Great Western Coffee Shop

[Consultations] arrange by South Glos at St Michaels centre stoke gifford BS34 8PD

Thursday 14 july 2022 14:00pm till 18:30pm

Wednesday 27th July 14:00pm till 18:30pm

[edited by Red Squirrel to clarify after change of Subject title]

Might help if you had explained what they are consulting on?

I think that it's all to do with this from the Bristol Post.  It appears that some of the draught documents are available now.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/strategic-masterplan-improve-bristol-parkway-7286054

I've retitled this topic, as this one could potentially run and run!

The scheme involves redeveloping Bristol Parkway - the station that gave its name to the concept of car-oriented railway stations - into a bus, bike and walking-oriented transport hub. Full details are here:

https://consultations.southglos.gov.uk/gf2.ti/-/1417794/139018533.1/PDF/-/Bristol%20Parkway%20Draft%20Masterplan%20Stage%203%20Report.pdf

... and the consultation is here:

https://beta.southglos.gov.uk/parkway-station-masterplan

Interesting document on the above link.  The proposals repeatedly make references to sustainability, so I was quite surprised to read that the "old" station building is to be demolished and rebuilt which does rather fly in the face of current concerns about the negative environmental impact of doing this.

There's a lot good suggestions though which should enliven the whole site and probably look considerably better too.

Can't see there is a lot wrong with the current station.

Maybe spend the money on getting the link to Thornbury train station re-instated.
As far as Bristol Parkway is concerned,maybe a new bridge Brierly Furlong/Hatchett Road.
Maybe a pedestrian access from the far end of The Green where the conifers are.

At the current time you may be correct. The idea here is to look forward to a time when private vehicle fuel at £2.00 per litre looks like a rosy tinted spectacles cheap past, and we're all using trains, buses, cycles (but not, it would appear from the graphic, e-scooters or electric motor bikes!)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/topsybpw.jpg)

I note space reserved for a platform zero - for local rail, an extra platform might be sensible to allow for trains terminating at Abbey Wood to carry on to Parkway. And while we are at it and seeing a move back to public transport, let's sort out the line towards South Wales (Like the South Welsh are planning on their side) to have services calling at Patchway, Aztec West and Pilning on an appropriate frequency.

Have you tried walking to places around there from Parkway.  Northeast towards Bradley Stoke Way not too bad but any other direction seems to be full of obstacles, particularly the bridge to get south of the railway!

I note a proposed pedestrian underpass to parallel the Hatchet Road bridge, which would hopefully help with that.

My doubt is not so much whether the plans are sensible but whether anything will ever come of them.

As the report says:


According to the Parkway masterplan, the parking facilities at the station were underutilised before COVID. I'm not a regular user of the station, but the one time I've parked there in recent years there was no problem at all finding a space. What do other members think? The land around the station, however, must be worth a small fortune. If it's not needed for car parking, surely it makes sense to realise its value by building on some of it?


South Gloucestershire Council seem to have had a Damascene conversion in recent times. This masterplan should be read alongside the North Fringe masterplan (here: https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/planning-housing/north-fringe-vision/ ) which, for example, proposes an hourly service to Pilning...

But a Platform 0 would be mostly beneficial for London-bound passengers. The current arrangement whereby everyone has to go over the footbridge via steps or a small lift is pretty inconvenient. A level access direct from the station building would be much, much better.


Exactly.

When reading the masterplan it's worth noting that these plans move the station building about 200m to the east of its current position. This has confused a few people into thinking the multistory car car shown is new! The principal access for car users would be from Great Stoke Way, freeing up the west end for development. Essentially the new station building would be on the site of the current NR Training Centre and parking decks.


There's the rub. Dum spiro spero.

FoSBR has prepared a map which, we think, shows the outline of these proposals a bit more clearly than the masterplan document:

(https://fosbr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/parkway_masterplan_area_map_labelled-scaled.jpg)

The post associated with this is here: https://fosbr.org.uk/bristol-parkway-masterplan/

One feature of Parkway is the very narrow platforms. Could this be addressed in this masterplan?

That's a good point. The only reference to the platforms I've spotted was the potential for a new Platform 0. I'll see to it that this question is raised in FoSBR's response to the consultation.

Yes, I was going to make this very point. I really hate having to use Parkway precisely because it feels very uncomfortable waiting around on many of the platforms.

Regarding Red Squirrel's comment about South Glos council seeming to have had a Damascene conversion, I know some of the officers there and yes, I think there has been, though it has been a long time in coming.

It's just moved a step closer, as reported below:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/image-shows-how-bristol-parkway-7901843

The illustration suggests it's been renamed from Parkway to Park Way. A small but significant difference. I expect the illustration is wrong.

I've found that these illustrations with the wording "what xxxx might look like" usually have little or no resemblance what it actually turns out to look like....be that better or worse.