Western Gateway STB invests in Network Rail studies
The Western Gateway STB is pleased to announce it will be working with Network Rail on taking forward their recently completed strategic rail corridor studies for Bristol to Birmingham and Bristol to Exeter. Both studies set out an ambitious programme of enhanced services including four trains per hour between Bristol and Gloucester and four trains per hour from Bristol to Worle and Weston-super-Mare. Infrastructure interventions to provide the additional capacity needed for these studies are identified.
The studies align strongly with the Western Gateway Rail Strategy, adopted September 2020 and Network Rail is expecting them to be taken forward in partnership with Sub-national Transport Bodies and local authorities. To this end the Western Gateway STB is allocating funding in 2021/22 towards feasibility work on the outputs from the two corridor studies. The report will be available by March 2022.
It is planned that this will form part of a wider rolling programme for Western Gateway investment in Network Rail’s other strategic corridor studies in the Western Gateway area. These include:
- West of England Main Line (Salisbury to Exeter) – completed and published
- Dorset Strategic Connectivity – expected December 2021
- Greater Bristol – started August 2021
- South West Main Line Phase 2 (Woking to Salisbury and Bournemouth) – expected July 2022
