The Henbury Loop Line - it CAN happen!

Isambard gave us the Suspension Bridge - surely we can achieve this?!

Can you imagine Isambard Kingdom Brunel planning to build a railway line from Bristol to London now? Or the Clifton Suspension Bridge?  Local authorities would have to agree, there would be an awful lot of very expensive consultants employed, then everyone would suck their teeth, look concerned ,say they were terribly supportive of the idea but of course, it could never be done, would be far too expensive, may require planning permission etc etc etc blah,  and a million reasons 'why not'

Flapjacks- an essential part of any journey

Everyone ready to board the Henbury Loop Special!

That's what's going on with the far more modest proposal to open up a small stretch of existing freight-train track back up to passengers again, as it used to be. The track between Filton, Henbury and Avonmouth already exists. As part of the 'Bristol Metro' plans, most people with any common sense whatsoever think it would be a good idea to use this existing track for passengers to create a real circle line round the city.

All that is needed now is for the good people at the West of England Partnership to agree and put in a 'Henbury Loop' into their bid for Government funding. Yes, we'd need a bit of double-tracking, and perhaps think about some signaling issues. We might even have to think, wait for it, creatively, about ensuring that freight trains are not held up by passenger trains - but this is far from rocket science and other areas of the country seem less squeamish about building new track than we do about using existing track for passengers as we once used to do.

Stephen Williams MP has been a real supporter of this campaign

SO - to prove it's all very doable, I decided not only to talk about it, but to DO it. With the great help of First Great Western, we chartered a train along the Henbury Loop Line. We only had a limited number of tickets, so huge apologies to all those people I had to disappoint.  But the trip was enormous fun and a great success-  from Temple Meads all the way up to Severn Beach and back again in about an hour. Some people told me they'd driven about an hour from Brentry to even get to Temple Meads...

Sue Flint bought flapjacks which we passed round and I chatted with Cllr Mark Bradshaw, Stephen Williams MP, and other cross-party transport campaigners about how we can make this a reality.

If you haven't already, please sign the petition:  www.henburyloop.bristolpetitions.com and forward to all of your friends!

Isambard Gromit Brunel says YES to the Henbury Loop! Don't you, Gromit..

Back to the Future for Henbury Rail

There have been a few (not many) doubters about the Henbury Loop Line. But although in so many ways we have progressed in recent decades, in some ways, we've gone backwards. So I'm looking on going on a journey to the past to show that the Henbury Loop Line can indeed exist. Why? Because it has before!

There was a time when Henbury Station was alive, buzzing and steaming and taking people from Henbury over to the Severn Beach
Line and beyond.

We're looking for your recollections, old photos, memories (which we can record) about your (or your parents' or grandparents') recollections of the Henbury Loop.

If you have memories or memorabilia to share, or know anyone who does, drop us a line at henburyloop@charlotteleslie.com or write to us at:

Henbury Loop Campaign
184 Henleaze Road
Bristol BS9 4NE

And let's go back to the future! ( ... Can't promise hover boards.)

Bus Lane Madness

Me and local campaigner Kevin Staples at the White Tree Roundabout bus lane: Now you don't see it. Now you do. Now you do, er but only a bit of it... (they're busy taking up a small stretch of it in the background)

 Ok, so whose brilliant idea was the White Tree Roundabout bus lane?

It's one of those decisions that was obviously always going to be a disaster to anyone who knows the area, but it went ahead anyway as part of the Greater Bristol Bus Network.

The result? As anyone in the lines of snarling traffic queuing up to the roundabout and sometimes extending way down Falcondale Road, could have told you,  it has been an expensive way of making things worse. Buses couldn't even get to their bus-lane because, yes, they're snarled up in the traffic!

Our Councillor, Geoff Gollop set up a PETITION - and a campaign took place on  FACEBOOK as well.

I went on BBC Radio Bristol during the summer,  live from the White Tree Roundabout, in front of lines of traffic queuing and hooting, and heard a statement from the Council implying it was all working just fine, thank you. The ultimate example of the council-house inhabiting a different planet from the rest of us. Really frustrating.

Finally the Council couldn't hide from reality any more and conceeded - and took up just some of the bus lane. A triumph for people-power and common sense. If only they'd listened to common sense in the first place. What a waste of money.

The Henbury Loop Line - it's real!

