Wilton Parkway - a new railway station for South West Wiltshire

[whole diary]

[grahame]

[Edit] - jump ((here)) - reply no. 36! for 18.3.2021 meeting down thread

First launch today at Wilton ...

A new station immediately adjacent to the existing Salisbury Park & Ride facility at Wilton, on the Salisbury-Bristol railway line, and only 6 miles south of Stonehenge, can : -
^ Provide new capacity for passengers to access the National Rail Network using direct trains to London, Southampton, Swindon, Bristol and Cardiff
^ Support sustainable access to Salisbury with a highly attractive 5 minute journey time
^ Offer a fast, high capacity rail-bus link to the World Heritage Site at Stonehenge

TransWilts and Wilton Town Council are pleased to start discussions in 2015 with local stakeholders, Wiltshire Council, the Swindon and Wiltshire LEP^» (Local Enterprise Partnership - about), English Heritage, the Department for Transport, Network Rail, First Great Western (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) and South West Trains to begin the development of the case for this exciting scheme.

From the proposal leaflet published today at:

http://atrebatia.info/WiltonParkway_2015_09.pdf

See how this fits in with TransWilts vision 2020 via:

http://transwilts.org/tw/index.php

I was there - will write it up after a cup of coffee.   Not the easiest trips with displays and brochures as they haven't got the station ... yet.

[grahame]

Wilton was the ancient capital of Wessex - it's "Older than England" they say, and it lies about 3 miles to the west of Salisbury.   Heading out from Salisbury by train, the line divides with one line quickly becoming single and heading out vis Sherbourne, Yeovil and Honiton to Exeter. The other line head north west though the Wylye valley to Warminster and Westbury, and is double tracked.

Looking back to 1950, there were two stations at Wilton - but Wilton North on the Westbury line closed in the mid 1950s, with Wilton South on the Exeter line suriving until the 1960s on what was, at that time, also a double tracked line.

Times have moved on, and times have changed. Congestion and parking problems in Salisbury lead to "park and ride" being provided virtually adjacent to the railway line at Wilton, to serve Salisbury City visitors. And Salisbury's main station has car parks bursting at the seams, with little easy prospect of expansion. Wilton has an expanding leisure trade - with Wilton House and Wilton Carpet factory both being transformations of facilities which previously had few pleasure visitors now looking to atttact such visitors in significant numbers, And just eight miles away, the new visitor's centre at Stonehenge already has a shortage of car parking for visitors.

We've established on another thread here that stations such as West Brompton and Sowton and Digby - closed in "pre-Beeching" days - have been successfully reopened, and perhaps now is the time to ask the question "what about a station at Wilton?"  Observant readers of the TransWilts CIC^▸ (Community Interest Company ) web site ( http://www.transwilts.org ) will have seen Wilton shown as a potential new station, and today that was taken a step forward with the launch of early seeding work, including costings operational matters and sample plans and impressions at the Wilton Business Fair at the Witon Carpet Factory.   I was delighted to be able to assist at that launch and although I'm not the project lead / project manager in any way on this, I'm well enough informed to fill you in here.   I'm writing in chunks, though, as I can.

[grahame]

Wilton Parkway is proposed as a two platfom (6 car each) station on the Westbury line, to the west of the bridge which carries "The Avenue" up from the main A36 / A30 roundabout in Wilton.   Just to the north of the line, and at a higher elevation, is Wilton Park and Ride.  A new station building is proposed on the southen edge of this car park, with pedestrian access from the car park, and a small "kiss and ride" area and disabled spaces. A bridge leading level from the station building would take passengers over the platforms, to which they would descent using staircases or lifts.

Passenger flows to be catered for at Wilton Parkway would include outgoing "Park and Ride" traffic to Salisbury, to London and to Southampton Airport. Even today - perhaps the busiest Park and Ride day of the week - the car park was only around half full, with vehicles primarily parked away from where the station sould be.  Passengers arriving at the station by car would come from the West of Salisbury area, with a good link also from the A303 - providing a logical point for a wide area's traffic for London as Tiverton Parkway does for North Devon and North Cornwall.

Style a station "Parkway", plop it on the edge of a township, and there's the $64,000 question "will the folks of the town welcome the station into their midst?".  The answer is overwhelmingly "yes" for Wilton, if today's discussions with elected people, official, representatives and residents is anything to go by. For it does things for the town too ...

