13:43, 04 Jun 2025<\/p>\n
![\"Metro](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_BRI_PG_040625godwin-3.jpg\")
Metro Mayor Helen Godwin announces plans by HM Treasury of almost \u00a3800million of transport funding for the region(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach PLC)<\/p>\n
A tram or light rail link to Bristol Airport could be coming as part of a quarter-of-a-billion pound investment into the West of England\u2019s transport networks.<\/p>\n
West of England Metro Mayor Helen Godwin said today: \u201cWe have got an airport<\/a> which is the only one in the country which isn\u2019t connected in by mass transit of any form. So it would be remiss for us not to be looking at that.\u201d<\/p>\n The government today announced \u00a315.6bn for transport in six areas of England \u2014 with the West of England receiving \u00a3752m<\/a>. Ms Godwin said it would be spent on improving buses, increasing the frequency of suburban railways, some road improvements and fixing potholes, and developing a mass transit system for the area.<\/p>\n A \u201cBristol Underground\u201d has long been discussed, but Ms Godwin said a mass transit system would cover the wider West of England area which also includes Bath<\/a> and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire<\/a>. The network would also cover North Somerset<\/a> \u2014 which is not yet a member of the West of England Combined Authority<\/a> \u2014 where Bristol Airport<\/a> is located.<\/p>\n Ms Godwin said: \u201cWe have to have that conversation. I think there is an opportunity there. The airport is a busy airport. It’s a really important regional airport and I would much much prefer that the only way to get there wasn\u2019t by car.\u201d<\/p>\n She said: \u201cIt is important to me to see how we can make that work.\u201d<\/p>\n But it could still be years before anything is built. The Bristol Underground was previously estimated to have a price tag in the billions<\/a>. But only around \u00a3200m of the newly announced transport funding is expected to be spent on the mass transit plans.<\/p>\n Ms Godwin said: \u201cThis doesn\u2019t mean in five years time we are going to have a mass transit network. That\u2019s not going to be the case. But what this enables us to do is to start to get on a fixed path of delivery which is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n She said: \u201cWe are behind. We are not where I would have liked to be given the combined authority is nine years old but this is the start of a different direction of travel for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Godwin said she was \u201cmode agnostic\u201d about whether a mass transit system meant a network of trams, a light rail, or guided buses. She said: \u201cI\u2019m not a particular transport geek.\u201d<\/p>\n She said: \u201cI know there\u2019s a great romance and affection for trams. We used to have them in Bristol.<\/p>\n “If the infrastructure points us towards trams in certain parts of the network then great. If the infrastructure \u2014 and of course the budget envelope \u2014 points us towards something else, whether that\u2019s guided bus or light rail, that\u2019s fine too.\u201d<\/p>\n Another \u00a3150m of the \u00a3752m will be spent on rail infrastructure across the region, including increasing the frequency of trains between the planned new station at the Brabazon development in North Filton <\/a>and Bristol city centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It could be part of a new mass transit network John Wimperis Local Democracy Reporter 13:43, 04 Jun…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,21283,748,393,4884,1263,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-157521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-airport","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-transport","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114625205114350762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_SD_BRI_3108airport_01JPG.jpg\")
(Image: Bristol Post)<\/p>\n