Great Western Coffee Shop

Ok trying to find a suitable place to post this.

On Sunday 9 June, at 2pm at Redland Station, FOSBR are holding an event to a) celebrate the returned reliability on the Severn Beach Line (and elsewhere) due to Filton Bank four-tracking (a 15 year campaign!!) and b) to launch our petition for MetroWest Phase 1A (hourly from Severn Beach, half hourly from Avonmouth to Temple Meads, Bath and hopefully Westbury, in the May 2020 timetable.

All welcome. There will, as is FOSBR tradition, music (ukulele and singing), placards and a photoshoot for the press release, and we will be taking a train to Severn Beach where we will be met by our very good rail friend Peter Tyzack and other Severn Beach denizens.

More details on FOSBR website www.fosbr.org.uk and Facebook page (search for FOSBR)

Or email me on general@fosbr.org.uk

Tina

I have moved it to "Bristol Commuters" and started a new thread.  You probably didn't find an appropriate thread to add it to 'cos there wasn't one.  Also added it to the diary.

Is 'general' your military rank, or a courtesy title?  ;D

Half hourly from Avonmouth is a great idea and would be very welcome and would certainly make things more convenient for when I have to use the train to / from work.

However I have long thought that, instead of one terminating at Avonmouth, a better scheme would be to use that Avonmouth terminator to provide a link between the stations on the Severn Beach line and Bristol Parkway, via. Hallen and Filton Abbey Wood (the signalling and layout at the latter would permit such working). It is quite possible that such a link could encourage use of the station for the Portway Park & Ride (not sure if they have a name for it) as a means of commuting to / from Filton AbbeyWood for employees of the MOD site.

I once worked out a timetable for such a service: if anyone is interested I could post it on this thread: I remember sending it to a previous local MP and getting an enthusiastic response. As for the celebration I would like to join it but am busy on the 9th: I hope the weather is good for it.

On another note, and looking ahead to December, I am given to understand - from a draft timetable posted on another forum - that a number of the Severn Beach trains are likely to be retimed, some by several minutes. Once I am sure of this I will post the relevant info.

Dave

Indeed, surely looking long-term, the goal should be a tea-cup style service around the Henbury loop with a 20 minute service interval? Whilst it might look a bit OTT at the moment, the industrial area west of the M49 is only going to get further built up and the area north of the line will inevitably be built upon.   

There are already plans to build the best part of 3000 new houses on Filton Airfield.

It's probably not a fair comparison, but the Nine Elms development in London, which is developing 20,000 new homes, has funded an £800,000,000 extension to the Northern Line. Pro-rate that and you might think it should be possible to find a decent proportion of something like £120M to develop the Henbury Line - which ought to cover sorting out the problematic level crossing in Avonmouth, and some redoubling and/or passing loops between Narroways and Avonmouth... JLTP4 talks of aspiring towards a 15-minute service, at least as far as Clifton Down. Surely this is the minimum service interval for a turn-up-and-go urban mass transit system?

I'm not clear how this should be timetabled though; loop services can be problematic (c.f. Circle Line). Would it make sense to run 15 minute headways from Temple Meads to Parkway via Clifton Down? Or maybe have alternate trains terminating at Parkway or looping back via Abbey Wood? How does this fit in with services linking to Bath, Portishead etc?

What about Avonmouth to Severn Beach? Would a shuttle from Avonmouth be appropriate?

A bit like the Cardiff Queen Street/Cardiff Bay shuttle I suppose? In fact, while the Severn Beach stretch has an extra stop at St Andrews Road, this may soon be the case with the Cardiff Bay shuttle as Transport for Wales plans include an intermediate stop there too.
A shuttle could form a solution to timetable woes. From what I can make from TfW, the Cardiff Bay stretch may be electrified for a tram/train.

That's most certainly part of the plan, although the on street running will be by battery, as will some parts of the valley lines to avoid rebuilding bridges. I think the extension and on street running will be very short though, though that's the bit which seems to be used to justify tram trains instead of normal trains.  Though I suppose the lighter trams will cost less, so maybe that's how the whole thing is affordable.

So: a tram/train shuttling between Avonmouth and P*ln*ng, via Severn Beach..?

Well, as the saying goes, stranger things have happened at sea!. Trouble is, this is on land (just) and a tram/train running through or round the back of Severn Beach would, I fear, seem too radical a proposal before it's merits were properly looked at.

What I have in mind, and which I did suggest to a previous local MP, would be a service for both Severn Beach and Bristol Parkway, via. Clifton Down, and provide a reasonable service to both. I am thinking every 30 minutes Bristol Temple Meads to St. Andrews Road, then hourly to Severn Beach and hourly to Bristol Parkway via. Filton Abbey Wood.

Dave