North Bristol gridlock warning over arena station delays

The arena is being built near Bristol and will seat 17,000 people

There are warnings of gridlock at the Bristol Arena as building work on two new train stations will not start until after the site opens.

The 17,000-seat arena is due to open at Filton Airfield in 2024, while work on the stations will start in 2025.

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees faced questions this week about what was being done to speed things up.

He blamed challenges working with the railway network and the current problems in Westminster.

Network Rail applied for planning permission for North Filton station in September last year but South Gloucestershire Council has not yet decided whether to grant permission.

No planning application has been made yet for Henbury station, and a third station is planned at Ashley Down, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

At a city council meeting on October 18, councillor Mark Weston, leader of the Conservative group, said: "Henbury station is going to planning in early 2023. The business case is then 2024 and construction is in 2025. Now that to me is a year gap at every single stage of the process, and yet this has been planned for years.

"The Brabazon Arena is opening in 2024. A major part of its traffic and travel plan was to have train stations open in 2024. If those train stations aren't open, you have gridlock in north Bristol."

Challenges not unusual

In response to Mr Weston's question Mr Rees said: "We're constantly driving on delivery, we all want that delivery to happen, and the conversations with [the builders] YTL are constant with our team. While we've had a very good working relationship, we also know there are challenges working with the rail network, so this isn't unusual."

"We do face another major challenge in terms of delivering any infrastructure, and that's the state of the national economy," he added. "This is not a party political point, but I'm sure it wouldn't have escaped your attention that things have not gone as smoothly as we would normally like.

"And there are very real-world consequences for political instability, rising interest rates and the loss of market confidence in the government. Those play themselves out in our ability to deliver at the local level on timelines."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Holmes