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| The Avon Valley and its transport links west of Bath. Select for a bigger version |
Well, nothing on the ground yet, though useful conversations have been had. For his part, the land agent has agreed to support, in principle, a route, somewhat on the originally proposed alignment - albeit one with a dog-leg in it to work round the headland of the field next to the river to meet the needs of farming the land there.
Every Picture Tells a Story
The photo above is an overview which almost shows what may become the 'Globe Connector' route in the far distance - it's a view west across a piece of land, part of the Duchy of Cornwall estate, that hosts a lot of the area's transport infrastructure. I've included it to emphasise the demands that transport links make on the land here, what has been accommodated, and what more might be put in place. Here's a list:- On the left, what was one of the area's turnpike roads and is now the dual carriageway A4 with its footpath alongside.
- Emerging from beneath the A4, Brunel's London to Bristol Railway. To the left it's in a cutting that sliced through what turned out to be a roman villa, and in the middle distance, it's on that sweeping embankment formed in small part from the spoil heaps of several coal mines, including the one sited on what's now the 'Globe' pub itself. (This early example of recycling removed much evidence of mining from the valley here)
- Twenty years later, the Midland Railway built their Bath branch, to give the city a fast link to the midlands. It's that straight line of trees heading for the horizon on the right of the view.
- The level stretch of land in the centre of the view is the site of a one-time proposed wartime connection between the lines of the two railway companies that served Bath. It's rumoured that the route of this proposal was actually marked out with pegs across the meadows here, but the connection itself remained unbuilt.
- In the closing years of WW2, the flat stretch of land in Newton Meadows was briefly considered as a future site for an airport to serve Bath, after which the 'Rail connection idea' resurfaced as part of a plan to consolidate Bath's two railway stations into one.
- In the nineteen sixties, the old turnpike road was doubled to form the dual carriageway that's survived unaltered to the present day. It's the pride of the local authority's highways department, and somewhat intimidating if you're on a bike.
- Again in the sixties, Bath lost its fast rail link to the midlands - and within Bath itself the route of the line was rapidly blocked by the odd bit of piecemeal redevelopment. Sustrans was eventually successful in converting the old alignment from Bristol as far as the edge of the city, forming the Bristol to Bath railway path.
Cycle Routes to Bath Spa University
When planning a cycle route to Bath Spa University's Newton Park campus, a (quick) question that the local authority might ponder will be which of the following is better:- A cycle path alongside the existing A4
- A connection with the existing Bath-Bristol path
Should a connection to it be built, the Bath to Bristol path then has three big strengths.
- As a route, it's a lot more pleasant than the Lower Bristol Road
- It separates people on bikes from those in cars - it even takes them beneath the junctions at the east end of the A4 dual carriageway.
- It delivers people, in a relatively traffic free way, to Bath's other rising star, the Two Tunnels route. Hence, network benefits in the form of (mostly) segregated cycling routes between the city centre, its major suburb, and one of its university campuses.
