Great Western Coffee Shop

Thought you all might be interested to know that the over-grown foliage up Filton Bank between the end of the southern quad. section (South of Lawrence Hill) & Stapleton Road has been cleared from the track-bed, and new lengths of rail (in 4s!) sit on the Down line. Looks suspiciously like re-quadrupling to me!

Why the bloody hell is it so hard to get any info. out of Network Rail?! Does anyone have an idea of the schedule of works? Who's the best person to contact locally in NR to be kept up-to-date?

Could somebody on here possibly make this persons day and provide more info on this?..

..And can TJ please advise me where to put the apostrophe in "persons" ? Damned if I can remember..

Oh, and an ellipsis should be formed with three dots...

Two new railway lines into Bristol Temple Meads completed to help improve passenger journeys

(https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/filton-four-track-horfield-cutting-1035x545.jpg)

This morning (Monday 3 December) Network Rail successfully completed the installation of two new railway lines between Filton Abbey Wood and Bristol Temple Meads – doubling the number of lines into Temple Meads from two to four.

These two new train lines will help improve reliable services for passengers because they enable local stopping services to run on separate lines to faster intercity services – which is often why trains are delayed into and out of Bristol Temple Meads and makes journeys longer. The two new tracks will also help get services up and running faster when incidents occur and critically the new lines pave the way for an increase in direct London – Bristol Parkway – Bristol Temple Meads services that will be introduced at the end of 2019.

Engineers started on the £130m upgrade programme in 2015 and this culminated in up to 350 engineers on the tracks at any one time during an intensive three-week upgrade in November this year, with the final testing being done in the last two weeks of weekend closures.

Mark Langman, route managing director for Network Rail said: “This upgrade will transform rail travel for passengers across Bristol. It will also ease congestion at the bottleneck into Bristol Temple Meads where trains are often delayed getting into the station. From the end of next year it will enable GWR to run more frequent and quicker services between Bristol and London Paddington, providing more seats and better journeys for passengers – a real boost for the region’s economy.

“I’d like to really thank passengers for their patience with the disruption caused whilst we completed the final stages of this work. I’d particularly like to thank the local communities that live around Filton, Horfield, Stapleton Road and Narroways for their patience as we’ve been working in their areas since 2015 to deliver this project. We are particularly grateful for their support.”

Both Bristol City and South Gloucestershire Councils have been highly supportive of the Filton Bank scheme.

Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees commented: “I’m grateful for the work Network Rail have done to put these important improvements in place and recognise the patience of everyone affected while these were being done.

“By investing in infrastructure with our partner organisations, we move closer to delivering a thriving transport exchange at Temple Meads that will support our ambitions for Temple Quarter, Bristol and the wider city region. Better and faster transport connections are crucial to building Bristol’s success, ensuring accessibility to new jobs and homes and supporting inclusive growth across the West of England.”

Cllr Colin Hunt, South Gloucestershire Council Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Strategic Environment, said: “As a strong supporter of rail travel, South Gloucestershire Council is very pleased to see the progress Network Rail has made on the project.  We have worked with Network Rail over the last few years to help them deliver this important project which will greatly contribute towards improving capacity for passengers, as well as sustainable travel for residents and commuters in South Gloucestershire and beyond.”

Source: Network Rail (https://www.networkrail.co.uk/feeds/two-new-railway-lines-into-bristol-temple-meads-completed-to-help-improve-passenger-journeys/)

Why thanks for our patience? I for one don't count it as one of my virtues. As Spike Milligan said in Puckoon: "Patience? That word was invented by dull buggers who can't think quick enough."

Patience would have been a very useful virtue for those who had to negotiate the astonishingly heavy traffic between Montpelier and Clifton Down during the three-week blockade.

Some people might think that a 3-car train running every 40 minutes wouldn't make that much difference to traffic, but with narrow already-congested roads I have no doubt that it makes a huge difference. It would be interesting to ask the scores of schoolkids who use the Severn Beach line to get to Cotham, Colston's and Redland Green schools what mode they switched to during the blockade; my guess is that more than half of them went by car.

As usual (and also an appropriate subject for the question of the future of the Metrowest project) there's absolutely no mention of the fact that the Four Tracking was originally part of the campaign to enable more local trains to be run more often, and was the key to being able to effectively unlock that potential

It's just been sold again as a boost in the Bristol to London services, same as always;

"The two new tracks will also help get services up and running faster when incidents occur and critically the new lines pave the way for an increase in direct London – Bristol Parkway – Bristol Temple Meads services that will be introduced at the end of 2019"

Yes, it will reduce the journey time from BPW to PAD by running directly, but that doesn't - in any way - solve the Greater Bristol transport problems we're still stuck with

In fact it goes on to say how it will help to boost Bristol's economy and growth - which is fantastic - but which just adds yet more footfall and congestion to a local transport system which is already years behind being able to cope with the existing living & working population of the area

I Thought it was this month, That new trains start, do not want to wait that long, starting to go grey?.