Rees weighs up advantages of underground versus trams

Millions more pounds of funding has not yet been given towards progressing Marvin Rees’ plans for an underground railway.

But the mayor has gone into much more detail about how he sees the future of transport in Bristol, including weighing up the possibility of the return of trams to our city’s streets.

Rees has also appeared to support removing cars from the city centre before saying this move would be unpopular with much of the electorate.

Speaking at a committee meeting of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) on Friday, Rees said that “we should be positive about where we are”.

“A couple of people talked about trams,” Rees said, referring to earlier statements from the floor in room 1 of Bawa Healthcare & Leisure in Filton, including by Emma Edwards, Bristol’s Green Party group leader.

“Let me stay away from specific modes. Let me just suggest a few kind of characteristics.

“I think something that what we will need to support that modal shift is something that is fully segregated.”

The mayor did not elaborate on this point but it is likely that he is referring to an underground railway rather than anything on surface level, which would see road space shared by a number of different forms of transport.

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees and West of England metro mayor Dan Norris were among those at the WECA meeting in Filton on Friday – photo: Martin Booth

Rees added: “I think too one of the other things to think about is the price we pay during construction…

“We heard earlier on about stopping cars going into the middle of the centre. I think that all other things being equal, we would prefer not to have cars sharing space with human beings. But all other things are not equal and as we heard… we have got to keep people with us.

“There is a point at which when a system is running, you can justify disruption because there is a viable alternative.

“But there is a period of time between the moment you dig that first hole – and I’m not prejudicing whether it’s under or over, but you’re gonna dig a hole at some point – from the moment you start the project to when it is first running, you are getting all the construction but none of the benefits.

“That has to be taken into account when we’re thinking about the consequences, keeping the dressing room with us in terms of the democratic popular support, and also the economic and inclusion consequences of that.

“So I just think I’ll just say – again, not anticipating the specific kit or the specific routes – but I think there are some things that it’s incredibly important that we bear in mind.

“And if we test ourselves against those, let’s see what happens when we test ourselves against those where we end up, rather than just jumping forward…

“I think that trams is something that people have loved for a long time and that’s fantastic, but I think we do have to think about all those wider challenges…

“There is money looking for shovel-ready opportunities to invest… We should be excited at this moment and opportunity because I think that we have got our ducks in line.

“We can sit on the same side of the table and look at the challenges on the other side of the table.

“We can get ourselves lined up to be best positioned to profile the scale of opportunity that can be unlocked if government was to support us with some enabling money in tackling our own transport problems, so I think we should be positive about where we are.”

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• Metro mayor says Bristol will never get an underground
• Bristol underground would cost £18bn, secret report reveals
• Rees defends underground plans

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