Great Western Coffee Shop

10th July to 3rd September 2021 - replacement (in a new layout) of tracks at Bristol East Junction will cause disruption to train services with some trains replaced by buses to a rolling program over the eight weeks.

Been coming up on us for a while ... probably time (over Easter?) to flesh out a new thread; some of us briefed last month, but at that time there remained some unknowns and tuning to be done of plans - in fact some points taken back from that meeting to, hopefully, improve with better knowledge. 

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/bristol-temple-meads-train-passengers-5213528 but other sources too - to be written up for our members (anyone fancy doing a key post??)

Q: Why do this now when the railways are expecting the most unpredictable of summers with unusual and is to be hoped health passenger flows?  Why wasn't it done while the railways were quiet? 

A: (official) Because a project like this could not be practically pulled forward - has been in the planning and things weren't ready last year, also limitations on the people doing the work.  And really can't wait for a later date as it needs to be done.

Really is poor timing isn't it? Just as things should be getting back to "normal", customers are hit by this.

Still, everyone is used to working from home now, so not such an impact on commuters..........those that still exist........

Not really, for the reasons grahame stated in his original post. There was no way of bringing it forward, but delaying it would delayed the MetroWest programme. That extra track into Temple Meads will allow half-hourly trains to Severn Beach (and better reliability too) as well as opening the door for Henbury and half-hourly Bristol-Gloucester services.

A small part of the project was brought forward with this month seeing a short notice closure of some platforms at Temple Meads to accelerate the work which was due to be done during the Bristol East closure.

I was looking it from the customer's point of view, emerging blinking into the sunlight after lockdown, perhaps considering commuting again, and being confronted with this news.

I have learned to understand however from personal experience and from the Coffee Shop that the customer's point of view is somewhat lower down the railways list of priorities than in more enlightened sectors.

So how would this have been handled in more enlightened sectors?

Indeed, it might have been quite convenient for it to have been done over this winter just gone, but the reality is that these things are planned a *long* time in advance, and messing around wwith sequencing etc tends to be a recipe for disaster. I think they're trying to shoehorn in some work for the new entrance to Temple Meads whilst the blockade is in place, but IIRC it's been tricky to do.

In mitigation, a lot of offiice-based people like myself are still either banned or actively discouraged by our employers and others from travelling on business. Realistically that's going to continue for a while yet, and when it ends, I think that for a while, many people will be preferring to drive.   

My gut feeling is that by September things will be a lot busier on the railways

Going back to the original post, it's interesting (well, I think it is anyway) that this article appears to have first surfaced in the Chew Valley and Wrington Vale Gazette (https://www.chewvalleygazette.co.uk/article.cfm?id=108660&headline=Bristol%20Temple%20Meads:%20Summer%20rail%20chaos%20predicted%20following%20track%20upgrades&sectionIs=&searchyear=2021), under the byline of its editor Simon Harding, on 22nd March. The Gazette is an independent family-owned newspaper, so it's intriguing that this story, verbatim, found its way to Somerset Live, a Local World title, under the byline of Adam Postans. It also appeared on the same day in Somerset Live's neighbouring stablemate Bristol Live.

What piqued my interest was that the article is almost entirely positive about the benefits of this vital project, except for the opening two paragraphs:


...which smacks of sub-editing what any reasonable person would describe as a very good piece of news to into something more negative. Why would they do that? Do train services have much impact on the daily lives of people who live in the Chew Valley?

Perhaps time to post some dates and plans - from https://gwr-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/timetable-changes-expected-in-bristol-area-this-summer-as-major-railway-upgrade-gets-underway dated 4th May.


How much of the IET fleet will be in service by that time?   If passengers from Cornwall and Devon are still routed via Bristol ...

All of it by the sound of things. Latest from GWR is that, starting Monday 17th May, they expect "to be able to run a core service on all key routes with an amended timetable" so it seems as if they are certainly getting on with it.

Dave

Just to say that the RealTimeTrains website is now giving us some ideas of what is likely to happen schedule-wise during the first stages of work on the Bristol East Junction scheme (10th July - 06th August). On weekdays:

- Trains on the Seven Beach route will operate between Seven Beach / Avonmouth and Lawrence Hill but to a reduced timetable. As if to give a hint of what is, I believe, planned for the December timetable revamp that will be made possible by these works, there will be an hourly service between Severn Beach and Bristol Temple Meads. Some trains that are well used by commuters, such as the 0754 Seven Beach to Bristol Temple Meads, will not run. RTT's current info for Severn Beach for Monday 12th July - https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:SVB/2021-07-12/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt - gives an idea of the weekday pattern but Sunday services will be replaced by buses throughout. On arriving at Lawrence Hill trains then operate round the Lawrence Hill - North Somerset Junction curve to reverse direction and return to the opposite platform.

