is now a minimum of 3,700 homes, and actually they're trying for 6,700 homes."

He added that added up to a "fundamental change" in the North Filton station catchment area which would justify a higher frequency.

The station has already been hit by delays.

Initially it was due to open next year, a year before the new arena opens in 2024, as a key part of the transport plan to get people to concerts.

However in October YTL, the developer of the arena and thousands of new homes at the neighbouring Brabazon housing estate, said "mid 2026" was now the target opening date.

YTL said at the time that responsibility for delivering the station sits with the West of England combined authority and Network Rail.

Two other stations are also due to open on the line, at Ashley Down and Henbury. The project is part of MetroWest phase 2.

In response, the mayor said the business case for building the North Filton station showed it would be too expensive to run trains every half an hour.

Mr Rees said: "I do support this aspiration, and our commitment to improving rail travel in Bristol is clear - we're building the first new station for almost a century and secured the investment for improvements at Temple Meads to improve capacity."

He added a 30-minute service was explored and whilst "technically feasible" the requirement was "unaffordable within the available budget and predicted passenger numbers did not support a strong enough business case".

"Once operational, I would expect that future growth in passenger numbers will support the case for increased frequencies and options to deliver this can be explored further," he added.

Additional reporting by Emma Elgee

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