An excellent meeting last night ... noted a couple of members there. Good to hear of progress and many good plans.
Concern that plans for Portishead are only for an hourly service which is regarded as less than adequate for a suburban railway (and yet Keynsham lost a number of its extras last month and is now down to hourly, with the
GWR▸ rep hedging her bets as to when the paths so cleared will be properly reused for the half hourly train).
Pilning remains at 2 trains per week, and the GWR have no plans to stop more unless they are instructed to do so by the
DfT» . The close proximity to the Severnside business area has not gone un-noticed (if it has, please let me remind readers):
But the suggested solution seems to be to provide passenger rail access via Severn Beach, with passengers from North Bristol travelling there via Henbury and a new chord from there to "the Beach" rather than by an improved Pilning Station (where, it must be admitted, improvements are needed). South Wales to Severnside commuters would be encouraged to make virtually a complete circle - passing though but not stopping at Pilning, then onward via Patchway, North Filton and Henbury. Apparently it's operationally awkward to stop at Pilning - even though that clearly was not a problem in the past ...