Much excitement as First GW puts on a special train along.. yes, the Henbury Loop Line! see, the route actually ALREADY exists...

Much excitement at the Community Rail Festival as a special train ran from Templemeads, to the Portbury Dock, along much of what would be a Henbury Loop Line, connecting a re-opened Henbury Station to the Severn Beach Line.
Disappointingly, current West of England Partnership Plans, whilst a real step forward in promoting plans for a Bristol Metro - with a Portishead Line, and enhanced local branch line services- stops short at the really vital point: Creating a circuit round the city by joining up the Henbury line with the Severn Beach Line. Current plans make Henbury a cul-de-sac turn-round station. Bonkers! It's like building a circuit board but not completing the last millimeter to get the current running through it.
Great campaign groups like Transport for Greater Bristol Alliance ( TfGB's Ian Crawford here with me in the pink shirt), and Friends of Suburban Bristol Rail  ( FOSBR -spot my yellow fosbr sticker!) and one-man-campaign-army Dave Wood have been superb in keeping the pressure up. I am going to be continuing to make the case for a Henbury Loop, not spur, until I'm blue in the face and everyone's completely bored of hearing about it... (I've already mystified a whole lot of non-Bristol-area MPs during Prime Minister's Questions by raising it...)
 But it's important because this will be the game-changer for Bristol Transport, this is the opportunity of a generation, and we cannot have a situation where we look back in 20 years and say, yet again "what on earth were they thinking?" 
For once, let's have long term vision, be ambitious about our city region, and get it right. 

We can't give in to crime

On Friday I joined residents who have set up a petition to get bus services back to normal in Henbury following a spate of attacks to the buses.

I have to say, I was outraged that First Bus services should be re-directed and stopped in Henbury becuase of a spate of crime.

Ok, I know that First Bus has a duty to protect its drivers.

Ok, I understand the police are stretched, and too much of their time is still spent on administration not the front line.

But giving into crime like this is not on because it gives out completely the wrong signal to criminals - that civilisation will give into them, and change its behaviour because of what they do.

That's a dangerous precedent; It's unfair on residents whose travel is severely disrupted, and all-too-often have to put up with the kind of crime and disruption that the buses are fleeing day-in, day-out.

It's not a question of 'whose fault' this is. It's about making sure things return to normal ASAP and that this never happens again.

Therefore I am meeting the Police and First Bus to work out how in future its the criminals who suffer for their crimes, not the public, and that it is law and order, not louts and criminals, that calls the shots.

Bristol's transport challenges taken to Shadow Minister

A few weeks ago, I contacted Stephen Hammond, the Shadow Minister for rail , and asked him to come down and have a look at the success of the more frequent Severn Beach line service - and told him all about our campaign to get Henbury Station and the Henbury Loop line open.

So here we all are, Stephen Hammond MP,with Avonmouth Council Candidate Siobhan Kennedy-Hall, Bernard Lane, Julie Boston, me, Rob Dixon ( members of FOSBR ) outside Angels Transport Cafe, at Avonmouth Station, having enjoyed a proper fry-up. (well, one of us.)

Stephen traveled up to Temple Meads on the line, and in discussion assured us that a Conservative Government would put a moratorium on the sale of railway land - so that the sale of the Henbury station site would be prohibited. Too late for Henbury. But it was good to hear Stephen so supportive of getting local rail services up and running again. The campaign goes on...

Waking the sleeping giant: Getting Bristol Back On Track!

On Friday 21st, members of FOSBR gathered at Wilder House, home of the West of England Partnership, to issue a rallying cry for funding for a Portishead-North Bristol Rail Loop line to be included in the bid for Government funding.

As one railway worker put it, Bristol railway network is a sleeping giant. There is a railway infrastructure running in and around the city, with disused stations like Henbury just waiting to be used. With 2,500 houses planned for the area just North of Henbury, as part of a 33,000 house building plan in the area; with Bristol Zoo development to take place at the top of Blackhorse Hill - having a railway service across North Bristol is a no-brainer.

I will be writing to the Chair of the South West Regional Assembly to make the case for the line, and hopefully members of other political parties will be doing the same. It's time for the sleeping giant to wake up. It's time to get Bristol back on track.

Don't slam the coffin-lid on the future of Bristol rail!

.........It all makes sense. The city is gridlocked in traffic, we face a potential congestion charge that will hit the poorest hardest, just when fuel prices are rising and families are struggling to pay the bills. Everyone is looking for a long-term solution to the ever increasing traffic, and Bristol's reliance on the car.

So Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways are mounting a campaign, which I have been supporting, to reopen the existing and derelict Henbury station, as part of a projected Portishead and Henbury loop passenger/ freight line.

So it was with amazement and dismay that we discovered that far from resurrecting disused stations as part of a plan to get Bristol and Britain greener and moving again, the Government has sold-off Henbury station, as part of sell-offs of stations across the country. This is in effect slamming the coffin-lid on the future of local rail infrastructure. It is tragically short sighted, and little short of madness.

However, the battle is not over yet. I, and members of FOSBR and local campaigners will contest the grounds of the sale of Henbury station in a bid to keep hope alive for a rail system for the area. Particularly since in the same breath, the Government is planning two and a half thousand houses in the area just north of Henbury. You would think that re-opening Henbury station would actually be a priority, given the huge extra burden on the roads that this development would entail. That's why we'll fight so hard against the grounds of the sale, and for the resurrection of a local rail infrastructure Bristol can be proud of.

There are two things you can do to help!
1. Get in touch with FOSBR ( severnbeach@hotmail.co.uk or call 0117 9428637) to see how you can sign one of their postcard campaign cards

2. Come to the rally on 21st November, at Wilder House, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8P where FOSBR and local campaigners will be making their voice heard and lobbying James White, the Group Leader of Transport Policy at the West of England Partnership.

Come and speak out for a long-term vision for Bristol Transport.

Green but getting lost? Not anymore!

Can I recommend an amazing website I was told about the other day?

http://bristolstreets.co.uk/

What does it do? It untangles all those hundreds of confusing bus route documents and rail timetables, park and ride locations etc; This is your one-stop-shop for getting around the city by public transport.

I've not seen anything like this before. So simple. So effective!
A brilliant idea, bookmark it now and tell all your friends!

All very happy and smiley on the bus, here. But little did I know I was going in completely the wrong direction... I should have looked at, yes, http://bristolstreets.co.uk/ !

The sun always shines on Chooseday

Well, it did today, anyway. This morning, on a gloriously sunny day, I hopped on the bus into the centre of town, to support the launch of Chooseday.

Chooseday was the brain child of a team including Joshua Hart and Chris Sunderland (pictured here with me). The idea is simple: On Tuesday ( see what they've done?! Chooseday?!) leave your car at home. Do something different to help the environment.

I think the idea is a winner. There are few things more depressing for an aspirant Green than standing at the bottom of the mountain of the 'Green Ideal', in a state of repentant despair because you suspect you will never ascend to the saintly heights of those who have thrown away the car keys, live in a solar-powered eco-hut, eat nothing but the produce of their back garden, and power their carbon-light lives by their own waste products. And the product of that kind of despair born of a sense of hopeless inadequacy, is to feel that you are an irredeemable Green-sinner and not to do anything green at all.

But Chooseday doesn't ask too much. It only asks that you change your way of life in some small but significant way, one day a week. It's ok, say the organisers of Chooseday, if you have to use your car occasionally. ( Not ideal, but don't get het up about it.) Just do what you can each Tuesday. And if everyone does the same, we will all see just how much difference a collective effort can make. Imagine a Bristol of no cars, just one day a week. Great things start with small steps. So go to their website and learn how you can help make a difference.

Why did Labour and the Lib Dems deny us a public meeting with First Bus?

Amazing, isn't it? Two weeks ago I stood up in the Council Chamber and asked the Council for a public meeting to hold First Bus to account. First Bus, I said, are running rings round the Council. Let all parties club together to sort out our public transport mess, let's have a public meeting, we deserve some answers.

What was the response? I am sad to say that it was jeering and booing from the Labour and Liberal Democrat benches. And low and behold, now we have more Bus route cuts. These cuts are going to affect all of us. Many elderly people depend on these buses as their life-line to the outside world.

Many elderly people depend on these buses as their life-line to the outside world.

If Labour and the Lib Dems hadn't been so busy behaving like two-year-olds, we may have had this public meeting before the appalling route-cuts to the 54A, 55 and 57 buses which run through Bristol North West.

Conservatives are not going to let this campaign drop. If the other parliamentary candidates in the area are going to kick up a fuss about the cuts, I suggest they get their own parties in order, and support my call for a public meeting to hold First Bus to account.

