Metro mayor vetoes plans for tube-style underground in Bristol

Metro mayor Dan Norris overruled Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, the leaders of South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils, and went against the recommendation of his own transport chiefs, by vetoing plans for a tube-style underground in Bristol at a key vote.

The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) was due to decide on how to progress plans on its proposed mass transit system but the future for the Future4West scheme remains uncertain after the Bristol area’s political leaders failed to come to an agreement.

Norris used his veto to prevent any further consideration of a tunnelled underground along three routes through the city, saying that he thinks an underground railway is both “unaffordable and unrealistic”.

Speaking with serious understatement after the meeting at Keynsham Civic Centre, Rees said that he was “slightly disappointed”.

In a video posted to X, he said: “We cannot discard a mass transit system with elements of underground until we have ruled out the possibility of delivering the underground in an affordable, accessible way.

“Now, information is not in the public domain as much as we would wish. That points out that the underground is considerably cheaper than the numbers that were leaked.

“More so, on top of that, that the overground option would involve the closure of roads; major stretches of Gloucester Road, Church Road and St Luke’s (Road), which would bring major disruption to people’s lives and threaten businesses on those roads.

“So the full costs of the underground option have not really been considered, in our forward, so what we need to do is to keep all of the options on the table, get all the evidence out there, and make a decision when we are fully informed, not just because of cheap analysis and superficial headlines.”

Also speaking after the meeting, Norris – who, like Rees, is a directly elected Labour mayor – said in a statement: “I voted for overground options only because I believe an underground to be unaffordable and unrealistic.

“Overground options offer a really exciting opportunity. Buses, one day possibly trams or another new technology, like the system I saw in Coventry just recently, could make a real impact at pace on traffic and pollution.

“I believe that we owe it to residents to focus all our energies and resources on delivering projects that might actually happen, and so make a difference to people’s lives.

“We need a credible, affordable, realistic option to put to government.

“The Strategic Outline Business Case was developed over the last three years at considerable cost, at over £2m, was delivered eight months ago, and is a robust and substantive piece of work.

“No amount of further analysis is going to change the basic facts. We need to start being honest with people and stop pretending that a project that everyone knows is not going to happen is somehow still a viable option.

“I am disappointed that no one would actually back getting on and delivering better overground public transport.”

Main photo: TFL

Read next:

• Mayor’s office accused of ‘lying’ about reopening road to cars
• Overground not underground, or overground with underground?
• Could tram-trains be the future of transport in Bristol?

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