Scope to increase Bristol suburban services?

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

I didn't realise that that happened. Filton Abbey Wood is a totally counterintuitive terminus for a service. Agreed, given the new infrastructure it'll be turning at Parkway in the near future.

Mark

**Eats worms** Thanks for putting me right on this. Mind, I can't be the only person wishing to completely rearrange North Bristol to put the public transport and the traffic generators into some sort of order. Not that it was a completely blank canvas, but even so...

Mark

PS It's always good to see, on a map, a 'Railway in course of construction, even if, for Bristol Parkway, this was some time ago.


https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15.2&lat=51.51706&lon=-2.54982&layers=168&b=ESRIWorld&o=100

Though if anyone needs a map with 'Motorway in course of construction'...

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.0&lat=51.55097&lon=-2.54994&layers=258&b=ESRIWorld&o=100

[anthony215]

We asked GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) quite early on whether it was possible to terminate local services at Bristol Parkway, and got a firm 'no'. I seem to remember the factors were junction capacity, platform capacity, and the undesirability of establishing a service pattern which would have to be unpicked when Brabazon and Henbury open.

It's not clear whether TfW's proposed half-hourly Cardiff - Bristol stoppers would call at Ashley Down - if they did, it would be transformative, leading to a proper 4 tph metro-style service when combined with the 2 tph Henburys.

GWR suggest Filton Abbey Wood as an interchange, although with 2 tph to BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) and quite long connections it's not great; for example ASD - YAE gives journey times of around 40-50 mins, of which over half an hour is spent kicking your heals at FIT. Still quicker that the bus, but could be a lot better.

I think TFW will only run sn hourly service to Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context) along with an additional service to Gloucester as part of the proposals for. New local stations between Severn tunnel junction and Cardiff Central although I doubt we'll see all of them being built. Eg Llanwern  or Magor I could only see one of them being constructed.

Ashley down is shown as a stop on the proposed Bristol TM service and I believe tfw are looking to order an additional batch of class 756s.  Their level boarding will be a game changer for people in Bristol although curved platforms at Temple Meads will be interesting

[anthony215]

There's now talk in the telegraph that a number of rail projects are supposed to be getting the.chop except for hs2, east-west rail etc.

Considering the work done and money already  spend on it if the Portishead project gets the chop I expect a major backlash.

I do think keeping it going and actually open it is an easy project and not that expensive in the grand scheme of things plus the benefits to the local economies

[Red Squirrel]

According to this article,

Sir John [Armitt], who is chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), which advises the Treasury, said ministers should consider funding dozens of highway projects up and down the country as a result, rather than seeking to funnel road users on to the railways.

Which is all very depressing.

However it does go on to say:

The NIC has said that spending on new tram systems, or the expansion of existing ones, would be justified only in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol.

[Chris from Nailsea]

See also a specific topic on the subject of the Portishead line, at https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=231.msg357425#msg357425 .

I'll do a bit more of my 'moving and merging' of posts, simply in the interests of clarity, continuity, ease of future reference, blah, blah.