Safer Routes for Schools for...

Read about the Conservatives' campaign for Safer Routes for Schools in the Evening Post by clicking here!

When was the closest you came to getting run-over? Most people have had at least one near miss- the moment when your mind has been wandering and a vehicle whisks past your nose, or knocks the back of your bag. Then you can't help but think of the terrible sequence of ifs. IF you had been one inch more off the curb. IF the vehicle had come a second earlier... The last time that happened to me was when I was on my way to Westbury-On-Trym School's 'Red Squirrel Day'. Anyone who has been to Westbury-on-Trym Church of England School knows that you are taking your life in your hands if you go at drop-off or pick-up time. But amazingly, earlier in the year, the Council retracted on its promise to give the school funding for the 'Safer Routes to School' programme. The reasons why beggar belief:

More than 2,000 children died on British roads last year, while around 100 children in Bristol were injured or killed on the roads in the same period. What were the Council waiting for?!

1. That the school had been so successful in encouraging parents not to take their cars to the school gates that it was no longer necessary. ( you only have to go there at pick up time to see that's not quite true! said the Head to me)

2. That it was too expensive. Despite the fact the school had requested cheaper measures than the Council originally insisted on being put in place before they retracted the offer.

3. That it was not necessary because no children had yet been injured! More than 2,000 children died on British roads last year, while around 100 children in Bristol were injured or killed on the roads in the same period. What were the Council waiting for?!

You may have heard my interview on Original FM, supporting Conservative Councillor Geoff Gollop's petition to the Council meeting on 24th July. The petition received huge support and I am pleased that the Council took Geoff's petition seriously and is referring the matter for further investigation.

The School had originally requested quite modest traffic calming measures to put in place, but the Council had instead insisted on a more expensive version, which it later said would break the bank. Hopefully now they will at least let the school have the modest traffic calming measures it said it originally wanted. Before a near miss becomes a tragedy.

The GOOD news, the BAD news...

The Good news is, that in the Council meeting last night ( Tues. 24th July) , all three parties agreed to Conservatives' motion for a Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Alliance. Many thanks to Pip Sheard, Spokesperson for Transport Alliance for heading up support from pressure group Transport Alliance. Now we must try to make sure that the other unitary authorities, BANES, North Somerset and South Glos. see the merits of an independent transport body, an equivalent of Transport for London.


The Bad news is that the Council rejected our call for a referendum on road pricing before a congestion charge is introduced. We have just seen rises in fares from First Bus. People are being priced off the buses and could be priced off the roads without a say. The hardest off will be the hardest hit and this could amount to nothing less than a tax on the poor.

People are being priced off the buses and could be priced off the roads without a say. The hardest-off will be the hardest hit

I was amazed that Labour and Lib Dem Councillors didn't listen to my request for a public meeting between First Group, the general public and the Council to question First on fare rises. This was our chance to publicly ask just how First intends to give Bristolians a good bus service at a reasonable price. I am sorry to see Councillors running scared of the electorate, especially on an issue as important as this. But I won't let this drop. Watch this space!

Let Bristol decide about Road Pricing !

Sign up for a say on whether you should pay a road-toll: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/item/epetition.html

You may have picked up the Evening Post and found me glaring out at you today from a traffic island. I have set up a petition on the Council’s website to ask for a referendum on road pricing before a pilot scheme goes ahead.

Click on the link below for the full Evening Post story.

(http://www.thisisbristol.com/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144913&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231190&home=yes&more_nodeId1=144922&contentPK=17756360)

Sitting on the traffic-island fence?

I think the journalist on the end of the phone was a bit upset that I wasn’t going to shake my fists and yell ‘No Road Charge!’. I also think he was a bit miffed that I didn’t get all militant in favour of road charging. I suspect there are already Bristol bloggers out there joyously accusing me of opportunism and other people saying I’m just sitting on the traffic-island fence about it all. So let me explain why I have not waved my fist either for or against road charging yet, and why I want a Bristol referendum:

There really are good arguments both for and against road-pricing. You’re not stupid, you can think of the main ones, but simply put:

For:

• On the one hand, global warming is a real threat to our way of life (Though I admit, it’s hard to believe anything’s warming up today.) We must reduce carbon emissions and our reliance on the car.



