Bristol's 2nd Railway Station

[whole diary]

[johnneyw]

With the imminent opening of Bristol Parkway's new platform it will further cement it's place as Bristol's 2nd station.
But wait (pedantry alert) Parkway is in South Glos. The soon to be 4 platformed Filton Abbeywood is, I believe also in same county.
So does that mean Bristol's 2nd station is:

Clifton Down? Due to footfall figures but only 2 platforms.

Stapleton Road in the future? After the proposed 3rd platform being built as result of 4 tracking there.

Lawrence Hill? After his proposed 3rd platform due to same reason as above.

[Bmblbzzz]

That's the first I've heard of a third platform for Stapleton Rd and Lawrence Hill! I thought the plan was for two slow, stopping lines, to call at those two, and two fast, direct to FAW lines?

Anyways, Parkway is Bristol's second station regardless of being administratively in Greater Thornbury.

[johnneyw]

That's the first I've heard of a third platform for Stapleton Rd and Lawrence Hill! I thought the plan was for two slow, stopping lines, to call at those two, and two fast, direct to FAW lines?

Anyways, Parkway is Bristol's second station regardless of being administratively in Greater Thornbury.

Well I might be relying on old news there although I'm sure early Network Rail press releases referred to it.
My comments about Parkway and Abbeywood were tongue in cheek though and I do agree Parkway is firmly Bristol's No.2 with an expanding future.
I can however see a future need for expansion at Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road, one day.

[Red Squirrel]

Greater Thornbury.

At last! A name to match the quality of North Somerset Parish Council.

Joking aside though: Bristol's second busiest station is Bath Spa. With over 6 million entries and exits in 2016-17, BTH^» (Bath Spa - next trains) is more than twice as busy as Thornbury Road.

[Bmblbzzz]

Greater Thornbury.

At last! A name to match the quality of North Somerset Parish Council.

Thank you! I'm half tempted now to go out monkey wrenching their signs with a can of paint, but it would be too energetic, too cold, too ugly and I can't stand the smell of spray paint. Instead, I shall content myself with using the name on these august electro-pages and wherever else appropriate!

Joking aside though: Bristol's second busiest station is Bath Spa. With over 6 million entries and exits in 2016-17, BTH^» (Bath Spa - next trains) is more than twice as busy as Thornbury Road.

On old maps of Bristol (up to the 19th century, I think), what's now known as Gloucester Rd is marked "Road to Thornbury".

[Red Squirrel]

Well he's a funny old stick, ole man Gloucester Road; he starts off (depending on where you start) as North Street - all very sensible; then he's Stokes Croft (why?), then he veers round in the general direction of Chepstow and becomes Cheltenham Road. After that he makes a beeline for Thornbury and becomes Gloucester Road, before reining in his ambitions and becoming Filton Road. After that with renewed resolve he strides forth once more as Gloucester Road North (presumably with a black pudding under his arm, though I've never seen it) before reverting to Gloucester Road in Patchway.

After all that, 'Road to Thornbury' seems a much more sensible name...

[Bmblbzzz]

There was a croft and it belonged to a bloke called Stoke. Fact.

[Red Squirrel]

We have to look after facts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXQyqqWChA

[JayMac]

We have to look after facts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXQyqqWChA

Ahh the memories. The Day Today. Providing 'water cooler moments' before they were a thing.

[TonyK]

With the imminent opening of Bristol Parkway's new platform it will further cement it's place as Bristol's 2nd station.
But wait (pedantry alert) Parkway is in South Glos. The soon to be 4 platformed Filton Abbeywood is, I believe also in same county.
So does that mean Bristol's 2nd station is:

Clifton Down? Due to footfall figures but only 2 platforms.

Stapleton Road in the future? After the proposed 3rd platform being built as result of 4 tracking there.

Lawrence Hill? After his proposed 3rd platform due to same reason as above.

That's the first I've heard of a third platform for Stapleton Rd and Lawrence Hill! I thought the plan was for two slow, stopping lines, to call at those two, and two fast, direct to FAW lines?

Anyways, Parkway is Bristol's second station regardless of being administratively in Greater Thornbury.

