Portway Park and Ride Station

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

... Only later did the surfix "parkway" come to mean either a station with a large car park (what we would call Park and Ride today) or alternatively a station which is some distance from the town it serves (not the case with Didcot)

If "parkway stations" had to be named after the town they served, wouldn't they nearly all have to be named London Parkway?  Be a bit confusing on the way back...

Paul

[Bmblbzzz]

Bristol Parkway is so named because the M32 was, at the time of construction known as "The Bristol Parkway"  http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_7767000/7767453.stm.  The station is named after the road and its name has nothing to do with car parking.  "Parkway" was originally an American term applied to scenic roads designed from the outset for motorcars and placed through parkland or countryside which could be driven on for pleasure.  When it came to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), the term lost some of the scenic connotations, but retained the idea of being a new road cut through the countryside into the city.  Only later did the surfix "parkway" come to mean either a station with a large car park (what we would call Park and Ride today) or alternatively a station which is some distance from the town it serves (not the case with Didcot)

I think there's a difference between parkway and park & ride, in that a parkway station is mostly used to take passengers away from one town to another, whereas a park & ride is used to take them into the centre of an urban area. A parkway disperses, a park & ride collects and concentrates. It's quite possible I imagined the difference in order to explain the different names before I knew of the M32 origins of parkway, but even after learning that (I think I only learned it earlier this year), I still like to try to see this difference, aware that I'm partly kidding myself. Though I also think that the way we use park & ride stations might have changed over the last decade or so.

[ellendune]

If "parkway stations" had to be named after the town they served, wouldn't they nearly all have to be named London Parkway?  Be a bit confusing on the way back...

Paul

That's a very Metropolitan centred comment if I may say so. 

Us out in the 'provinces' do go to other places by train you know.

[stuving]

There's no reason why a word can't evolve in meaning a bit at a time, from what Parkway meant, via a single example at Bristol, to become a recognisable marker for a station outside a town, suitable for people arriving by car, so they don't need to flog their way into the town centre. Now, I get the mental image from it of parkland (green fields) and a car park. The "way" bit does nothing to the meaning, but in Parkway as a label it needs to be there because Park is already in use for stations - you wouldn't like to confuse Worcester Parkway with Worcester Park.

The Portway half is not so very different. I understand Bristol Portway is recent, and was built for access to the new port facilities at he mouth of the Avon. The name Portway is old, and (while Wikipedia is uncharacteristically silent of the subject) I'm sure it comes from "port" as in portage, porterage, and porter - a road or route used for goods. Mind you that fits for the Bristol one too.

[ellendune]

The Portway half is not so very different. I understand Bristol Portway is recent, and was built for access to the new port facilities at he mouth of the Avon. The name Portway is old, and (while Wikipedia is uncharacteristically silent of the subject) I'm sure it comes from "port" as in portage, porterage, and porter - a road or route used for goods. Mind you that fits for the Bristol one too.

I was taught at school that Portway meant the way (Anglo Saxon word meaning road) to the market (town).  There is a Portway along the bottom of the escarpment of the Berkshire Downs - that is nowhere near the sea! 

[chuffed]

Judging by the squeals of the wheels on the Class 166's, the name Porkway Partway is very apt. Perhaps it could be marketed as the Oink, Oink, Stuffing and Crackling railway ??

[Red Squirrel]

There's no reason why a word can't evolve in meaning a bit at a time, from what Parkway meant, via a single example at Bristol, to become a recognisable marker for a station outside a town, suitable for people arriving by car, so they don't need to flog their way into the town centre. Now, I get the mental image from it of parkland (green fields) and a car park. The "way" bit does nothing to the meaning, but in Parkway as a label it needs to be there because Park is already in use for stations - you wouldn't like to confuse Worcester Parkway with Worcester Park.

I think you've missed Bmblbzzz's point - Bristol Parkway was never "a station outside a town, suitable for people arriving by car, so they don't need to flog their way into the town centre"; rather, it was and is a station where Bristol (or should I say 'West of England' - pah!) people catch trains to other faraway places. So quite the reverse of a park-and-ride. As to the etymology of 'Parkway', I think it is at least in part a portmanteau of Park (as in 'ditch the tinwork') + Railway.

[martyjon]

Bristol Parkway was the winning name in a competition held jointly by BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) and the Bristol Evening Post to name the new station when it was being built. The winning entrants comment was he chose the name to reflect the fact that you would drive your car to the station car park and use the railway. It was, as has been stated, the first of the Parkway stations, the next one being Mansfield and Alfreton Parkway.

It was built on part of the former Stoke Gifford marshalling yard.

At one time I was told that the farebox take at the station exceeded that of Temple Meads.

[grahame]

Tiverton and Bodmin Parkway strike me as being the modern equivalent of adding "Road" onto the end of a station name, to indicate that it's not an easy walk to the town centre, and with the added "flag" that it's easy for private car use. Others such as Warwick Parkway and Thame Parkway fall into the same camp.

Others such as Didcot Parkway are actually close by the town that they serve, but have a significant car to / from rail role - and we can add Wilton Parkway to that at soe stage.

Perhaps some other "Road" stations could be renamed? There are 50 stations with "Road" in their names, but many of those are named after a specific road - such as Navigation Road, London Road, Ferry Road, Victoria Road.  However, there's a ring to potential names like "Clarbeston Parkway", "Morchard Parkway" and "Llanbister Parkway", isn't there?

[stuving]

I think you've missed Bmblbzzz's point - Bristol Parkway was never "a station outside a town, suitable for people arriving by car, so they don't need to flog their way into the town centre"; rather, it was and is a station where Bristol (or should I say 'West of England' - pah!) people catch trains to other faraway places. So quite the reverse of a park-and-ride. As to the etymology of 'Parkway', I think it is at least in part a portmanteau of Park (as in 'ditch the tinwork') + Railway.

And I think you've missed my points - that the word's meaning has changed from what is was initially (before Bristol had one), via the first examples, to what it is now. And also (though I didn't make this as clear as I might have) that without Wherever Parkway, the alternative station was in a town centre (Wherever or somewhere else), and that's where drivers would have to go to get a train.

[Red Squirrel]

...the word's meaning has changed from what is was initially (before Bristol had one), via the first examples, to what it is now. And also.. that without Wherever Parkway, the alternative station was in a town centre (Wherever or somewhere else), and that's where drivers would have to go to get a train.

For fear of a quibble too far, 'before Bristol had one' points to a time when the word had no rail-related meaning. But I do indeed take your point that whilst there was once a clear distinction between a Parkway station (for people leaving Wherever) and a Park and Ride (for people travelling into Wherever), that distinction has become blurred. Which is a shame, because it was a useful one.

[johnneyw]

Portway Parkway sounds too rolled off the current station naming machine conveyor belt. Plain 'Portway' would probably be better. Surely there must be a more inspiring name for a new stop on the line that carries the majesty of the Severn Riviera Express at the gateway to the Avon Gorge?

[chuffed]

Gadarene Gorge or Gadarene Gate might do. One might have a  problem deciding who the swine are ...the passengers or the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) staff ! They will all be asked to avoid phrases like 'chop chop', 'I could murder a bacon roll', or 'we were crammed in like sausages' to so not to offend the aural sensibilties of our porcine neighbours.

[Adelante_CCT]

Any reason this topic is headed Partway and not Parkway?

[chuffed]

Just a bit of fun swapping the t and k around. Rumour has it that the latest train crew are called Harris & Walls, Richmond & Bowyer !