Station at Ashton, Bristol

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

From the Bristol Post

Rail campaign launched for new station to serve south Bristol

A CAMPAIGN for a new rail station at Ashton to serve south Bristol will be launched later this month under the banner "Start the Stop Campaign".

The Portishead rail line is due to be re-opened in 2019 and when it does, campaigners want to see a new station at Ashton.

It could be sited where the existing disused station is located next to the Cumberland Basin's elevated roadway or just off Winterstoke Road near the Ford main dealership.

The campaigners say the important factor is to link a rail station with the new MetroBus route which will start being built next year.

They add that a station would serve a large catchment area including Ashton Gate Stadium, local businesses such as Imperial Tobacco and Babcock, Ashton Court for the Balloon Fiesta and other events, and many other local organisations, not forgetting the thousands of people living in the communities of South- ville, Ashton Vale, Ashton, Bower Ashton and the surrounding areas.

The campaign is being initially led by Dan Bramwell, acting on behalf of various local parties, together with transport campaigner Pip Sheard until such time as a campaign group is officially formed.

An inaugural meeting will be held in the Williams' Stand at Bristol City FC^▸ (First Class, or Fat Controller, or Football Club, depending on context) on Monday, December 15.

Read full story*

* Beware - in-page advertising is making the Bristol Post pretty hard to read these days...

[JayMac]

* Beware - in-page advertising is making the Bristol Post pretty hard to read these days...

May I suggest https://adblockplus.org/.

Somewhat strange advertising and ad blocker. 

[Red Squirrel]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

MetroWest rail upgrade initially excludes Ashton Gate station


Re-opening the Portishead line, which closed in 1964, is part of the MetroWest Phase 1 project, being overseen by the West of England Partnership

A new railway station at Ashton Gate in Bristol has been ruled out of the first phase of a ^58m investment in the area's rail infrastructure.

The MetroWest Phase 1 project includes the reopening of the Bristol-to-Portishead line to passenger train services, by early 2019.

An study found it would initially be cost-prohibitive to build the station, but it would feature in later plans.

The project team said the scheme was on hold until funding is in place.

The plans have been drawn up by the Joint Transport Board for the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership.

Vice chairman Mark Bradshaw stressed that there was still a "commitment" to build a new station at Ashton Gate.

He said: "All rail schemes really must have strong business case backing and clearly more work is needed to shape the special case for Ashton Gate."

Network Rail confirmed the plans would be flexible to enable a new station to be developed when the funding and business case allow.

[ellendune]

The experience from Manchester is that if you can get a successful line off the ground then getting funding to add more stations later is much easier. 

[johnneyw]

The experience from Manchester is that if you can get a successful line off the ground then getting funding to add more stations later is much easier. 

You can rationally see how this would be the case.  However, Bristol's problem comes with the urgency bourne of years of delay and missed opportunities resulting in chronic traffic problems that need stations like that at Ashton Gate rather sooner than is currently being offically proposed. It will be interesting to see how influencial this Ashton Gate station team will be.  I wish them well.

[TonyK]

The experience from Manchester is that if you can get a successful line off the ground then getting funding to add more stations later is much easier. 

You can rationally see how this would be the case.  However, Bristol's problem comes with the urgency bourne of years of delay and missed opportunities resulting in chronic traffic problems that need stations like that at Ashton Gate rather sooner than is currently being offically proposed. It will be interesting to see how influencial this Ashton Gate station team will be.  I wish them well.

Manchester s the advantage of having an ITA^▸ (Integrated Transport Authority) since 1968, in the early form of SELNEC, the South East Lancashire - North-East Cheshire Passenger Transport Authority, since morphed in Transport for Greater Manchester. Bristol has the disadvantage of not being trusted by, nor trusting, the neighbours. So we fail to agree over what look like tiny details of the once-promised tram system, and are punished by being forced to have MetroBust. Manchester, meanwhile, has form, and can borrow from the government on the strength of forecast economic benefits. Think Media City - not long ago, a desolate wasteland, now a thriving and expanding high-end employment zone. Bristol has to go cap-in-hand for every new project, closing residential homes and libraries to pay its 80% share of whatever the LEP^» (Local Enterprise Partnership - about) drags out of the drain.

[ellendune]

Precisely. But Manchester had to start from somewhere.  In the late 70's when the Picc-Vic Scheme ( A Manchester version of Crossrail) had failed to get approval the idea of the Metrolink was eventually born. It started with just one line formed of two existing branches and still took over 10 years to come to fruition.  It frankly did not look very ambitious, but that was what grew into the extensive system they have today. 

Yes after abolition of the Greater Manchester Council all the district councils did fall out just as in Avon, but they got over it (unlike Avon it seems) and learnt that if they wanted to achieve something they had to work together. 

[johnneyw]

These posts show the immense differences in organisational structure and political will/vision of different parts of the country. For me, any initiatives to speed up the process in Bristol (and elsewhere) to modernise and develop urban rail are to be saluted.

[TheLastMinute]

You can rationally see how this would be the case.  However, Bristol's problem comes with the urgency bourne of years of delay and missed opportunities resulting in chronic traffic problems that need stations like that at Ashton Gate rather sooner than is currently being offically proposed. It will be interesting to see how influencial this Ashton Gate station team will be.  I wish them well.

While a station at Ashton Gate would obviously be a "good thing", other than match days at Ashton Gate, I'm struggling to see where all the passengers would come from? At a rough guess, as it would be located right on the edge of town, at least half of the catchment area is either fields, parkland or light industrial estate. Of the catchment area that is residential, a good portion of it is already served by Parson Street.

[TonyK]

While a station at Ashton Gate would obviously be a "good thing", other than match days at Ashton Gate, I'm struggling to see where all the passengers would come from? At a rough guess, as it would be located right on the edge of town, at least half of the catchment area is either fields, parkland or light industrial estate. Of the catchment area that is residential, a good portion of it is already served by Parson Street.

There are more people living within a five-minute walk than you would imagine. There are also, as you point out, a number of places of employment which could be served by rail services from stations within Bristol. There seem to be plans for more housing in the area of the former sidings, and the stimulus of enhanced transport cannot be ignored.

The Joint Transport Executive's big problem, though, is that the last nail in the coffin of the business case for MetroBust would probably be a station at Ashton Gate. That, and ITSO compliant smart ticketing, like what has been available as a back-office system for Greater Bristol's bus companies for some 3 years, would confirm MetroBust's lame-duck white-elephant status.

[Red Squirrel]

To add to FT, N!'s list, this station would also serve Ashton Park School, and is pretty close to Ashton Court Estate. They could probably justify adding an extra carriage just for muddy mountain bikes!

[JayMac]

Be ideal at Bloon Fiesturrh time!

[TonyK]

Hadn't thought of that - spot on!