Unless someone does a lot of digging, there will be four platforms at Stapleton Road, being the existing infrastructure, but only two will be used. Lawrence Hill has three existing platform faces, but again only two will be used. Nevertheless, the forecast of good times to come for dear dear Larry and especially Stapleton Road should prove accurate. Why should the new MetroWest Rail (no relation to MetroBust) not have trains from Severn Beach and / or Yate to Bath without going via Temple Meads, with passengers changing at Stapleton Road as appropriate?

In the numbers game, the 2016-17 user figures show that the second busiest station in actual Bristol was Clifton Down, with four times as many passenger movements as the runner up, Stapleton Road. Filton Abbey Wood is almost up there with Weston super Mare. Parkway's figures fell just short of 2½ million, under a quarter of Temple Meads, but impressive.  As to whether that makes Parkway Bristol's second station, I suppose it depends on whether you think of Luton as being a London airport.

I know you are busier than I am, so I extracted the detail regarding the putative MetroWest Rail area from the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) figures, and present them in an unclickable JPG:



The clickable version of my spreadsheet is here, and the original ORR document can be viewed [http://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates]here.[/url]

At last! A name to match the quality of North Somerset Parish Council.

Guilty, m'lud, in re NSPC, although I always use lower case out of respect.

[grahame]

Off topic, but than ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) analysis had me looking at stations by ticket type.

Percentage reduce rate
Percentage full rate
Percentage season ticket
Three letter code
Number full rate
Number reduced rate
Number season ticket journeys
Total number
Stations name

Code:

WomanWithCat:17csv grahamellis$ head bytype 
  0.90	 33.61	 65.49	SVB	104470	2798	203550	310818	Severn Beach
  0.94	 13.23	 85.83	PSW	168	12	1090	1270	Polesworth
  1.28	 98.72	  0.00	WBD	772	10	0	782	Whitley Bridge
  1.30	  9.61	 89.09	DLH	458	62	4248	4768	Doleham
  1.86	 98.14	  0.00	HEL	632	12	0	644	Hensall
  1.92	 98.08	  0.00	GOF	102	2	0	104	Golf Street
  2.01	 46.99	 51.00	SPO	11032	472	11972	23476	Spondon
  2.02	 73.24	 24.75	SNI	1598	44	540	2182	Snaith
  2.28	 19.26	 78.46	SWE	710	84	2892	3686	Swineshead
  2.31	 65.02	 32.67	PYE	52886	1878	26578	81342	Pye Corner
WomanWithCat:17csv grahamellis$ tail bytype 
 95.73	  4.27	  0.00	LTS	5178	116080	0	121258	Lelant Saltings
 97.12	  2.88	  0.00	CAU	50	1686	0	1736	Causeland
 97.59	  2.41	  0.00	LUX	58	2346	0	2404	Luxulyan
 98.03	  1.97	  0.00	SDP	28	1390	0	1418	Sandplace
 98.19	  1.81	  0.00	SCR	34	1844	0	1878	St.Columb Road
 98.48	  1.50	  0.02	NQY▸  (Newquay (Station))	1546	101424	20	102990	Newquay
 98.55	  1.45	  0.00	QUI	34	2308	0	2342	Quintrell Downs
 99.51	  0.49	  0.00	BGL	22	4440	0	4462	Bugle
100.00	  0.00	  0.00	OKE	0	5926	0	5926	Okehampton
100.00	  0.00	  0.00	SMC	0	144	0	144	Sampford Courtenay

[Bmblbzzz]

"WomanWithCat" 

[Bmblbzzz]

I know you are busier than I am, so I extracted the detail regarding the putative MetroWest Rail area from the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) figures, and present them in an unclickable JPG:

Thank you, clicklessly! 

[grahame]

"WomanWithCat" 

We name all our computers and it comes up as the operating system prompt.  Saves the embarrassment of rebooting / halting the wrong machine when maintaining network systems.

At the time I wrote that, it was early and WomanWithDogs was still asleep in bed.

[TonyK]

At the time I wrote that, it was early and WomanWithDogs was still asleep in bed.

And in Devon, WomanWithBoneToPick was catching up on her beauty sleep, and plotting the next move.

That Severn Beach is top of the season ticket list in the Greater Thornbury (thanks Bmblbzzz!) area is probably because, at £9.00 per week, it has to be the cheapest £/mile commute around. The length of the journey to Avonmouth means that train managers will be able to take fares from all passengers, which seldom happens after Sea Mills, making a free trip very unlikely.