‘Bristol will fall behind other cities if we fail to plan for the long term’

When we look at the challenges facing our city region, it can be a daunting task.

We have to deliver on net zero, bring more people into well paying jobs, including the areas that have traditionally been left behind, build better connected and higher quality housing and space for jobs and also make sure our city centres continue to thrive after Covid.

Having a modern transport system is central to all of these challenges.

At present, too many people depend on the car or cannot move around the city at all – meaning high levels of carbon emissions and of economic exclusion in our areas of deprivation.

When West of England metro mayor Dan Norris recently spoke to a group of local business leaders, he recalled the long failure of our region to deliver on transport and the tragedy of local politics and short termism hurting our region.

He mentioned when Bristol’s planned tram system was lost – due to petty political infighting – to Nottingham.

Nottingham now has one of the best public transport systems in the country, while Bristol continues to suffer from congestion, pollution and low levels of bus and train use, and poor provision of the transport services that many other cities take for granted.

It was once so different, as shown by this map of the Bristol tramways network following its expansion in the 1900s – image: Bristol Archives

When I look across the country to other metro mayors, I see compelling ambition to bring UK cities up to the standards that are common place when we visit Europe.

Copenhagen and Bordeaux may soon be joined by Leeds (where the metro mayor Tracey Brabin is now delivering a regional mass transit system), Manchester has the integrated Bee Network launching later this year, and Coventry is developing trials for new forms of transit including very light rail.

There is a real risk at present that Bristol and Bath will fall behind these places, repeating the mistakes of the past due to a long term failure to plan.

This would fail our people, but it would also risk investment in new industries and people going to other cities and our region falling behind.

Bristol’s reputation as a green and forward thinking city would be pushed aside with the old cliché – that the West of England cannot agree with itself and fails to deliver.

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Read more: Metro mayor says Bristol will never get an underground

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In my role both as the chair of the Local Enterprise Partnership and long-term member of Business West, I have been following closely these matters in recent years and believe that we have every opportunity to be ambitious for a long term large scale transport system for the city region.

Over several years, we have already started to make progress.

We have developed the early phases of metrobus, and we are developing our Metrowest, which will deliver near terms improvements with new train stations, and the reopening of the Portishead line.

We have also been very successful in the first round of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, receiving the highest per capita settlement in the devolved city regions, as well as very substantive allocations for Bus Service Improvement Plans.

These programmes will all be delivered during the next few years, and will start to make a difference.

You wait ages for a bus and then two come at once – photo: Betty Woolerton

However, it is vital that we have a long term plan for a larger scale of transport investment that focusses on the key strategic transport corridors, creating segregated transport routes, moving citizens around the city region cost effectively, helping us to remove cars, and meet our net zero ambitions, as well as connecting to designated growth areas for housing and employment.

When I look to Leeds City region, which appears to have the closest equivalent strategy to the West of England, I see real ambition, and a plan, that links a variety of modes to key transport nodes, park and rides, train stations, and the airport.

The mayor, Tracy Brabin, has set an ambition to have the first spades in the ground, in her second term in 2029.

Here, we should be aspiring to have similar ambitions, and where necessary, this could include below ground running in our congested and historical city centres.

It is often the case, that significant investment is required in the technical work and business case studies to develop a model of viability, but these may need iterative steps, and as we have seen in London and other cities, bringing citizens and business along the journey is vital.

Not all the investment for such schemes, necessarily gets paid from the public purse, and having a mature discussion on how we all contribute, to enhancing users to increase fare revenues, considering, as in Nottingham to leverage work place charging to support costs, all need to be discussed.

The business community and citizens across the region, will all benefit from long term planning and delivery of a properly ambitious system, that will significantly contribute to reducing inequalities in our region, attract business investment, and make significant strides in achieving our net zero carbon ambitions.

I hope that our political and business leaders, can get behind an ambitious long term transport investment plan for our city region, understanding that we need to be unified, innovative, creative and above all working together to create the long terms investment plans that are credible to government, to industry partners and the public at large.

Richard Bonner with Marvin Rees – photo: Western Gateway

Richard Bonner is the chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership; and is also northern cities director of Arcadis, Bristol City Council’s strategic partner to aid the delivery of new infrastructure, homes and regeneration across the city.

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• Underground feasibility reports released by Rees likely to be inaccurate
• Bristol underground would cost £18bn, secret report reveals
• Metro mayor’s ‘lack of ambition’ on Bristol underground ‘staggering’

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