In February we put in a £0.7m bid to the Department for Transport’s £20m New Stations Fund for the Portway Park & Ride platform.  At a total cost of £0.9m Portway is a low cost, experimental station scheme which we hope will set a benchmark for future stations.  Accompanying the bid were letters of support from the Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways, the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership, Network Rail and First Great Western.

On 26 March 2013 we learnt that three stations so far have been awarded funding – Ilkeston in Derbyshire, Pye Corner in South Wales and Lea Bridge in East London.  This still leaves around £5m in the pot and a further announcement is expected in May 2013 so fingers crossed for Portway.

Well it’s all change again on the Great Western Franchise with the latest Department for Transport announcement on 26 March 2013.  What started as a two year extension has now been stretched to 33 months with First Great Western running trains up till July 2016.  Beyond that they will operate the franchise under a ‘competed management contract.’  Details of this are unclear at present.  Equally unknown is the level of consultation with and input from the West of England councils.

In the meantime the West of England has written to Simon Burns, Minister of State, on 20 March 2013 requesting enhancements to services and facilities in the franchise extension.

We do know there will be a “co-operation and non frustration” clause in the 33 month extension will enable First Great Western to work with the West of England on developing train service proposals for the Metro.  Work also continues with Network Rail on the business case and infrastructure requirements.

The Department for Transport set out its plans (31/01/13) for the Great Western Franchise.  Paused last October pending two reviews the Great Western franchise competition has now been terminated.  Instead First Great Western will continue to run the existing franchise until October 2013.  After that a new short term two year contract will be awarded, subject to negotiation and agreement with First Great Western.  Longer term proposals and the timetable for future franchise competitions will be set out in Spring 2013.

In the event of a new contract not being signed the Government owned Directly Operated Railways will step in.

We look forward to seeing the longer term franchise proposals and timetable for the franchise competition in Spring 2013 and the opportunity to once again press the case for the Greater Bristol Metro.  The delay to the start of the new franchise will enable the business case for Phase 2 of the Greater Bristol Metro (half hourly services to Yate and a reopened Henbury Line) to be strengthened and hopefully included as a Priced Option (only Phase 1 was included in the original franchise). In the meantime, First Great Western will continue to provide local train services.

On 7 January 2013 Network Rail published its Strategic Business Plan for 2014-19.  It sets out in broad detail the schemes Network Rail think should be taken forward.

More detail can be found in the accompanying ‘Western Route – Summary Route Plan.’  Included on p35 are the proposals for the Greater Bristol Metro. Whilst this does not guarantee implementation it does embed the Metro in the rail industry’s plans and marks a major turning point in gaining recognition for the proposals.

The Metro map on p35 shows the current proposals for Phase 1, Phase 2 and new stations.  These are subject to change for example aspirations for the Henbury loop service via the Severn Beach Line are not ruled out should revised growth forecasts and developer funding come forward and a business case be developed.

Find out more in The Strategic Business Plan and Western Route – Summary Route Plan

The Great Western Franchise process will hopefully soon be back on track.  Paused last October pending two reviews into the franchise process the second of these has now been published (10 January 2013).  Known as the ‘Brown Report’ it concluded that the franchise system is not broken and it is essential that the franchise programme should be restarted as soon as possible.  The review recommended that by February 2013 the Government should publish its plans for the Great Western Franchise.  We await more detail.

On 3 October 2012 the Department for Transport halted the award of the West Coast rail franchise pending the completion of two reviews on (1) where the franchise competition went wrong – due to report in a month and (2) a wider review of the franchise process – expected end of December 2012.

The Great Western Franchise process will be “paused” until after both reviews are published.  The second review could have significant implications such as a complete rewrite of the Invitation to Tender and the Franchise Agreement.

The new franchise will be delayed by at least three months (assuming minimal change and a simple restart of the process) but more likely six to nine months if the Invitation to Tender and the Franchise Agreement have to be rewritten.

Meanwhile First Great Western would continue to run the existing franchise.  It has been extended already to July 2013 so a further extension by DfT is likely.

For the Greater Bristol Metro (Phase 1) it will mean we have to wait a little longer to discover the cost of the Priced Option.  However, unless the delay to the new franchise stretches into years, the original timescale of a 2017 start should be achievable.

Proposals for electrification, four tracking of Filton Bank, remodelling of Bristol East Junction should not be affected.  These schemes are being undertaken by Network Rail and are independent of the franchise process.