• Bristol at peak hour is grid-locked. Congestion is costing Bristol business approximately £1m per week. Not good, and only going to get worse…



• Drastic times call for drastic measures, some might say. No one wants to pay more tax, but is it the only way to find the money needed to improve our public transport?

Against:

• It’s not fair to make people pay an extra tax when they have no option but to use their car.


• Businesses in the zone may suffer.


• It will not reduce carbon emissions, or congestion, it will simply push it all just outside the zone. Into places like Westbury-on-Trym, Horfield, Henleaze and Stoke-Bishop to name but a few.


• There are other measures we should try first before resorting to this.


• Extra money is no guarantee that public transport will improve. Real improvement needs a change in infrastructure, not simply more money poured into to the same financial sieve.

We deserve answers to important transport questions…
There are questions that need answering before we can really make a proper decision about a road tax. A referendum would force these questions out into the open to be discussed rigorously and answered properly and precisely.

One major factor is how would the money raised be spent? Would it really go to improve public transport? How exactly (with figures and costings and bus routes…)?

How about a Greater Bristol Transport Authority?
The congestion charge in London only works because there is a good public transport alternative and transport is run by an independent body, Transport for London. (TFL). I believe we need a Bristol area equivalent: A Greater Bristol Transport Authority. (GBTA, if you like acronyms.)

Any successful transport strategy must extend beyond simply city boundaries to Banes, South Glos. And North Somerset. We need to be sure that the money raised does not get soaked up in miscellaneous Council business, but goes straight to transport. We need an authority that can make decisions for the good of the city, untouched by political concerns and council election disruption. A GBTA would do this.

There was a referendum on road-charging in Edinburgh, and the people rejected it. That was largely because the Council had not shown they would spend the money well by ‘front-loading’ the road-charging with improved public transport.

I for one need to be assured that Bristol City Council really would spend my money well if they taxed me to use my car. And I would need to be able to get from A to B on public transport instead.

No one wants to pay more tax. But most of us see the need to reduce carbon emissions and our daily congestion. A referendum would both put the decision in the hands of the people who will have to pay for it, and it will ensure that these questions are asked and answered so that the people of Bristol can make a proper, informed decision.

What do you think?

Knowing me, Knowing you

First of all, I've been getting to know the area and everyone who lives here. This is my home, where I've been for over a twenty-five years, and I thought I knew pretty much everything there was to know about Bristol North West. Wrong. There is so much going on. It never ceases to amaze me how many people and community groups are doing really fantastic work. I've been visiting as many of you as possible and learning from your work.


IF YOU RUN A COMMUNITY GROUP, OR LOCAL CHARITY, AND THINK I COULD LEARN FROM YOUR WORK, OR LEND SOME SUPPORT, DO GET IN TOUCH!


Save our Special Schools campaign:
I launched my first major campaign to prevent the closure of a special educational needs (SEN) school in Bristol, and presented a petition of over 700 signatures to Bristol City Council.

Bristol City Council was looking to cut costs on SEN by closing down one of its special schools. The Council's record on SEN is pretty bad. Parents of children with SEN in Bristol are more likely to have to go to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal (SENDIST) to appeal against the Council's decision on their child's school, than anywhere else in the country outside London.

Campaigning in the rain to Save Special Schools ( We make a glamorous bunch, eh?)

For many children with SEN, mainstream school is the right option. But for others, physical inclusion in a mainstream school really means social and mental exclusion. There are some really great SEN units running in mainstream schools that are attached to Special Schools like Kingsweston, and Claremont - but there are still hundreds of parents struggling to get their child into a Special School. The answer to better SEN provision is not to close one of them down!
If you would like to know more about the campaign and the petition, go to the epetition site,http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SOSS/

The petition featured in the Evening Post and on BBC West's The Politics Show.


FOSBR Twice Hourly Train Campaign:
Spot the Conservative Candidate...

Friends of Bristol Suburban Rail (FOSBR) ran a highly successful campaign to get two trains running per hour on the Avonmouth to Templemeads line.

I supported them in lobbying the Lib Dem council to return the subsidy for another train.
Finding alternatives to the car is absolutely crucial- but it amazes me that we should be spending so much money on 'Showcase Bus Routes' when we have a superb railway infrastructure sitting on our doorstep. FOSBR are right. We should be making the most of it.
When did you last take the Severn Beach line into town? It's quick and the scenery is amazing. Try it!
For more information, go to http://www.fosbr.org.uk/