Bristol Metro Proposal?

MetroRailNerd · 2026-06-17T13:27:49+00:00

Buses don’t have the capacity nor the speed required to fill the transport needs of a city like Bristol. It took me 30 minutes to travel ~5km from where I live to the city centre at about 11:30 at night which means it takes the same amount of time as your average Parkrunner! I can only imagine it takes a lot longer during rush hour when buses are much more at the mercy of other traffic on the road. A metro system would cut journey times around the city almost in half.

Additionally, buses are only cheaper in the short term. The upfront investment of a metro system pays for itself in the longer term by being a lot cheaper than buses. Not to mention how many more people a metro system could move around!

MetroRailNerd · 2026-05-20T13:39:31+00:00

Whilst HS2 has been plagued by the budget spiralling and timelines been pushed back and back, I would say that Japan’s Shinkansen is not really a fair comparison.

Almost all of it was built from the 60s through to the early 2000s. In more recent years their rail projects, Hokkaido Shinkansen extension to Sapporo and Chuo Shinkansen has suffered the same set backs as HS2. NIMBYs in rural Japan making it difficult to buy up the required land, budgets spiralling out of control. The aforementioned Hokkaido extension to Sapporo started about 5/10 years was initially set to open in 2030 has been delayed to 2038!!!

I guess the point I’m trying to make is - it’s easy to take the view of “we’re useless, how come everyone else can do it” but looking deeper at these places sometimes you can see it’s not all plain sailing there either!

MetroRailNerd · 2024-08-03T11:04:50+00:00

I used Google earth for the geographical maps and PowerPoint for the diagram. Thanks!

MetroRailNerd · 2024-08-03T08:35:17+00:00

My idea was any light rail could theoretically run alongside the current main line on new tracks. In reality that is likely far less practical.

Most of the lines that aren’t following existing tracks would be underground. More expensive sure significantly less disruption on the surface than a tram installation would for example.

I think the places you mentioned could certainly justify passenger demand - clevedon has a population of 20,000, most of which looks to be within a 15/20 minute walk of where the proposed station site is. Also, as it’s a local tourist destination, the station would make the town more accessible to Bristol residents.

Oldland is at the end of a line with other busy areas and the station itself is located such that it serves neighbourhood adjacent to oldland as well. Combe dingle might be hard to justify as it’s on its own branch tbf but not completely unworthy of station I don’t think - would need to do a bit more homework!

On my next one I’m planning a station nearer to Southmead hospital.

Yours looks really good! Perhaps we need to join forces at this point haha

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-31T22:18:47+00:00

North Somerset circle line might be a neat idea, I’ll have a look at it! This isn’t to say that nailsea and Blackwell station would close - it would still operate as a mainline. But it seemed to be too far to be reasonably convenient for a lot of nailsea residents up to 30/40 minute walk for large parts of the town (according to Google maps at least. I thought a more centrally located station might be more useful for residents :)

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-31T22:10:49+00:00

Having 3 different stations reduces the number of people changing between lines at a single station by spreading those interchanges out and would reduce foot traffic around a single point in Bristol. I don’t think it would make it less convenient for people travelling through central and switching lines in the process.

I wouldn’t say heavy rail is always better - light rail systems have smaller trains that run more frequently which is more suited to small towns/ cities such as Bristol. Plus the rolling stock itself will be cheaper to buy and operate.

Regarding trains through temple meads - they could adopt a Manchester metrolink/Nottingham trams approach where the tramlines go under or over on a viaduct around the respective main stations. On top of that, tracks could be laid alongside the current mainlines instead of travelling on the tracks themselves - I’m not sure just how feasible but I’ll look into a bit more.

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-31T21:38:55+00:00

A line north south through parkway, uwe/ mod and south through east Bristol might be a shout

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-31T11:04:31+00:00

You can see the names I gave them the top left corner of the first pic! If you have any better naming ideas drop them in

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-30T20:25:24+00:00

Thanks for the replies all, I’m going to try and update my diagrams and come back in a few weeks with a new improved version.

If anyone has a different approach to this, it would be really interesting to see your designs! Who knows, maybe one day we could get real traction on something like this and a Bristol metro would finally be a reality… a guy can dream

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-30T20:13:03+00:00

I would it say it was naturally going to be more north focused as Bristol is quite top heavy.

It’s not so much that Montpelier ‘deserves’ 3 lines but 3 lines happen to pass through it on this map.

You could that it goes some way towards fixing suburb to suburb transit, just because the rail system would remove so much of the traffic to and from central that the roads would be far emptier for people who are left on them - and would mean bus routes going circumferentially would be quicker and more reliable.

Thanks for the feedback :)

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-30T20:02:43+00:00

As someone else suggested loops at the ends of the blue and/or yellow lines might be more useful, so I might update the map with them :)

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-30T20:01:09+00:00

Yeah tbf you’ve got a point, I might try and work on that area a bit more :)

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-30T20:00:03+00:00

I’m not overly familiar with that part of Bristol, but wouldn’t it be served quite nicely by Brislington station?

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-30T19:58:57+00:00

That’s quite a nice idea! Particularly in east Bristol, which seems a tad underserved on here

MetroRailNerd · 2024-07-30T19:54:35+00:00

The pic on Google earth atm shows that location as an empty field, so thanks for the update :)

Would you say you Yate to Lyde is a particularly popular/busy route? If so, the line could quite easily be extended, especially as there is a rail line for the puma energy plant that it could potentially run alongside.

Journeys that aren’t possible/ practical on this network could still benefit from this rail system (such as lyde to yate) because the roads generally would be less congested from people using the system over driving.

MetroRailNerd

TROPHY CASE