Over my dead body.
Sounds like you do not want Pilning to close, Nobody does want stations closing, But Dr Beaching did not care.
Pilning is a very, very interesting case.
* It's set in the midst of an area that's not exactly uninhabited and is ripe for and starting to develop close by. It's also close to major motorways.
* Services (such as the are) reach Bristol Temple Meads in around 20 minutes, and take under 25 minutes from Newport - compared to 40 minutes from Severn Beach station to Bristol, or 90 minutes (if you're lucky with a connection) from Newport to Severn Beach ... Severn Beach being quite near and quoted as the alternative, but on another line
* With 478 passengers in a year on somewhat under 100 train calls (considering engineering), it manages about 5 passenger journeys per call. With the hourly Cardiff to Taunton service
and the hourly Taunton to Cardiff service calling, 5 passengers per train would give a respectable number of journeys of over 50,000 per annum!
* You would NOT get 5 users of the "use it because it's unusual" type on an hourly service ... such class of passenger would be lost into the general use, but the local support illustrated by the improving number each year would encourage new traffic. Indeed, general traffic would find the rail transport and return journey opportunities very attractive indeed. With Severn Bridge tolls now just days from removal, Pilning could provide an ideal park and ride for traffic coming across, leaving at the new junction which I think is being built in the M49, and people then taking the train into Bristol and helping them relieve the congestion I think they suffer.
* Current infrastructure could not cope! Although the line to Patchway is reversible it's very very rare used in the opposite direction and sending the local train down there to stop at the platform is impractical. Furthermore, the station is off a lane and could do with shifting - still within Pilning - to a site off a classified road, where the road bridge can be used for passengers to cross to both sides, and were road traffic from the catchment area can be brought in on roads fit for that purpose, and not though lanes and villages!