Wilton itself is growing rapidly - standing on the bridge to take a picture of the proposed station site today, I had only to turn round to see housing developmeent directly behind me - and this is "major stuff" as the whole site of the former HQ^▸ (Headquarters) of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) Land Forces is redeveloped.  Existing residents seem happy that their property values can only benefit from a local station - with estate agents commenting that "West of Salibury but commutable" requirements tend to mean "Tisbury please" at the moment.

The Carpet Factory and Wilton House, together with a pleasant town centre, riveside, etc, already attract incoming traffic and can attact more. And the Park and Ride is also a logical place from which to operate buses for incoming rail passengers to Stonehenge - again clear of Salisbury City Centre, and with the new visitor's centre for the Henge being about a mile west of the stones, Wilton is now the nearst logical railhead. Then there' Salisbury racecourse ...

[JayMac]

Are there no plans for platforms on the SWML^▸ (South Western Mail Line) then?

[grahame]

Are there no plans for platforms on the SWML^▸ (South Western Mail Line) then?

Such platforms are not included in the proposals, but the early GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) stages require a wide range of alternatives to be looked to see if they're better alternatives.  Indications are that stopping on the Exeter line would lead to timing / capacity issues on the Salisbury - Tisbury section without an extension of the double tracked section (or an additional loop!).  Even with platforms only on the Exeter line, it would involve the extra cost of a considerably longer access approach walk from the station building were it to be as shown in the plans, or a walk out to The Avenue and a slope in from there of lifts down from the main public road.  This would increase the car-to-train distance significantly no matter how it was done, and stopping Stonehenge / Racecourse buses on The Avenue would cause significant traffic disruption / not naturally easy to provide a lay-by there, and the vehicles would have to run down to the A36 / A30 roundabout and go all round it - that roundabout is not exactly quiet ...

With platforms on the SWML, you're also looking at putting a station up behind people's homes, with increased noise from stop-start of diesel trains;  I'm not personally sure of overlook / privacy issues but there may be some.

The operational issues that I mentioned at the start and need to fix them would bring significant cost, and having a station on both lines would also bring a significant cost - ballpark estimates indicate that Westbury line alone is much the most affordable option. Should capacity become an issue and a further investment be justified, you will note from the artist's impressions that the footbridge could run on to platforms 3 and 4 (or 0 and -1) - of course in that scenario, the "landside" and station building might have capacity issues.

[Timmer]

This is an excellent proposal and much needed.

[grahame]

Continuing this series of comments ... here are some concerns that have been raised.  In some ways, this posting highlights a minority of responses which are not typical of the vast majority which are positive and trusting;  I'm happy with positive and questioning - just one of these issues gives me serious concern

"It does nothing for me"

Upon discussion with the gentlemen concerned, he was probably right. But he certainly agreed it does a lot for others, and won't adversely effect him.  So he's indifferent not objecting.

"It will cause traffic issues at the A36 / A30 roundabout"

This from a "transport expert" we called himself who suggested that only Wilton residents knew about the issues, and refused to give me an email address, a name, or any way to get back to him with answers. "If you want my support you need to answer my questions".   Fair enough - the experts can put numbers onto this - but please provide contact details. "I'll bring this up at planning".  Oh dear ...

And yet ... I suspect not an issue for the planners.   There's no more parking going in and the decision has already been made for the parking that's there and all the work done.   If anything there will be less traffic on that roundabout than planned if P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) buses become partly P&R trains.  And with  people doing P&R to further locations not just Salisbury, it will be far more spread out and not the peak problem this gent anticipated.

"It will block access to the field off the Avenue"

Not really; the Park and Ride road will still give the access, and with trains calling all day / every day, there will no longer be a 19:30 closure.  Indeed access from any housing built on the field on to the main Avenue will be safer as it will be at a roundabout, and not at a T junction that would have been awkardly close to that roundabout.

"It will make my home noisier with trains stopping and starting"

The person in question owns a house backing onto the Exeter line ... on looking at the plans and with the station on the Westbury line, the person was no longer worried.

"Why are you suggesting this when you don't know how it will be paid for"

Until we have rough budget costs (which we now have) and at least preliminary business cases and opertional checks made, and until other options to handle the same flows arelooked at, or course we don't know about the funding.  There are several clear and good potentials, but until the scheme is worked from an idea to early checks, and from early checks through to a "shovel ready" fully prepared case, no-one is going to commit to an open-ended project with an ill-defined reurn.  The operational, business and financial cases need to be worked in parallel - and are being.

