Fears have been raised for the future of a planned new train station in Bristol after 18 months without a response from the government. St Annes Park station opened in 1898 and closed in 1970 leaving the wider area with poor public transport links.
Bristol City Council and campaigners are hoping to find the funding to reopen the station in St Annes, between Bristol Temple Meads and Keynsham on the line to Bath. A bid was put into the Department for Transport’s £500-million Restoring Your Railway fund in 2020.
But a year and a half later, the council is still waiting on a response from the government about whether the cash will be made available to build the station. During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, June 6, one local councillor said the eventual response would “not be positive”.
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Labour councillor Tim Rippington, representing Brislington East, said: “I’ve been banging on about transport in St Annes since I first came in, because it is a real desert in terms of public transport. We’ve had this bid in to Restoring Your Railway, which has been waiting for 18 months now for a government response.
“My gut feeling is that that response is not going to be a positive one. Can I ask the cabinet if they will continue supporting the reopening of St Annes station through other routes, such as the MetroWest, if the Restoring Your Railway bid eventually fails, because of the short sightedness of the current government?”
City hall chiefs said another option for St Annes would be the long-planned mass transit system, which includes four light-rail lines running partly underground. One of these lines would run through Brislington.
Cllr Don Alexander, cabinet member for transport, said: “We certainly do support any bid or campaigns to reopen St Annes station, although we recognise that the business case has its challenges. But it would offer a lot.
“We’re also looking at a mass transit solution, which would have a line going through Brislington. We’ll work with a new government, we hope, next year to advocate for the value of this.”
Three new train stations elsewhere in the South West have been funded by the Restoring your Railway fund. Okehampton station has already opened, while one station is under construction in Marsh Barton in Exeter, and another is planned in Torbay.
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