Bristol Temple Meads - station, facilities, incidents and events (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

It doesn't have a platform 14. 

[Lee]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bedminster-station-become-new-terminus-5298615

A minor train station on the mainline into Bristol is to become the new railway terminus for passengers arriving in the city.

Bedminster train station, around a mile or so away from Temple Meads, will act as the main terminus for all trains coming in to Bristol from the south west, including Penzance, Plymouth, Exeter and Weston-super-Mare.

The creation of this new terminus is only temporary - and will last for as long as it takes Network Rail to complete what it describes as an 'exciting programme of rail regeneration' around Bristol.

The work on the layout of the tracks at the Bristol East junction just to the north-east of Temple Meads will affect the city's main station for at least eight weeks this summer, and mean for a time trains won't be able to reach Temple Meads from the south west.

So instead, they will stop at Bedminster station - and that means the tiny, unmanned, two-platform station will have to accommodate the long, inter-city high speed train services.

So before work starts on the Bristol East junction, Network Rail have now begun work to lengthen the platforms at Bedminster, so it can become the new terminus for Bristol.

(article continues)

[grahame]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bedminster-station-become-new-terminus-5298615

So before work starts on the Bristol East junction, Network Rail have now begun work to lengthen the platforms at Bedminster, so it can become the new terminus for Bristol.

(article continues)

Not so much lengthening the platform .... more repairing the bit that's fallen into disuse!   Marketing slant above - reality below!

"To get Bedminster station ready, we need to temporarily bring a section of disused platform back into use, to accommodate longer trains," a spokesperson for Network Rail said.

[Lee]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bedminster-station-become-new-terminus-5298615

So before work starts on the Bristol East junction, Network Rail have now begun work to lengthen the platforms at Bedminster, so it can become the new terminus for Bristol.

(article continues)

Not so much lengthening the platform .... more repairing the bit that's fallen into disuse!   Marketing slant above - reality below!

"To get Bedminster station ready, we need to temporarily bring a section of disused platform back into use, to accommodate longer trains," a spokesperson for Network Rail said.

Much as I hate letting Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) off the hook, you can more blame me for that - I felt I had to chop the article off somewhere lest I contravene some copyright law or other 


Edit:VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[Bmblbzzz]

Will bustitutes be laid on to provide transport for passengers continuing to Birmingham and other points beyond Temple Meads? And will there be staff at Bedminster to tell confused arrivals where they are, why they're there, what's going on and how to continue their journeys?

[Lee]

Will bustitutes be laid on to provide transport for passengers continuing to Birmingham and other points beyond Temple Meads? And will there be staff at Bedminster to tell confused arrivals where they are, why they're there, what's going on and how to continue their journeys?

Can you imagine if no staff were provided at Bedminster for this purpose?

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore..."

I know it's completely different circumstances, but it puts me in mind of how the uninitiated passengers must have felt after Nottingham Victoria station was closed in the late 1960s, and they found themselves alighting at the recently reopened, but still derelict Arkwright Street station instead.

[Trowres]

I missed Arkwright Street by a few years; sadly. The atmosphere of decay is captured by some excellent pictures (not mine) at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/albums/72157687941513193/with/36958928364/

[grahame]

Will bustitutes be laid on to provide transport for passengers continuing to Birmingham and other points beyond Temple Meads? And will there be staff at Bedminster to tell confused arrivals where they are, why they're there, what's going on and how to continue their journeys?

The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website summarises as follows at present:

Further rail improvement work is planned this summer affecting the following routes:
Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood – Saturday 10 July to Friday 6 August
Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood/Keynsham – Saturday 7 August
all services via Bristol Temple Meads – Sunday 8 August
Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood/Keynsham – Monday 9 to Friday 13 August
Bristol Temple Meads to Keynsham – Saturday 14 to Monday 30 August
all services via Bristol Temple Meads – Tuesday 31 August to Friday 3 September

That's very much a "feature" rather than "benefit" report - telling people where the railway will be closed, rather that how the passengers will make their journeys.  And further reference would need to be made to the Cross Country site and the South Western Railway sites to find out what they have to say about their services.    National Rail Enquires which should be a source or planning information across all train operator only lets me ask about dates up to early July.

Information at this point would lead me to guess that Cross Country might bustitute over a longer distance - from Taunton rather than from Bedminster - to avoid getting through passengers tied up on buses in the inner city. Just possible they could run some trains Taunton - Westbury - Swindon (reverse) - Stroud - Cheltenham Spa.  And a further guess would be that South Western Railway will not run any of their trains north of Westbury during periods they cannot get into Temple Meads.