It is worth noting here that there are no replacement buses currently shown to replace trains between Lawrence Hill and Bristol Temple Meads which I guess is understandable as there would be nowhere to turn them at the Lawrence Hill end.

- Services from Cardiff Central that would normally continue through to Taunton will instead operate between Cardiff Central and Gloucester / Worcester / Great Malvern, via. Bristol Parkway and Yate.

- Services between Cardiff Central and Portsmouth Harbour will run direct between Lawrence Hill and Bath Spa and not call at Bristol Temple Meads

- Re[placement buses will run between Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway although a number of non-stop services are showing. On leaving Bristol Temple Meads these will stop at North Somerset Junction for about 5 minutes and then reverse direction to operate to Bristol Parkway calling only at Filton Abbey Wood.

- Cross Country services will continue to serve Bristol Temple Meads but will follow the curve from Lawrence Hill to North Somerset Junction, reversing there.

Hope this gives some idea.
Dave

Been some changes to the original plan.  The Cardiff to Portsmouths in mid July were going to run as Swindon to Portsmouth via Melksham originally.

The revised plan to Bath means a bit of use for the Rhubarb Curve!

From a passenger viewpoint, it's a lot less disruptive to replace the Bristol Temple Meads stop in the Portsmouth-Cardiff trains with a stop at Bristol Lawrence Hill like they did in Great Bristish Railways days than to send passengers to Swindon (change for Bristol Parkway and South Wales) or bus them from Bath Spa.   Might even be cheaper in rail replacement bus costs!

In my view there is little need to run rail replacement buses between Lawrence Hill and Temple Meads as there are numerous local buses passing the station, running to central Bristol, although none of them serve Temple Meads.

There doesn’t appear to be any intention of stopping Portsmouth-Cardiff trains at Lawrence Hill in place of Temple Meads. With the exception of one early morning train from Westbury, which runs via Temple Meads (reverse), retraces it’s route to North Somerset Junction (reverses again), then runs via the Rhubarb and calls at Lawrence Hill, they are all shown as running via the Rhubarb, then calling at Filton Abbeywood, Bristol Parkway (reverse) and on to Cardiff.

Exactly, and therein lies my problem. On days when I have to be in work for 0830 (the start of my working day varies) the 0754 Severn Beach to Temple Meads is the perfect train to get as it is the one that gets me in closest for that time and my workplace is within 5 minutes walk of Temple Meads, albeit not on the Old Market side. Ah well: no harm in getting the earlier train although I would have to get up a full half hour earlier (0615 instead of 0645) to get it. *yawn*

Dave

Indeed - naughty of me to point out the station at Lawrence Hill. I asked if it was to be used at the Central timetabling / briefing meeting a couple of months back and did not get positive vibes from the answer.  These days, it's on the local lines (is that the term?) only with limited track work across at Dr Days's Junction and National Rail (https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/LWH/details.html) tells us:

Why not Stapleton Road rather than Lawrence Hill? That at least has step-free access.

Thank goodness a bit of sense has been seen! I dread to think what the travel times would otherwise have been from Bath to Filton AW or Bristol Parkway - even assuming that a direct RRB avoiding Temple Meads was in the plan, the Cleveland Bridge closure is likely to make for "interesting" traffic conditions in Bath over the next few months.

True but the trains will have to go down to Lawrence Hill and then use the curve round to North Somerset Junction in order to reverse. The good news, however, is that rail replacement buses are showing as stopping at Lawrence Hill when replacing the Bristol Parkway - Bristol Temple Meads local stopping services. This is welcome but once you get to Lawrence Hill on the train the connection time onto the replacement bus is around 16 minutes as shown at https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:LWH/2021-07-12/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

The RRB would arrive at Bristol Temple Meads at 0824. With a journey time, including connection, from Lawrence Hill to Bristol Temple Meads of 27 minutes I can't help wondering if walking from Lawrence Hill station, along Lincoln Street and Days Road, through the Dings and over the bridge from Avon Street would be just as quick as waiting for, and using, the RRB. I may look into it.

Dave

Google gives a walking time of 23 minutes!

Slightly off-topic, but this piece of news concerns the pub that gave the curve its name:

Source: Bristol Live

It's been closed for a year but every time I've been past it, it looks as if it's been closed for five.