All the lines in the Bristol area need to be electrified

THE Government has announced a £9 billion programme of rail investment. It means hundreds of miles of lines will be electrified. The Welsh assembly has secured electrification of the Great Western line from Cardiff to Swansea as well as their local valley lines.

These include the recently re-opened lines through the Vale of Glamorgan and to Ebbw Vale.

The long-discussed Northern Hub based on Manchester also features in the investment plans with a further £322 million allocated to upgrade key routes in the North West.

We need a Western Hub for the Greater Bristol area and surrounding counties.

We should also look at an Integrated Transport Authority/ Sub Regional Transport Board.

Electrification could go from Bristol to Bromsgrove and from Bristol to Plymouth.

Soon all the main lines into and around Bristol will be electrified. But what about the proposed Portishead, Henbury Loop passenger lines, and the Severn Beach lines?

It should be obvious to the local MPs, decision makers and councillors that all the lines in the Greater Bristol area need to be electrified.

The next operator for the Great Western is due to take over in July.

That operator will be running Great Western during a critical period. It will see electrification from London to Swansea, Oxford, Newbury, Basingstoke and most of the Thames Valley branches completed in the period 2016-2018.

Other infrastructure improvements include doubling the tracks between Swindon and Kemble, which should be completed by 2014. The Great Western network is also set to grow, because there are plans to re-open the line between Bere Alston and Tavistock as well as restoring passenger services between Bristol and Portishead as part of a new Bristol Metro.

With recent investment in the Greater Bristol area we should build on this. We need a new line between Pyle Hill and Parson Street which was the carriage line.

This will be needed for more train capacity and for passenger trains using the Portishead line.

The single line in and out of Weston-super-Mare needs to go back to its original two tracks. It is a notorious bottle neck which is causing train delays across the Greater Bristol area.

Dave Wood is a member of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union, Bristol and writes here in a personal capacity

bed pillows for neck pain