Secret report suggests Bristol underground impossible to fund
The document suggests it could cost £18 billion
Last updated 27th Feb 2023
Bristol will never have an underground because it would cost up to £18 billion, a secret report reveals.
The eye-watering figure, in an unpublished document by consultants for the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), flies in the face of previous estimates of £4 billion and repeated claims by city mayor Marvin Rees, who has long championed a tube network as part of a mass transit system.
In response, a spokesperson for Mr Rees says his office “totally rejects the report and its content” which they blame on a “flawed approach” by Weca.
The revelation about the massive price tag comes just days after Labour metro mayor Dan Norris, who is in charge of the region’s transport as head of Weca, categorically said “No” when asked on BBC Points West for a one-word answer as to whether the city would get an underground.
Then on Thursday (February 23), fellow Labour mayor Mr Rees hit back in a Bristol City Council press release, saying the combined authority’s “lack of ambition is staggering”.
The report’s findings, which could be seen as embarrassing for Bristol’s mayor, have not been made public but have been obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
The study, by multinational consultancy giants WSP, concludes that an overground mass transit network would cost between £1.5 billion and £1.8 billion, but an underground would set taxpayers back 10 times that amount – £15.5 billion to £18.3 billion.
That means a tube network is likely impossible as the funding could well never be found.
Plans for a mass transit system for the city region with a mix of overground and underground networks were first announced by Mr Rees in his State of the City Address in 2017 and have remained an election campaign pledge.
Back then, cost estimates were about £4 billion and Weca allocated £1.5 million three years ago on consultants to look into whether it was possible.
Bristol’s mayor published links on his blog last year to two of the studies that appeared to be favourable, but the third has never officially seen the light of day.
A spokesperson for Mr Rees said: “We totally reject the report and its content.
“It was commissioned by the West of England Combined Authority and their brief for WSP was initially challenged by Bristol City Council.
“The costs are far removed from previous estimates and are a response to the flawed approach that some in Weca have taken to this point.
“Buses alone are not the answer to Bristol’s decades of transport failure, which we set Weca up to solve not ignore.
“Bristolians need and deserve a mass transit system, so the Mayor of Bristol will continue to strongly argue for the next tranche of delivery.
“Failure of leadership to deliver a mass transit system fails our city and our region.”
Mr Rees, who will be making the case for another £15 million to be spent developing mass transit at the next Weca committee in March, said earlier this week: “I remain committed to the mass transit system including the use of underground in central areas
“The lack of ambition of both Bristol City opposition councillors and the combined authority is staggering.
“Bristol residents recently made it clear that transport is the number one dissatisfaction in the city and without the mass transit, there is no plan for improvement, particularly as the city continues to grow.
“We cannot keep spending money improving ways to bring people into the city when residents cannot move around the city.”
Mr Norris has declined to comment.