You only need to look at Bristol Live's traffic page to know that the transport system in the city and beyond is often not smooth-running. From bus cancellations to the usual tailbacks on busy routes like the M4 and M5, motorists and passengers are often faced with delays during their journey.
And while train travel is not without its disruption, one reader has made the argument of why rail would make a better option than the road when it comes to the route between Portishead and Bristol. Davina Elaine Hockin from Portishead wrote to the Bristol Post in response to another letter, which had criticised the "barmy" plan to reopen the Portishead railway.
Campaigners including Barry Cash claimed a dedicated bus lane between Bristol and Portishead would be £100million cheaper than reopening the railway. They believe the long-awaited £116million project to restore the train line would increase carbon emissions and that the money would be better spent on improving the bus service.
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Davina's letter in full in response read: "I do wonder if Barry Cash of Bishopston has much experience of travelling regularly between Portishead and Bristol? I have been – for some 50 years or so!
"For many of those, I preferred to avoid the A369 altogether, using access to the Clevedon to Bristol road in preference to the jams of the Gordano junction, and the devious route onward to the city. The M5 in the Bristol area is frequently subject to accidents, heavy traffic and simply jams.
"From Gordano as far as Cribbs Causeway it is not a road of choice for much of the day. The last rehash of the original wrongly designed Gordano/M5 junction has worsened the confusion over lane choice (with instructions actually on the road surface, unreadable in traffic!) and frequent traffic queues on both approach roads tailing back preventing progress.
"Not good for buses intending to use the Avon Bridge as a “quick hop” to the Portway bus lane. That lane has to suffer the Bridge Valley Road junction, then again at Hotwells, followed by the single traffic lane from there to Jacobs Wells, and onwards city traffic to get to the bus station! Hardly a simple, clear and holdup-free journey!
"Much, often, at a crawl, pouring out diesel exhaust fumes, and little improvement, if any, over the existing bus route wending its way through Pill, and clambering up over the Failand ridge, down to long queues for the bad traffic junction at Ashton and then into the city.
"Neither Mr Cash’s route nor the existing bus route are in any way good or efficient due to existing road traffic and the geography. Rail, being more efficient, can run successfully at lighter passenger loadings than can buses, and doesn’t waste fuel idling in traffic jams, with ensuing pollution, as do the imposition on the route that is made by the Gordano-Avonmouth stretch of the M5, and the jams at junctions all the way into and within Bristol. By comparison, rail has a totally unimpeded access into Bristol!"
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