Bristol City Council - Invest in Bristol - Communications
Connections By Road
The M4 and M5 motorways place London and Birmingham within two hours of Bristol.
Bristol has been named as the UK’s first Cycling City by the UK Government. Cycling City status and total funding of £22.8 million brings potential for unprecedented levels of innovation, involvement and creativity. Our aim is to double the number of regular cyclists in Greater Bristol.
The City Council are committed to improving the quality and performance of bus services. New bus routes, park-and-ride services, more frequent bus services and new bus priority routes are all being implemented.
Distance to Central London: Up to 150 milesDistance to Birmingham: (Up to 2 hours)
Distance to Bristol: (Up to 1 hour)
Distance to Oxford: Up to 100 miles (Up to 2 hours)
Distance to Cambridge: Up to 200 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Connections By Rail
Bristol has two mainline stations: Temple Meads Station (Central Bristol) and Bristol Parkway Station (North Bristol). Both offer half hourly services to London and Birmingham. London can be reached in 80 minutes from Bristol Parkway and 1 hour 40 mins from Bristol Temple Meads. Birmingham is 90 minutes away. A £1.1bn project to electrify two major rail lines, including the main line from London to Swansea, will cut journey times by 19 minutess, reduce emissions and improve reliability.
Local train services connect Weston-super-Mare, Bath, Keynsham, Nailsea / Backwell, Yate and other towns and settlements, to the centre of Bristol.
Connections By Air
The rapidly expanding Bristol International Airport, located eight miles to the south of the city, offers scheduled flights to over 60 cities across the UK and mainland Europe including Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Madrid. The airport also offers a scheduled service to New York and connections to many parts of the world.
The Airport has recently announced major expansion plans, including a terminal extension, additional car parking and a hotel. Heathrow Airport is approximately two hours from Bristol by road or rail.
Flights per week to Central London: 1 - 3
Distance to Birmingham: Up to 100 miles (Up to 2 hours)
Distance to Bristol: Up to 50 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Distance to London Gatwick: Up to 150 miles
Connections By Freight Ports
The Port of Bristol, comprising facilities at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury, is recognised as one of the most productive and technically advanced in Europe. It has the most economical port distribution location in the UK, reaching some 42 million people within a 250 km radius.
Both Royal Portbury and Avonmouth have direct access to motorways and are rail-connected. Bristol is developing as a gateway container port for the UK, and a transshipment point for the Atlantic seaboard and Europe. Bristol Port Company plans to expand its facilities with a £200 million deep sea container terminal to accommodate larger ships.
Distance to Avonmouth/Bristol: Up to 50 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Broadband / ICT Facilities
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) broadband coverage from local phone exchanges is good throughout the Bristol area. Much of Bristol is also served by cable.
Bristol enjoys a growing international reputation for e-communications and digital technologies and media.
The city has the largest free-to-access wi-fi (wireless broadband) network in the UK. A number of wi-fi transmitters known as 'StreetNet' have been installed in the centre, and many publicly accessible buildings, including the Watershed Media Centre on Harbourside, have their own wi-fi networks to enable people to access the Internet.
