The Mayor of Bristol has slammed opposition councillors and the Metro Mayor Dan Norris, saying their ‘lack of ambition is staggering’ because they have said a mass transit ‘underground’ system for Bristol will never happen. Marvin Rees said he remains committed to creating a fresh new ‘mass transit system’ which would involve an underground metro rail system, even though almost every other politician in the city isn’t backing the idea.
Earlier this week, the West of England metro mayor Dan Norris who, like Mr Rees, is a Labour Party politician, was asked if he thought an underground would ever happen in Bristol and he said simply ‘no’.
Read next: Bristol won't get an underground system, says WECA mayor
That has produced a furious response from the mayor of Bristol, who will be making the case for another £15 million to be spent on developing the idea, at the next West of England meeting in March. “I remain committed to the mass transit system including the use of underground in central areas,” said Mr Rees.
“The lack of ambition of both Bristol City opposition councillors and the combined authority is staggering. Bristol residents recently made it clear that transport is the number one dissatisfaction in the city and without the mass transit, there is no plan for improvement, particularly as the city continues to grow. We cannot keep spending money improving ways to bring people into the city when residents cannot move around the city,” he added.
Mr Rees first announced he wanted to create a mass transit system - which would effectively be a fresh railway which would go underground through much of Bristol city centre and its inner suburbs - in 2017, and said then it could be done in 10 years. Nothing tangible on or under the ground has happened since, mainly because the responsibility for transport projects lies with the West of England Combined Authority, and also because it would require billions of central government and private investment, and is well out of the budget of Bristol City Council on its own.
This week, and for much of his time in office since being elected in 2021, Labour’s West of England metro mayor Dan Norris has been dealing with trying to improve Bristol’s threadbare bus services, and gave short shrift to the idea for an underground earlier this week.
Mr Rees said he will still be arguing strongly for the idea - and that Bristol needs it.
“We created the combined authority to find and build big solutions to transport and regional housing and it is currently failing on both,” he said. “The WECA board is due to consider the next tranche of investment in the mass transit system at its meeting in March. I will be strongly arguing for the continued investment and the development of this crucial infrastructure that will finally allow Bristol and the city region to match other British cities who have shown ambition and built effective transport systems.
“Any growing city with a major economy must have a world class transport system and we have the opportunity to build one in a sustainable low carbon way. Delivery of infrastructure has to stay ahead of the growth of population and the economy. Ours has lagged behind for decades and we created WECA to change that. Any delay or change of direction now is simply repeating the failures of the past and failing Bristol,” he added.
When the plans were first unveiled by Mr Rees back in 2017, it was met then with a degree of scepticism. Bristol Live first revealed back in July 2017 that the city council was looking at the possibility of whether the city could have some sort of underground train network.
Seven weeks later, the mayor finally went public himself on the idea, and said Bristol was the only ‘core city’ – one of England’s 10 leading cities – without a major public transit system involving an underground or tram network, but the Tory leader on the council at the time said it was 'pie in the sky', and Bristol Live readers openly mocked the idea that it could be done in 10 years, six years ago.
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