A group representing thousands of businesses in the West of England has called on regional leaders to bring forward plans for “an ambitious and green” public transport system for the area.
Bristol-based chamber of commerce Business West said surveys of its membership of more than 20,000 firms had continually seen transport identified as “a key regional weakness”.
Bosses at the chamber said the West Country had some of the “worst congestion in the country, meaning too many people are stuck in traffic rather than contributing to make our region stronger.” Phil Smith, managing director of Business West, said business needed certainty about long term plans for the region, in order to attract jobs and investment.
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Mr Smith said: “Our weakness in transport is not only a drag on current and future economic growth, it is also a serious obstacle to delivering for our worse off citizens and on our region's economic inequalities. A failure to build a full transport system in our city region has been felt hardest in our areas of deprivation for whom lack of transport infrastructure and provision cuts away the ability to access opportunities to work or grow a business.
“A failure to deliver our full ambitions on transport would also hurt our ambitions to deliver major carbon reductions, critical in the fight against climate change. Our performance on car use, compared to more sustainable modes, is considerably worse than other better performing English cities."
Mr Smith added that the region's business community strongly supported investment into research which could "properly evidence and understand the options for future transport investment".
In response, West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris commented: “I want to see a much-improved public transport that residents need and deserve. That means taking a credible, affordable and realistic plan to government. We need to get something actually done and delivered, not just talked about. I support an overground system - buses and one day possibly trams or another new technology like the system I'm seeing in Coventry this week.
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"Of course, I am not ruling out a single underpass, or a bridge as part of an overground system. But let me be clear, there will not be an underground in Bristol. That’s why I will oppose spending any more taxpayers' money exploring underground options and vote for investment in getting on with an overground solution.”
In June, Mr Norris denied that the West of England Combined Authority, which he heads up, exploring the costs of a proposed light-rail metro network around Bristol and the surrounding area, a concept