Innovative solutions - such as running services coming up from Westbury via the Rhubarb Loop and calling at Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road for onward connections to Severn Beach, or running through services from south of Bristol onto Filton Bank through St Philip's Marsh and the Rhubarb loop look unlikely - especially with the news about Bedminster terminators. In reality, not sure how practical that would be / whether the will would be there.

[infoman]

Going via St Philips marsh

1)Is it available for passengers use?

2)if it is,
I think that it was not used due to congestion with sets going on or coming off the depot, although I don't know how many ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) trains use St Philips marsh nowadays.

[eXPassenger]

Going via St Philips marsh

1)Is it available for passengers use?

2)if it is,
I think that it was not used due to congestion with sets going on or coming off the depot, although I don't know how many ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) trains use St Philips marsh nowadays.

This has been discussed on another forum, particularly with regard to XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) trains using the Rhubarb Loop and St Philips Marsh.  The conclusion was that it was not signalled for passenger trains and it would interfere with the working of the depot.

[TonyK]

Will bustitutes be laid on to provide transport for passengers continuing to Birmingham and other points beyond Temple Meads? And will there be staff at Bedminster to tell confused arrivals where they are, why they're there, what's going on and how to continue their journeys?

Bedminster station, despite its many attributes, is not somewhere that would be easy to run coaches from. Graham's idea of longer distance bustitution has considerable merit. For Crosscountry, the idea of diversion via Westbury and the Rhubarb loop, using Lawrence Hill to dump Bristol passengers, looks good apart from capacity. I suppose it could be a goer on weekends.

Can you imagine if no staff were provided at Bedminster for this purpose?

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore..."

I know it's completely different circumstances, but it puts me in mind of how the uninitiated passengers must have felt after Nottingham Victoria station was closed in the late 1960s, and they found themselves alighting at the recently reopened, but still derelict Arkwright Street station instead.

Arkwright? That's Tonto, surely.

[brooklea]

This link https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/bristol currently takes you to a page from where you can access more detail - no idea why there’s not a link to it provided from the page you’ve quoted from grahame.

Will bustitutes be laid on to provide transport for passengers continuing to Birmingham and other points beyond Temple Meads? And will there be staff at Bedminster to tell confused arrivals where they are, why they're there, what's going on and how to continue their journeys?

The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website summarises as follows at present:

Further rail improvement work is planned this summer affecting the following routes:
Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood – Saturday 10 July to Friday 6 August
Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood/Keynsham – Saturday 7 August
all services via Bristol Temple Meads – Sunday 8 August
Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood/Keynsham – Monday 9 to Friday 13 August
Bristol Temple Meads to Keynsham – Saturday 14 to Monday 30 August
all services via Bristol Temple Meads – Tuesday 31 August to Friday 3 September

That's very much a "feature" rather than "benefit" report - telling people where the railway will be closed, rather that how the passengers will make their journeys.  And further reference would need to be made to the Cross Country site and the South Western Railway sites to find out what they have to say about their services.    National Rail Enquires which should be a source or planning information across all train operator only lets me ask about dates up to early July.

Information at this point would lead me to guess that Cross Country might bustitute over a longer distance - from Taunton rather than from Bedminster - to avoid getting through passengers tied up on buses in the inner city. Just possible they could run some trains Taunton - Westbury - Swindon (reverse) - Stroud - Cheltenham Spa.  And a further guess would be that South Western Railway will not run any of their trains north of Westbury during periods they cannot get into Temple Meads.

Innovative solutions - such as running services coming up from Westbury via the Rhubarb Loop and calling at Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road for onward connections to Severn Beach, or running through services from south of Bristol onto Filton Bank through St Philip's Marsh and the Rhubarb loop look unlikely - especially with the news about Bedminster terminators. In reality, not sure how practical that would be / whether the will would be there.

[Red Squirrel]

Passed through Temple Meads yesterday (which means - yes! - I have broken my rail-fast; first trip by train since Feb 2020!)

Work is progressing on putting up the scaffolding for the roof repairs:



Still quite a bit to do.

Each of the white hoardings around the legs of the scaffolding has its own security-coded door! Presumably this is to allow access to tighten up any nuts that come loose?

There were also signs of activity at Bristol East:


Image: Carol Durrant, FoSBR^» (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways - site)

[paul7575]

That new gantry looks elaborate enough to easily convert into a footbridge, but at least on the positive side it’ll definitely be high enough for overhead wires...

Paul

[Red Squirrel]

That new gantry looks elaborate enough to easily convert into a footbridge, but at least on the positive side it’ll definitely be high enough for overhead wires...

Paul

Yes - it quite literally puts the old one in the shade!