Metro Mayor Dan Norris has struck a cautious note over the prospect of a Bristol underground.

The new head of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) says he cannot rule it in or out because of the project’s estimated £4 billion costs, and plans to focus on developing bus services in the nearer term.

Fellow Labour Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, has long talked up a London-style tube network as part of a mass transit system of fast, reliable public transport services. It was also a pledge in his 2021 election manifesto which said mass transit would be “in the form of an underground and overground,” alongside improving and expanding existing infrastructure.

Mr Norris appears unsure over the idea, which opposition Conservative Councillors have branded “pie in the sky”, and says his “instinct is that undergrounds cost a lot of money”. Asked by BBC Radio Bristol’s John Darvall on Thursday, (May 20th) whether it would actually go ahead, the West of England Mayor said: “It’s theoretically possible but I need to see all the plans.”

“In the short term it will require better buses. Anything that gets built will take ten to twelve years – I don’t think people are happy to put up with the system as it is now for that long. In the medium and short term we will need to do things with buses and in the longer term consider things like trams and other forms of major public mass transport. Rural buses need to be a big part of this, because the WECA Mayor doesn’t just represent the cities, but rural communities too.”