Major Schemes

The Joint Local Transport Plan (JLTP) sets out our vision for future travel and transport in the West of England. This seeks to address not only the area’s current transport challenges, but also to sustainably address the new houses, new business, new schools and new shopping areas planned as part of the Regional Spatial Strategy.

The vision includes a number of measures that have already been agreed and are funded through the Joint Local Transport Plan, such as cycle lanes, bus priority measures and road safety schemes. However, to carry out the all the plans that make up the 20 year vision relying only on these funds would take over 200 years.

The West of England councils therefore sought additional funding through the Regional Funding Allocation – a process of prioritising major transport schemes across the whole of the South West region for funding for major schemes costing over £5million each. The Regional Funding Allocation was set up to encourage councils to link transport, economic and housing strategies in their region bringing them together to form one coherent, credible and strategic vision.

In February 2009 the South West Region updated its transport funding priorities for the next 10 years and submitted this to Government.

This submission identified seven major transport schemes in the West of England to be brought forward to completion within the next 10 years, and a further four schemes for which construction would start during this period.

View a presentation on major scheme progress in October 2009

The first of these schemes is the Greater Bristol Bus Network which received a Government grant of £42million which local councils and partners have increased to £70 million. Work on improving the bus network started in 2008.

Schemes that are well on the way to receiving the major scheme funding from government are:

The Bath Package -a range of measures aimed at improving alternatives to the car by providing a modern, integrated and easy-to-use public transport system
The Weston Package – a range of measures aimed at supporting sustainable development in the town and immediate area.
The Ashton Vale- Temple Meads rapid transit route  - featuring segregated bus lanes on parts of the route to provide rapid, reliable and frequent journey times

The remaining schemes are at various stages of development ranging from very outline to selecting preferred options.  

North Fringe to Hengrove package  

South Bristol Link

Portishead Rail corridor

Greater Bristol Metro Rail project

M5 Junction 21 bypass

Callington Road link/Bath Road improvements

Rapid transit - Temple Meads to Emersons Green 

The total allocation is £450 million over the next ten years or around £35 million per year for the next 5 years and £55 million per year for following 5 years. 

These maps give you an indication of the range of projects planned and where they are:

RFA 2 Transport Infastructure to 2018/19, West of England

RFA2 Transport Infrasturcture to 2018/19, Greater Bristol area.

These schemes are all part of the Travel+ package of work that aims to tackle congestion, ensure that alternatives to the car are a realistic first choice for the majority of trips, offer real travel choices - affordable, safe, secure, reliable simple to use and available to all  - and meet both rural and urban needs.

However, these eight schemes are not enough to tackle congestion and improve air quality in the sub-region, as well as improving access to jobs and key services, supporting regeneration and economic growth and improving our overall quality of life.

The West of England councils are therefore investigating putting in a bid for funding to the Government's Transport Innovation Fund.