I too used to work at Aztec West and was surprised that the nearest station was Patchway. Given the density of housing in the immediate area (northern Bradley Stoke and Patchway) there would seem to be some justification for a new station.

How about moving it slightly further north, to the farm land just the other side of the M5, with pedestrian walkways and cyclepaths under the motorway linking it to the office and residential areas. With it's own motorway exit, it could be become a replacement for the now traffic-jammed Bristol Parkway. Perhaps it could be called Patchway Parkway.

I haven't used the car parking at Parkway for years, but the recent building work seems to have made the station more pedestrian-hostile for people trying to walk to the station from the east along Hunts Ground Road.

Unless I'm missing something, people on foot approaching from this direction now have to walk through the ground floor of a multi-storey car-park. I suspect the chances of being knocked over by a car reversing out of a parking space at some times of day is are quite high.

Before the building work, there used to be a fairly wide pedestrian walkway outside of the carpark, leading to the station. Now there's just a narrow poorly marked route through the carpark, sometimes partly blocked by long cars.

At present I'm particularly interested in Nailsea and Yatton, which appear to have identical services currently. Would anyone like to make a guess at whether either or both are likely to improve or deteriorate in the coming years?

Hello -

At present, it seems to me that North Somerset stations such as Nailsea and Yatton have a pretty good train service, including some fast direct services to London.

Would anyone care to speculate whether the service at particular stations is likely to get better or worse in coming years ?

As someone who wants to be able to commute to central Bristol, north Bristol, Birmingham and London by train, which North Somerset stations would it be sensible to buy a house near?

Thanks

In reply to the suggestion about everyone one having their own carriage, if you catch the 0447 from Bristol Templemeads to Paddington, you may well have a carriage to yourself, at least part of the way.

Food smells don't bother me that much on trains, but then I'm a morning person who is hungry at 0447.

I recently bought one of those Casio radio-synchronized watches, and I'm quite surprised at the number of trains that do depart early. It's not unusual for the 0644 from Nailsea to Bristol TempleMeads to lock its doors and start to move while its still 0642.

Maybe the train driver today reads this forum, if so, thanks. The times today were:
Depart Nailsea: 0646 (timetable 0645)
Arrive Bristol: 0657 (on time)
Depart Bristol: 0700 (on time)
So it doesn't seem to be a universal slowdown, just something that affects the majority of days.

The "connection" at Bristol is certainly a tight one, but I reckon early-morning commuters tend to be highly motivated. If the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) arrives at 0656, there's *just* enough time to buy a pie in the subway and still catch the Newcastle train. I agree that the 0700 to Newcastle is extremely punctual.

Until about a month ago the 0645 from Nailsea to Bristol Temple Meads nearly always arrived in Bristol before 0657, allowing sprightly passengers to transfer to other services such as the 0700 to Newcastle. 

About 1 month ago there seems to have been a sudden drop in punctuality. Since then it rarely arrives in Bristol before 0700, and rarely departs before 0704 (it is timetabled to arrive at 0657 and depart at 0700). This makes the Newcastle connection impossible. 

The HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) used for this service seem to have sufficient power to keep to time if "given their head". Any ideas about why this is? Are the drivers being extremely cautious about leaves on the line?

A quick look at the December 23 timetable suggests that it will be retimed to depart Nailsea at 0644, but that won't be enough to allow an on-time departure from Bristol if the current performance continues.