West of England Partnership

Major Schemes

Major Transport Schemes

The Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study (GBSTS), was commissioned by the Government Office for the South West in partnership with the Highways Agency, South West of England Regional Development Agency and the West of England authorities.This study reported in 2006 and provided a technical assessment of the current and future strategic transport needs of the West of England area up to 2031. GBSTS recognised and demonstrated the need for significant investment in the sub-region, equating to a total package of transport infrastructure funding in excess of £1 billion. Much of this investment is needed in the next 10 years to tackle existing problems, let alone support the proposed growth in population, jobs and housing outlined in the draft Regional Spatial Strategy.

In parallel with the GBSTS study, to assist with its decision-making process in 2005 the Government announced a new system of Regional Funding Allocation (RFA) prioritisation. This process asks the Regional Assembly to consider all the potential major transport schemes (those costing over £5m) being considered for the next 10 years by local authorities and national agencies and to score them against a set of investment priorities.The aim was to achieve a list of 'regional priorities' that would be recommended to Government as the preferred schemes for funding in the South West. Within the West of England sub-region a total of 8 schemes were identified as regional and sub-regional priorities proposed for development and submission to the Department for Transport during the next 5 years for funding to 2016, namely:

The Greater Bristol Bus Network (GBBN) - a package of bus priority and other improvements on 10 sub-regional corridors.These ten corridors serve a much wider network of bus services with 70 different services benefiting from the GBBN improvements.
The Bath Package - a range of measures aimed at improving alternatives to the private car by providing a modern, integrated and easy to use public transport system.
South Bristol Link Road (A370 -A4174 Hartclffe Roundabout) improved orbital access in South Bristol to deal with traffic growth and support regeneration.
Rapid Transit routes linking Hengrove/North Fringe, AshtonVale/Emerson's Green and Bath/Cribbs Causeway - three new routes with a high degree of segregation to provide fast and reliable journey times.
Weston-super-Mare Package Phase 1 - a range of measures aimed at supporting sustainable development including improved interchange facilities at Worle.

Click here for a table of the proposed development programme for these schemes. In addition to the schemes identified as regional and sub-regional priorities, there are many other transport schemes that will be needed within the sub-region, many of which were identified through GBSTS. Further work will be required before these schemes can be considered for future revisions of the RFA. All the proposed major schemes require significant development work to enable the costs, impacts and benefits to be fully understood and for a robust business case to be produced in keeping with Government's guidelines for funding. To facilitate this, governance arrangements have been developed which comprise a Project Board for each major scheme who are responsible for the delivery of the project, a Programme Steering Group who provide strategic co-ordination, liaison and monitoring of the programme, with overview and scrutiny being provided by the West of England Partnership and Joint Scrutiny arrangements. It is recognised that there is likely to be strong interest in these bids as they are developed. An important part of the development process will be the active engagement of both the public and stakeholders to ensure the schemes submitted to Government have the strongest possible case for approval.

In 2005 the Government launched the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) which provides additional funding for authorities to tackle congestion by introducing quality alternatives to the private car in combination with 'restraint' meaures such as road pricing. The authorities in the West of England were awarded £1.5m of development funding through TIF to investigate which package of measures would be appropriate and effective in helping to reduce existing and future congestion in the sub-region.

In addition to these schemes being promoted by the local authorities in the West of England, the Highways Agency has commissioned a comprehensive assessment of the available traffic management techniques which could improve the level of service of the sub-regional motorway network. The objective of the study is to examine and assess the full range of potential measures which could be implemented in the short to medium term, i.e.within the next 10 to 15 years, at specific locations in the area. The study commenced in autumn 2006, and following a review of UK and international best practice, assessment of the potential application of these techniques to the West of England area, and discussion with stakeholders, a shortlist of measures has been produced. The Greater Bristol Integrated Traffic Management Study final report, will include recommendations for measures for which funding business cases will be further developed. The Highways Agency are working closely with the sub-regional authorities to ensure the emerging recommendations complement the other major schemes.

For a leaflet outlining all of the major schemes please click here.