January newsletter
As we head into 2023, we take a look back at our highlights from 2022 and peek ahead to what’s in the pipeline for Western Gateway STB in the coming months…
2022 was a busy year for Western Gateway STB. We launched our strategies for freight and rural mobility jointly with our colleagues in Peninsula Transport STB in July and September respectively.
We established our freight forums for rail, road and maritime and aviation so we can start delivering the interventions prioritised in the freight strategy. The groups met in September and again in November, were well attended and received positive feedback from all stakeholders. We look forward to our next freight forum meetings in February and the launch of our annual monitoring report in the spring to track the progress being made.
In June we joined our colleagues from England’s six other sub-national transport bodies at the inaugural STB Conference. It was a chance to share collective expertise with our partners and stakeholders as we all work towards an integrated, resilient and low carbon transport infrastructure. The event was a great success and we look forward to meeting again in Birmingham in June.
Looking ahead for 2023, this year will see the publication of our Strategic Cycle Network report, and we are also currently working on our coaches strategy and alternative fuels for freight strategy. We will be working with Network Rail, Great Western Railway and South Western Railway on enhancing services on the Heart of Wessex Line (Bristol to Weymouth) and continuing to develop the business case for capacity improvements at Cheltenham Spa station. Work also continues on electric vehicle charging in the region, and we look forward to holding our first workshop for this later this month.
We’re also close to completing work on the exciting development of a new spreadsheet-based carbon emissions baseline and forecasting tool. This transparent and user-adjustable tool will model the effects different interventions and measures could have on transport carbon emissions within the Western Gateway STB region and for each of our constituent local authorities, making it a valuable asset in the development of our emerging Strategic Transport Plan as well as for Local Transport Plans developed by our region’s local transport authorities.
You can keep up to date with all our work by following us on Twitter @WestGatewaySTB and subscribing to our newsletters by emailing westerngateway_stb@westofengland-ca.gov.uk
