The West of England metro mayor has said bringing buses back under public control would be easier if Bristol had a tram network. Dan Norris said he “greatly regretted” that Bristol and South Gloucestershire did not manage to start building a tram network in the early 2000s.
Campaigners and several local politicians are calling for bus franchising as a way out of the current crisis in the region’s ailing public transport system. But the Labour metro mayor has said this model, used in London and many European cities, could end up losing the taxpayer money.
A tram line connecting Broadmead to Cribbs Causeway was almost built two decades ago, when Labour was in government and Mr Norris was a junior minister. But after delays and rows about where the line should end, the government scrapped the funding for new trams and the Bristol Supertram project was finally dropped in 2004.
