Return Of Daytime Trains To Severn Beach & St Andrews Road

[whole diary]

[Lee]

Having been served between the morning and evening peaks by a rail replacement bus-link from Avonmouth since the mid-1990's, the restoration of through daytime train services to Severn Beach and St Andrews Road stations on Mondays-Fridays will begin on 19 May 2008. See link below for more details of this and other significant Severn Beach Line service improvements.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2078.msg15550#msg15550

[Btline]

Excellent!  What stock will run? I assume Pacers...

[Lee]

Excellent!  What stock will run? I assume Pacers...

According to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), all Severn Beach Line services are indeed planned to be Class 143 operated from May 2008, as many of them are now.

The restoration of through daytime train services is though, as you say, an excellent move, and something that I have wanted to see happen for a long time.

[Lee]

FOSBR^▸ (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways) members, including Cat Hobbs who organised the half hour campaign, will be at Clifton Down on 19th May to welcome the new, improved service (link below.)
http://www.fosbr.org.uk/Launch.htm

[Lee]

Bristol Evening Post article link on the upcoming Severn Beach Line service improvements.
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144936&command=displayContent&sourceNode=144919&contentPK=20639821&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

[Lee]

FOSBR^▸ (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways) members, including Cat Hobbs who organised the half hour campaign, will be at Clifton Down on 19th May to welcome the new, improved service (link below.)
http://www.fosbr.org.uk/Launch.htm

Photos from todays launch can be found in the link below.
http://www.railwaysonline.co.uk/gallery/

[Lee]

Quote from Cat Hobbs (Campaign for Better Transport, link below) :
http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns/public_transport/rail/blog

Today I spoke at the launch of a more frequent service on the Severn Beach line in Bristol.

I was involved in the Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways Half Hour Train Campaign which led to Bristol City Council agreeing to fund an extra train in March 2007. The agreement with First Great Western has now been finalised, and the extra train has arrived! A new Sunday service started yesterday, and the new 40-minute service started today. At the launch passengers, politicians from all parties and trade unionists joined together to celebrate at Clifton Down station.

Bristol's local rail network is an underused asset. The fact that the Council has invested in the network should send a strong signal to the Department for Transport that this area is serious about rail.

The arguments for investing in local rail in Bristol also apply nationally: the cost of congestion to businesses; the fact that many people are struggling to get around on inadequate public transport; the need to tackle carbon emissions from transport.

Passengers, led by FOSBR^▸ (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways), said that they needed a better train service, and they got it. What a victory for people power! Let's hope it's just the start of the journey.

[Lee]

And a poem as well....
http://www.fosbr.org.uk/GSPoem.htm