Great Western Coffee Shop

Yesterday saw the opening of the new multi-deck car park at Bristol Parkway. It cost ^13 million and provides an extra 710 spaces. The mind boggles at the cost of this, surely Network Rail could find a way of doing relatively simple things like building car parking spaces in a cheaper fashion?

Gosh, that is a lot when you put it like that.

If NR wanted to get a 12% return on its investment then it would need per space to recover ^6 per day, 365 days a year just to cover the return, let alone repay the initial debt.  Which given the daily rate is 7.60 and 4.80 at weekends seems a bit unlikely as it would require 88% occupancy including weekends. 

By my arithmetic, that's about ^18,310 per space.

By way of comparison, Waitrose at Westbury Park have recently demolished an adjoining filling station and are in the process of extending their car park to give 27 extra spaces (BCC ref 13/05166/F). If you include the cost of acquiring the site and demolishing and redeveloping it, it is inconceivable that this project cost less than ^494,000 (27 x ^18,310) - I'm guessing it'll have cost more than twice that.

Sounds to me like ^13 million is a bit of a bargain...

Since the recent work, electrification and Filton Bank, the quality of service between Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol  Parkway has not improved.

At what point will this service become reliable, with scheduled services and no 10 minutes outside Parkway, waiting for a late London bound train?

Just heard that Bristol Parkway access on on Christmas Eve is by Hunts Ground Road, the Hatchett Road access is not available.

Not sure why.

Would agree nothing seems to have changed yet.

The access to Parkway is being closed due to new signalling being installed at Stoke Gifford

Hopefully, you will see some of the benefits after the resignalling is finished, 12 May or so. More will come with the new timetable, put off after last year's fiasco.