Our response to Marvin Rees’ plans for Bristol Transport

Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees recently announced Bristol City Council’s plans for transport in the city ahead of the upcoming mayoral elections on 6th May. As campaigners in this space, we thought we would share our response to this announcement. 

The Moving Bristol Forward campaign welcomes the plans proposed for mass transit and enhanced bus services in Bristol. 
We are particularly pleased that the plans indicate that Bristol Council is beginning to piece together a vision for an integrated transport system that prioritises public transport and active travel. 

This mirrors extensive work by Transport for Greater Bristol Alliance on integrated planning for transport in the city.

However, while it is encouraging that, on the eve of an election, the Mayor and council are highlighting new plans for transport, actual progress remains disappointing - in Bristol and, especially, in the governing regional transport body, the West of England Combined Authority.

The indicated mass transit routes (where we have reservations about the detail) are identical to those depicted schematically in the drafts of the regional Joint Transport  Study in 2016. The map published by BCC is a cleaned up version of the same concept.

It is hard to discern any real progress on mass transit in the five years since that map first appeared. WECA is now beginning detailed study of options, in a process that it envisages taking eight years before a final business case is put before the Department of Transport. We are no clearer on details of routes or even of what vehicles will be used (light rail, trams, crewed, driverless, etc). 

It is also disappointing, and quite surprising, that long-touted elements of an improved system, such as integrated ticketing, and additional park and ride sites, remain unrealised.

None of this makes it credible that Bristol will meet the carbon emissions, air quality, or traffic reduction targets that rightly feature in the official plans.

Moving Bristol Forward looks forward to engaging with BCC and WECA as current plans develop. Our starting point will be that they need to be part of a process that involves the wider community much more, and is committed to integrated planning of all the parts of our transport system.
We  reached out to the Mayor’s office, inviting support of our newly released manifesto which you can read here. His first response, and our reply, are posted below. 

If you support our plans for a better, cleaner transport system in Bristol then we would very much appreciate your support in Tweeting one or more of the Mayoral candidates in the upcoming elections, which you can do here in just a couple of clicks: https://www.movingbristolforward.co.uk/take-action 

We asked Marvin Rees for his view of our Moving Bristol Forward camaign. Below, is the encouraging response from his team. We have a few reservations, though, which we set out in our reply, which you can also read here.

From Marvin Rees’ campaign team on MBF’s Manifesto.

Thank you for getting in touch.

Marvin agrees with your aims - we need to improve Bristol's transport offer in an eco-friendly, affordable way. Our manifesto includes a commitment to a mass transit system, integrated ticketing, increasing the frequency of our buses and trains, and providing free bus travel for apprentices and students under-25s.

We've found that an underground and overground is more cost effective and efficient than a tram system - we've looked at it in considerable detail, and an underground is the best way to achieve our shared aim of making Bristol's transport network more connected, greener, and affordable. As part of the journey to mass transit, we're going to open new train stations and have drawn up ambitious plans to rejuvenate Temple Meads. This will run alongside our Bus Deal, that will double the frequency of our buses.

We're also committed to introducing liveable neighbourhoods and tackling pavement clutter and parking. We're making the city more cycle-friendly, with our Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan, to build on the 122 miles - 75 miles segregated - of bike lanes we've already introduced.

You can read our manifesto in full here - Our manifesto - Vote Marvin - I hope you'll agree that we have the same aims and a lot of overlap in our policy proposals.

Kind Regards

The Campaign Team

#VoteMarvin

Our reply:

Dear Marvin (and team),

Thank you for your response to our campaign. It is good to see that you are taking transport so seriously in your manifesto. We differ on some points of detail but we agree our aims broadly align.

How to achieve them? Regional transport planning, and technical capacity to do it well, is one key to unlocking the transport puzzle. Will you push for the creation of an integrated transport authority at WECA level which has expert staff who can implement these policies?

Such an authority will have a big job in planning and funding the proposed mass transit system. We are intrigued that you say “we've looked at it in considerable detail, and an underground is the best way”. It would be very good to have the study which we assume underpins this conclusion published in full, so it can be independently verified. We hope you will commit to doing that. For now, we would say that it does not accord with our understanding of the best options for a city like ours, and that we believe the case for trams is stronger, technically, economically and in terms of service provision.

In the event of you re-election, we would be keen to work with you to implement the transport aspirations that we share. We are planning to continue our campaign this year, including further engagement with a wide range of communities, and are committed to making Bristol's transport accessible, affordable and effective for everyone.

Will you meet with the Moving Bristol Forward endorsing organisations once elected to discuss how you will implement the commitments in the manifesto?

Best wishes,

Moving Bristol Forward campaign.

If you support our plans for a better, cleaner transport system in Bristol then we would very much appreciate your support in Tweeting one or more of the Mayoral candidates in the upcoming elections, which you can do here in just a couple of clicks: https://www.movingbristolforward.co.uk/take-action