PART 1: West of England Combined Authority Wins Rail Awards: £750 Million Transport Investment Explained.
Bristol rail projects scoop three awards while WECA secures record funding—but can they deliver on the promises this time?
Bristol Actually Built Some Stations, Won Awards, and Secured £750 Million. Now, Let’s Talk About Whether They Can Deliver The Rest.
On 23rd October 2025, at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) South West awards, Bristol rail projects claimed three prizes:
🏆 Ashley Down Station - Over £10m New Build Award
Opened September 2024 (it’s real, you can touch it)
Cost: £23 million, Bristol’s first new station in nearly 100 years
Serves 35,000 people, saves 7 million minutes in travel time annually
12-minute journey to Temple Meads
🏆🏆 Bristol Temple Meads Eastern Entrance - People’s Choice + Community Award
Opening in 2026, the cost is £23 million
Part of Bristol Temple Quarter regeneration
The public voted for this—they built something people actually like
The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) has also secured £750 million in government transport funding since May 2025. That’s real money, not a “visioning exercise” or “stakeholder consultation.”
📅 Key Dates: What’s Open, What’s Coming.
ALREADY OPEN:
July 2023: Portway Park & Ride station
September 2024: Ashley Down station
PLANNED OPENINGS:
November 2026: North Filton station
2028: Portishead line reopens (Portishead + Pill stations)
2028: Henbury station opens
TBC: Charfield station (construction started February 2025)
The £750 Million: Where’s It Actually Going?
According to WECA, here’s the breakdown:
💷 £200m - Buses
250+ electric buses arriving in 2026
Network improvements and extensions
💷 £150m - Rail
Four trains per hour across the suburban network
Station improvements and accessibility upgrades
Enhanced services
💷 £200m - Mass Transit
Trams, light rail, MetroBus extensions, guided buses
Connecting Bath, Bristol, South Glos, North Somerset
(They’ve only been talking about this for a decade, but sure)
💷 Remainder - Roads & Active Travel
50% increase in pothole funding already delivered
Cycling and walking infrastructure
MetroWest: What’s Real vs. What’s “Coming Soon”
ACTUALLY OPEN ✅
Portway Park & Ride (Opened July 2023)
1,300+ weekly journeys
792 parking spaces near M5
Half-hourly services to Bristol Temple Meads
Ashley Down (Opened September 2024)
Hourly service to Bristol Temple Meads and Filton Abbey Wood
Two platforms with full accessibility
Located on site of former Ashley Hill station (closed 1964)
“OPENING SOON” ⏳
The MetroWest programme promises seven new stations by 2028. Here’s what’s coming:
Portishead Line (Phase 1):
Portishead Station - New build, 2028
Pill Station - Reopening, 2028
Will connect 50,000+ people to rail network
Journey times halved compared to current bus/car routes
Henbury Line (Phase 2):
North Filton - November 2026
Henbury - March 2028
Charfield - Construction underway (started February 2025)
Hourly service from Bristol Temple Meads
Why Everything Takes Forever.
The Portishead line closed in 1964. They’ve been “progressing” reopening since 2012—that’s 13 years to get trains running on tracks that already existed. You could raise a child from birth to GCSE age in the time it takes to get planning permission.
MetroWest Phase 1 was initially supposed to open in 2026. Still, costs jumped, and they needed an extra £15.5 million due to “unprecedented global increases to the cost of energy and construction materials.” Unprecedented! Who could have predicted that building things costs money?
The Development Consent Order was submitted in November 2019, delayed multiple times, and finally approved in November 2022—three years just for permission to build on infrastructure that already existed.
What This Means For You (Practical Info)
🚂 Station Information
Ashley Down Station:
Address: Muller Road, Bristol BS7 0SR
Services: Hourly to Bristol Temple Meads (12 mins) and Filton Abbey Wood
Parking: Limited street parking nearby
Accessibility: Full step-free access, lifts to both platforms
Portway Park & Ride:
Address: Portway Park & Ride, Bristol BS11 9TL
Services: Half-hourly to Bristol Temple Meads, Severn Beach line
Parking: 792 free spaces
Accessibility: Full step-free access
By Location.
Bristol: More electric buses from 2026, Ashley Down already running (north Bristol connectivity improved), Temple Meads Eastern Entrance opening 2026 (better access from east Bristol), £3 bus fare cap extended to March 2027, mass transit plans progressing, Lawrence Hill station getting accessibility improvements (lift to platform 2, by 2027).
Bath & North East Somerset: Electric buses coming to Bath, enhanced half-hourly services to Bristol and Westbury, Charfield station for the Wotton-under-Edge area (construction started), Somer Valley Enterprise Zone plans progressing.
South Gloucestershire: North Filton Station (November 2026) serving Filton and the aerospace sector, Henbury Station (March 2028) completing the Henbury loop, Charfield Station serving Wotton-under-Edge, Brabazon / West Innovation Arc new town development, half-hourly Yate to Gloucester services already enhanced.
North Somerset: Portishead line reopening (2028), ending decades without rail, Pill station reopening (2028), hourly direct service to Bristol Temple Meads with journey times halved, connecting 50,000+ people to the rail network. North Somerset Council is considering formally joining WECA.
But Here’s What They’re Not Telling You...
So that’s the official story: awards, funding, new stations, plans for more. All very impressive on paper.
But there’s another story here. One about catastrophic dysfunction, governance crises, half a million pounds in payoffs, council leaders boycotting their own meetings, and a mayor who couldn’t be suspended even after being arrested.
The West of England Combined Authority has simultaneously delivered award-winning infrastructure whilst being one of the most dysfunctional public bodies in the country. Both of these things are true.
Want to know how bad it really got? And whether the new leadership can actually deliver on these promises?
👉 Read Part 2: “WECA’s Dysfunction Crisis: The £475,713 Scandal and What Really Happened”
