Pilning - the station, services, viability and closure of down platform - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Graz]

Why did it call? And who many boarded/got off? Not that I'm complaining or anything!

[John R]

 http://www.bristol-rail.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1540

If you'll permit the link to another site, this shows the first day of operation of the newly enhanced Pilning (Severn Gateway) Parkway.

[Graz]

  Thanks for that John! If only...

If there was ever a Pilning campaign for service improvement website, that photo might be there somewhere!

[eightf48544]

John R

What actually happened? Presumably a tunnel bound train failed and passengers were put on the next train back to Parkway. Good job it wasn't a 150/8 coming out of the tunnel.

How did they move the High Speed Train (HST^▸ (High Speed Train)) presumably the following service could have used used the freight loop to bypass it. Nice bit of rare track if you were on one of those.
 
It's how the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) and Networkrail respond to incidents like this that shows how good or bad they are at running the railway.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[swlines]

A tunnel bound train failed near Filton Abbey Wood (not on that line of course, but near the junction) - was put in the goods loop and then dunno what happened - it passed Newport 140 down though!

[ReWind]

Not a major topic, but I'm interested in everyones opinion on Pilning.

Is it really worth this station being open with just 1 service a week?  On a Saturday!! 

I live in Severn Beach and Pilning would provide a much quicker link to South Wales and Bristol Parkway, rather than going in and out of BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI))!  I would love a meaningful service at this station.

What are your views here?

[Chris from Nailsea]

You may be surprised, BristolBlogger, that a small station like Pilning can nevertheless generate a wide variety of very strongly held opinions!

There's been a lot of discussion on this subject in two previous topics on this forum, so I've now taken the opportunity to merge them with this one (keeping the posts in chronological order, and retaining their original headings), for continuity.

Chris 

[devon_metro]

Didn't see much use when I was there!

[John R]

This was discussed at length some months ago (before you joined us). I think views are divided. I can see the merits of a Parkway station (though that was what Bristol Parkway was for in the days when it was in fields and easy to get to) to railhead for South Wales. Maybe with an access road off the M4/M49 junction it could work, especially as it comes just before the tolls and the congested stretch of the M4 at Newport.

Though from a practical perspective the line is fairly much at capacity, so having additional services stopping at Pilning would be a further capacity constraint. And if it were successful then I'm not sure the trains themselves have much capacity for more passengers.  

[ReWind]

I believe there is a relief line that runs around the back of pilning station on the approach to the tunnel.

It wouldn't cost too much to platform this line, so that trains could stop at the station more often, and not disturb the faster services, would it???

If Pilning doesn't work, and it would cause to much disruption/not profitable, then surely its best just to close the station?

[John R]

I believe there is a relief line that runs around the back of pilning station on the approach to the tunnel.

It wouldn't cost too much to platform this line, so that trains could stop at the station more often, and not disturb the faster services, would it???

If Pilning doesn't work, and it would cause to much disruption/not profitable, then surely its best just to close the station?

Indeed and both goods lines are currently being upgraded to passenger use as part of the Newport Resignalling Scheme to provide more flexibility.  (The up relief stops short of the station though.) Unfortunately in the railway world, everything costs a fortune. Gone are the days when a platform could be put up for ^25k and a new station opened. Nothing seems to come in at under ^2m these days. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

If Pilning doesn't work, and it would cause to much disruption/not profitable, then surely its best just to close the station?

Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as that.

A railway station can be left with just one service per week, if only to avoid that station being subject to a statutory 'closure' process (with all the attendant bad publicity).  And if that station were to be 'closed', but a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) then wanted to resume services at some future date, it would need the formal process of 're-opening' the station (with a repeat of all the previous bad publicity over why it had been closed).

Vacman has covered this in a previous post, at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=814.msg3326#msg3326 and Andrew Griffiths gave the same argument at a FOSBR^▸ (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways) meeting in Bristol that I attended, on 12 July this year.  Andrew was quite emphatic that there would be no closure of Pilning Station, for this very reason.

Basically, it's far easier to maintain even a notional service at a station, if only to keep it 'open', rather than to stop services altogether.

As an aside, one could speculate whether such considerations may have influenced the decision to cut (but not stop altogether!) services to Melksham, for example.  And perhaps that's why the long-running campaign to re-open Corsham Station has faced so many obstacles?

[Phil]

Actually, Chris - Melksham Station has already been through the whole formal closure and then reopening process - which is why it's particularly galling for old codgers like me who campaigned once to have it reopened, only to see a subsequent TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) doing it's damndest to shut the blooming thing down once again.

Here's the cover of a "Souvenir issue" of the local paper dating back to when the station was reopened with much fanfare in May 1985. As it says, "An historic day - the first station closed by Beeching to be reopened" (this is one of only a handful of claims to fame that Melksham has, so it's not surprising that we tend to set great store by it locally!)

http://www.terrascope.co.uk/images/MelkshamStationReopening.jpg

[Jez]

Dont see much point in keep this station open to be honest with only 1 train per week.

Even it if it was 1 train per day in each direction it would be more worthwhile.

[ReWind]

I agree Jez.  If they have to it open for operartional reasons, then there is no harm in increasing the service to at least 1 or 2 trains in each direction a day!