The city of Bristol in the United Kingdom has included a light rail transport system in its plans from the 1980s onwards. There has been no light rail in the city since the closure of Bristol Tramways in 1941.
History
Background
Plans for a metro system were promoted by then MEP Richard Cottrell, and were unveiled in November 1987 under the title of Advanced Transport for Avon; the first route, from Wapping Wharf to Portishead and Portbury, was due to open by 1991 with the entire system complete by the late 1990s. The Parliamentary bill for the first route received Royal Assent in May 1989, but after objections from the Port of Bristol and Bristol South MP Dawn Primarolo, along with financial difficulties, the scheme folded with debts of £3.8 million.
Following the demise of ATA, Avon County Council proposed a light rail project known as "The Westway", which consisted of a route from the city centre following the Filton Bank railway line to Bradley Stoke, and a loop line through South Bristol. The first phase of this project was estimated to cost £400 million. The project never materialised due to the 1996 abolition of Avon as a county.
2001–4: Bristol Supertram
The Bristol Supertram project proposed a light rail line from Bristol city centre to Aztec West, in part running alongside the Great Western Railway line from Temple Meads railway station to Bristol Parkway. The project received Royal Assent but issues arose between Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire, the latter wishing for the route to be extended to serve Cribbs Causeway. As the extension was deemed unfeasible, South Gloucestershire withdrew support, and in March 2004, Bristol Council announced that the Supertram project would be cancelled. This allowed funds that were set aside for the project to be used to cover a projected council tax increase instead. In 2005, an article in the Bristol Evening Post stated that Bristol City Council had spent £1.5 million on Supertram between 1998 and 2004.
2004–17: Focus on bus-based transport
After the demise of the Supertram scheme, the transport focus for the region moved to bus-based transport, with a bus rapid transit scheme first being discussed by the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership in 2006. The MetroBus network began construction in 2015 and opened in stages through 2018 and 2019, at a cost of £230 million (including work which benefitted other road users). No mention of light rail was made in these subsequent years until November 2016, when the West of England LEP began a consultation process on their Transport Vision Summary Document, outlining potential light rail/tram routes from the city centre to Bristol Airport, the eastern and north west fringes of the city, and a route along the A4 road to Bath.
Underground metro plans
Early planning
In July 2017 a leaked draft of a document due to be published in October 2017 suggested an underground rail network around the most built-up areas of the city as one of many solutions to congestion said to cost £8.9 billion. The full document had detailed analysis of a potential mass transit network with underground sections, with the route to the airport being determined as the best value for money, and most meeting the needs of this particular transport corridor. In September 2017, mayor Marvin Rees vocally supported the creation of an underground line in the city. The service would run from Bristol Airport to Temple Meads, the centre and north of Bristol and then to Cribbs Causeway, and would cost an estimated £2.5bn. The city council commissioned a £50,000 study to determine the financial viability of the project and Rees suggested £3m for a geological survey.
In January 2018 Bristol City Council announced that the project could cost £4 billion for three lines, including the initial airport-city centre route, as well as another heading north and a third heading east. It is suggested that the eastern route could run as a light rail track alongside the Bristol and Bath Railway Path, which would not have to close.
According to the city's 2050 vision document, the first mass transit route is hoped to begin construction in 2022 and be completed by 2028, with the entire four-line network complete by 2034.