A corporate sweat broke out on the forehead of the four authorities when dawn broke this morning, as we waited nervously to see if the government had funded our four tracks to Filton Bank.

You can see who we were up against on the DfT website

And then Rail Minister Theresa Villiers swept into Temple Meads (looking a lot calmer than us) to confirm that four-track from Temple Meads to Filton Bank will go ahead.

Anyway, it’s all down to you again, wonderful public who like trains. Four track is the crucial bit of the jigsaw that we have to put in place to get Greater Bristol Metro Rail to work. So many, many thanks to the hundreds of you who wrote special letters to the ministers about it. Half-hourly trains in Bristol and the region, a new line to Portishead, and all those re-opened stations can actually happen.

See the coverage here:

• This is Bristol
• ITV News
• BBC News

A great big cheer goes up across Bristol as a government announcement confirms that the new £1 billion City Deal WILL fund all £100 million for Greater Bristol Metro Rail. It just shows what can be achieved when residents, businesses, the local councils and the local paper work together constructively to achieve something big that everybody wants.

Read the breaking story in The Post here

The Post will carry the full story in tomorrow’s paper.

It could be days or weeks, but soon the government will also announce its decision on whether to fund four track in Bristol. And we will know what the government expects rail operators to provide when it publishes its Great Western Franchise Specification. Then it’s time for us to get to work again, writing letters to the short-listed operators to ensure they put in competitive bids with the most trains and the highest quality stock conceivable.

We know we can depend on you, because you’ve brought us this far. When you get on your first Greater Bristol Metro train in 2014, please remember to give yourself a good pat on the back and think, I made this happen.

Publication of the High Level Output Specification (HLOS) is now likely to be in July 2012.  This will coincide with a revised timescale for the new Great Western franchise.  Originally the DfT planned to publish the Invitation to Tender, setting out what they expect to see in franchise bids, in May 2012.  It is hoped that the HLOS will include the four tracking of Filton Bank giving the franchise bidders confidence to plan services including the Greater Bristol Metro.

The delay to issuing the Invitation to Tender may mean the new franchise starting in June/July 2013 (instead of April 2013).  As indicated in the Great Western Franchise consultation document no timetable changes will take place until December 2014.

Stage one of the Bristol Metro Rail Campaign has left the government in no doubt about how the region feels about rail.

The consultation on the specification for the Great Western Franchise is now closed. But that isn’t any reason to stop campaigning. Stage two starts here.

FOCUS ON FOUR TRACK

In June, the government makes a key decision on how to spend its High Level Operating Strategy funds (HLOS as rail enthusiasts know it). It’s some of this funding we need  in the West of England, if we’re to get those crucial four tracks on Filton Bank which will make half-hourly trains possible across the local network. And as we all know the half-hourly trains will lead to re-opened stations which will in turn lead to more trains.

Four tracking is essential for more trains, more often in Greater Bristol. These images show the track beds for the four tracks which existed in Bristol until their removal in the early 80s. We’re running on two tracks at the moment which causes bottlenecks and limits capacity for more local trains. We need them reinstated to help achieve our vision of Greater Bristol Metro Rail.

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So from now until June, we’re going to Focus on Four track. If you want to see your local station re-opened, or even if you live in Portishead and only care about that line, now is the time to bang on as loud as you can to government, and spread the news to your friends.

ALL local rail improvements in the West of England area depend on laying the right tracks first.

Write to the Secretary of State for Transport, Justine Greening AND the Minister of State for Transport Theresa Villiers, at the addresses below and dazzle them with your technical know how. Show them that you understand what four track is and the reasons why we need it. Don’t worry if you’ve never really heard of it before. Go to our four track page  for the non-rail-buff explanation. You’ll soon get your head around it.

The Right Honourable Justine Greening MP, Secretary of State for Transport, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

E-mail her as well at: greeningj@parliament.uk

Also write to Theresa Villiers MP, Minister of State for Transport (with responsibility for Rail Strategy).   The Right Honourable Theresa Villiers MP, Minister of State for Transport, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

E-mail her  at: theresa.villiers_mp@dft.gsi.gov.uk

DON’T STOP SIGNING THE PETITION

1,591 signatures, at least the last time the Metro Rail Campaign took a peek at the Number 10 e-petition. That’s pretty impressive in such a short time. Thank you to all signatories, tweeters, re-tweeters, Facebookers, QR coders and good old-fashioned letter writers. Don’t stop just because the consultation has ended. That was only the beginning. There’s still plenty of campaigning to do.