Transport Still a lot of track left to travel before trams return

Earlier this week we reported how major changes to junctions across the city had given hope to plans for a new tramline. But just how likely is it?

- Alex Seabrook reports...

THE number one answer when asking anybody in Bristol what they want to improve about the city tends to be public transport and congestion.

But then ambitious plans to actually improve public transport in Bristol are almost always met with derision and disbelief.

So recent news, that upcoming changes to city centre junctions will lay an “unbroken path” for a potential tram route, were predictably met with scepticism. One commenter on social media claimed that Bristol would be more likely to get a network of “Chuckle Brothers cycle cars” than trams.

The changes will be rolled out over the next couple of years, and will mean buses can travel from the Long Ashton park and ride in the south-west of Bristol, through the city centre and then to the M32 without ever getting stuck in traffic. This would make eventually building a tram route much easier.

However, there are a number of hurdles before any tracks are laid, which if they can be overcome, would not start until the 2030s at the earliest. And Bristol has endured years of rows over whether Bristol should get an underground, and decades of failed tram plans.

The “red route” has long been an ambition of Bristol City Council. This will run along Cumberland Road, up Redcliff Hill, down Union Street, through a new junction with the Haymarket past Primark, then along Bond Street before getting to the M32 motorway.

New bus lanes and bus gates were given the green light by councillors on the transport policy committee last week who hinted at the longer term benefits of the red route. Green Councillor Emma Edwards said: “This in future could potentially turn into a mass rapid transit route, whatever that might mean - more buses or maybe other modes as well.”