Scrapping Portishead Railway project would be 'foolhardy', supporters say

Supporters of a plan to reopen the railway line between Portishead and Bristol say cancelling or delaying the project would be "foolhardy".

It comes after the new Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced there was a £22billion hole in the country's finances and she needs to make huge savings.

As a result, she said on Monday 29 July that she would scrap the Restoring Your Railway scheme - which includes the Portishead to Pill train service.

The line was among those closed during the Beeching Cuts of the 1960s.

Under Boris Johnson's Conservative leadership, the Department for Transport launched the £500million fund in January 2020 with the aim of reopening lines and stations.

There's still a chance the project could qualify for government funding on its own merits, but it now faces being cancelled or delayed.

Ms Reeves also broke the news that the A303 tunnel under Stonehenge would be axed.

Dave Chillistone, a spokesman for the Portishead Railway Group, said this would be a mistake and would waste the money already invested in the project by local councils.

He said: "I feel hugely let down. It has all the makings of a knee-jerk decision, not a thought-through decision.

"The other projects being axed are measured in billions. Central Government's contribution to the Portishead railway is just over £100million pounds.

"To write off what's been spent so far seems rather foolhardy. The backdrop to this is the need to get people out of their single-occupancy cars and to provide viable alternative transport options.

"So against that backdrop, this possibility that the project might be cancelled or delayed seems bizarre.

"Portishead is famously described as the biggest cul-de-sac in the country, right by the M5. Transport options are very limited and the population of the town has more than trebled since the railway closed in the 1960s.

"That alone speaks volumes about the need for other transport options and the best one to get people to and from central Bristol is the railway."

Mr Chillistone added that the scheme could not go ahead without central funding.

"It's not possible to continue funding this project for more than a handful of months on local money. The funds are virtually exhausted at a local level.

"We've come such a long way. A huge amount of work has been done.

"I understand the fiscal pressures the Labour Government alleges it's under. The fact of the matter is, this isn't like other railways."

North Somerset Council has also said it remains "committed" to delivering the line and the new Labour MP for North Somerset, Sadik Al-Hassan, said the project is "immensely important" to him.

The new Labour Chancellor told MPs that the previous Conservative government "covered up" the true reality of the country's finances, leaving the new Labour government with an overspend of £22billion.