MetroWest services begin

[whole diary]

[johnneyw]

New toys ( nearly) at Redland Station.  Here's a couple of pictures from this morning.

[Bmblbzzz]

Montpelier is looking almost presentable now it's had a haircut.

A number one all over!

New toys ( nearly) at Redland Station.  Here's a couple of pictures from this morning.

Ooh! Must go take a look.

[johnneyw]

Redland Station now has a shelter for it's new but not yet in service, ticket machine.
All looking very good.
Closer inspection however reveals that not everything may have been thought through properly as the information board behind it is now nearly unreadable/inaccessible.

[johnneyw]

There's been some reaction to the proposed hourly, rather than half hourly service on the Henbury Spur, when it finally opens.  Looks like, once again, customer numbers have been underestimated by the lazy (or deliberate???) use of old figures based on lower population densities.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/new-north-filton-train-station-7945377?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

[Red Squirrel]

The business case is for 1 tph. We would hope that this will be improved, as we would hope the frequency to Portishead will be improved, but this is what the project is based on.

[TonyK]

The Arena is a red herring here. The station is planned to hold 4-car trains. You might cram 400 into a train if nobody is counting, but that isn't going to make much of a dent into a crowd of 17,000.

More of an issue is the likely number of passengers from a planned 3,700 houses. Assuming they don't all work in Filton, one train per hour is unlikely to suffice for the daily rush hour commuters. History shows that passenger numbers for a new rail service are usually substantially higher than the estimates, whereas the opposite is normally true for buses. It might be hard to persuade the powers that be, but it would be better to start with half-hourly peak and hourly for the rest of the day and cut to hourly if demand doesn't show. Otherwise, the service doesn't really have a chance of getting people out of cars.

[Red Squirrel]

From Hansard

Huw Merriman >

...I am happy to confirm that, subject to the provision of the necessary funding by the West of England Combined Authority, services between Bristol and Gloucester will be doubled to two trains per hour from the May 2023 timetable change as part of the wider MetroWest scheme. I thank my hon. Friend for helping make this happen and the West of England Combined Authority, which has worked in partnership with officials in my Department and the operator, Great Western Railway, to make this possible. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) has identified all the rolling stock that it will need for the extra trains and is confident that it will have all the staff training completed in time to introduce the additional services from May. I hope that that provides the assurance my hon. Friend was looking for, but as always—and in answer to his request—I am happy to meet him to understand any further concerns, and to help him make this happen.

[TonyN]

Also includes hourly to Worcester

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/23264822.gwr-increase-bristol-worcester-trains-hourly/

Great Western Railway revealed plans for train services between the two cities to increase to running every hour.

Currently, services between Bristol Temple Meads to Worcester Shrub Hill are operating every two hours.

The plans still need to be given the green light by the authority funding the extra services.

Great Western must have found the magic DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) tree.

[TonyK]

From Hansard

I am obliged to my learned and bushy-tailed friend for that piece of good news.

[Timmer]

Great Western must have found the magic DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) tree.

You do wonder where the rolling stock to run these extra trains is coming from.

[Noggin]

Also includes hourly to Worcester

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/23264822.gwr-increase-bristol-worcester-trains-hourly/

Great Western Railway revealed plans for train services between the two cities to increase to running every hour.

Currently, services between Bristol Temple Meads to Worcester Shrub Hill are operating every two hours.

The plans still need to be given the green light by the authority funding the extra services.

Great Western must have found the magic DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) tree.

Oooh, so that should mean that Yate gets the half-hourly service then if WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) signs it off?

[Red Squirrel]

Yate is mentioned several times in the debate (see link to Hansard above), and MetroWest 2 plans include the 2tph Yate service, so I think it is safe to assume that.

[johnneyw]

According to Bristol Live, WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) is about to sign off £100,000 on the 26th January to look at increasing frequency on the Severn Beach Line from two to three trains per hour each way.
The article additionally mentions that a more frequent service than originally envisaged will also be looked at for the nascent Henbury spur.
The article link is below:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/trains-bristols-severn-beach-line-9052609?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

[Noggin]

The article references a committee paper which makes quite interesting reading. Recommendations include:
- MetroWest Connectivity South Study
- Branch Line Study - 3tph to Avonmouth/Severn Beach, 2 tph to Portishead or 2 tph to Henbury
- New Stations Study inc. Ashton Gate, Saltford, Lockleaze & St Annes Park
- £575k to part-fund Network Rail to progress Filton Bank Electrification to Outline Business Case stage - well worth reading, n.b excludes Chippenham and Weston in the interests of getting a deliverable project. Trying to value engineer the project to get electrification within £30 to £50m (£1-2m per STK)
- Award of previously allocated money for MetroWest to Portishead

https://westofengland-ca.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s7726/Item%2015%20-%20Transport%20Infrastructure%20Projects.pdf

[johnneyw]

Unfortunately, I couldn't download the above linked article but all this has got me thinking (it happens now and then).
What would be the minimum requirement for upgrading the Beach line to 3 TPH^▸ (trains per hour)?

The line is effectively doubled up to Narroways Junction (the now four tracked Filton Bank).
There's a passing loop at Clifton Down Station and there's another at Avonmouth.  That's in essence, a branch that's double tracked at one end and twice in the middle sections.

Now, just what if Severn Beach were to have a 2nd platform opened?......no wait, come back I'm serious..... I'll try to explain.

There was discussion, not that long ago about building a chord from the Henbury line in the direction of Severn Beach..... effectively creating a "Henbury Loop" by other means.  Now, a second platform at Severn Beach might not only provide for extra passing capacity on the line but also provide for more frequent services to the station itself as well as providing for the extra capacity on line should the chord ever be built?
I'm pretty sure that there's still space at Severn Beach to do this.

I'm no railway engineer (clearly) but I'd be interested what others think would be the minimum requirement for the line....as well as correcting me on my observations.