News / Transport
First trains on reopened Portishead railway could run in 2027
The Portishead railway is being “fast tracked” and could begin construction in 2025 and run its first trains in 2027, North Somerset Council has said.
But it depends on the government giving the scheme the green light.
The long-awaited restoration of the abandoned railway line between Bristol and Portishead had been set to begin in 2024 and £32m had already been spent on the project.
is needed now More than ever
After the general election, however, the new Labour government axed the scheme set to fund their contribution to the project.
Now the railway is in limbo while it waits for a government review.
But at a recent full council meeting, North Somerset Council voted unanimously to approve a huge raft of measures to start constructing the Portishead railway this summer if the final business case is approved by the government.
Council leader Mike Bell said that with this project, “delay equals more costs, which equals more delay, and we have been stuck in that doom loop for far far too long”.
Bell said: “So I am very pleased that our local MPs and all parties in the council have been supporting the case to the Department of Transport for a quick decision.
“And with a favourable wind and a quick decision and the approval of this report and recommendations tonight, we can begin construction this summer with the intent of getting trains running by the autumn of 2027.
“But all of this remains subject to government approvals.
“We are in a review process at the moment. We have been given encouraging indications that that is being… fast tracked and let’s hope they stick to that.”
A new station would be built at Pill if the line from Bristol to Portishead is reopened – image: WECA
Portishead East independent councillor Roger Whitfield said: “I know many many people have spent an awful lot of time trying to get this project off the ground and just as we were getting somewhere with it the government decided to put a review on it…
“It’s good to see we’re now at a final stage and I just hope that the government will give us the decision that we want and, I think, that we deserve.”
But Portishead South Tory councillor Peter Burden added that the town had been promised the railway line since the late 1980s.
He said: “Let’s do all we possibly can but it’s not in our hands.
“Leaders of this council and the region have done absolutely everything they possibly could for the last 25 years to bring this to fruition and I sincerely hope it works.”
Portway Park & Ride and Ashley Down have both opened since this map was made in 2020 – image: Metrowest
The project’s price tag of £152m was being funded by the West of England Combined Authority, the Department for Transport and North Somerset Council.
But shortly before Network Rail submitted the full business case for the railway to the government, the new Labour government announced that the Restoring Your Railway fund, from which the government’s contribution had been set to come, was being axed.
The railway line was closed in 1964 amid the Beeching cuts.
Restoring the railway only requires just over three miles of new track. The line as far as Pill has already been restored – although work would need to be carried out on this stretch of the line to make the track suitable for passenger trains and not just freight.
New stations would also need to be built in Portishead and in Pill.
Reopening the Portishead railway is a part of the Metrowest project, a major scheme to increase the frequency of local trains across the West of England and wider area, and to reopen the lines to Portishead and Henbury.
Main photo: Martin Booth
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