I'm not one to stand up and boast, but TransWilts has considerable rail and project experience, and it is notable that there is active involvement and support from within all three elements of the partnership to help this move forward. And the drawings / consultancy work undertaken so far (that you can see in the leaflet / .pdf) has been by an organisation who've done it before right through to stations that are now open.   The first comparison case I offer you is Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway.

[grahame]

Some pictures from the launch yesterday - with John Glen MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), Horace Prickett (Portfolio holder on Wiltshire Council for public Transport), Area board and town council representatives and members of the public. Also local press and publicity.











To follow - pictures / details from on site, information / thoughts on services, and how the proposal goes forward.

[Southernman]

The downside of not having platforms on the Exeter line is of course that passengers from the London direction for Stonehenge/Wilton will have to change trains (usually) at Salisbury. Will the current service level of trains on the Westbury line be able to deal with the number of passengers forecast?

[grahame]

Will the current service level of trains on the Westbury line be able to deal with the number of passengers forecast?

Love the question.   Great starting point for the next element in the story.

The downside of not having platforms on the Exeter line is of course that passengers from the London direction for Stonehenge/Wilton will have to change trains (usually) at Salisbury.

There's a train at 09:20 from Waterloo that runs through Wilton Parkway at around 10:55 ... and a train that runs through Wilton Parkway at around 17:05 to Waterloo.  Pretty much "spot on" for a day trip our of London for Stonehenge ...

Current services between Westbury and Salisbury are "curiously erratic" or "perverse" depending on which local government input to rail consultations that you read.  Part of the cause of that is that this section is at the outer end of some services, with it being in the middle of some other long distance services with the trains just happening to pass through at certain times, or are there to provide connections not for local traffic but from the West to Southampton. Add that the SLC^▸ (Service Level Commitment) rule for Dilton Marsh requires juggling to meet the letter of the law without having to hire in extra resource or shorten peak trains elsewhere.   Then you have the very unusual situation of some trains heading for the biggest urban conurbation and City for many miles (Salisbury) and stopping 1 station short because "there's a long gap and not a single station between to serve".

There are already changes afoot - for example the new 10:20 London Waterloo to Yeovil via Frome starts in December, together with another down and two up services on the same route.  Further changes / recasts are almost inevitable as services through Westbury change with the coming of IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) and AT300, and with the cascading of Thames Turbos, and early timetabling / planning work for that is very much aware of issues and aspirations. Take a look at TransWilts Vision 2020 aspirations, and the cases join up. Take a look at the competitive SW refranchise and you'll find that the potential bidders are likely to have these matters on their radar ...

So - could current trains cope?   Possibly not, but then that would be current wasted spare capacity.  Could trains that will be running after the changes that will come?  Yes, it's planned that they will.  Of course, TransWilts was asked to do 45k journeys in the first year on Swindon - Westbury and did 183,400.  If we do the same overrun at Wilton Parkway, they'll probably have to find a second Stonehenge to cope with all the rail visitors.

[stuving]

... they'll probably have to find a second Stonehenge to cope with all the rail visitors.

They just did. Well, a row of monoliths, anyway. They do happen to be buried under an earth bank, so you'd need to give visitors a ground-probing radar to see them, but either Apple or Google is probably already working on making that affordable.

[grahame]

Article in the latest Rail magazine ...

http://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/2015/10/28/new-station-planned-for-wiltshire

Designs have been unveiled for a new Wilton Parkway station, near Salisbury in Wiltshire.

The station would be built alongside an existing bus park and ride site, close to the former Wilton North station that closed in 1955. It would be on the Salisbury to Bristol line, and be part of the TransWilts route across the county (RAIL 781).

[grahame]

Interesting technical discussion on RMWeb ...
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/104492-wilton-station/

[grahame]

From the Salisbury Journal

Plans on track for Wilton station which could be built next to hotel and 250 new homes

PLANS for a new train station in Wilton are on track, with those leading the project saying it is likely to be part of a wider development involving around 200 to 250 homes and a hotel.

Work on Wilton Parkway, which began in 2015, is making “significant progress”, according to Paul Johnson, the chairman of the community transport partnership group TransWilts.

Speaking at a meeting in Wilton on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said the results on its business case which looks at passenger number forecast for the station are expected to be published next month.

[continues]

[grahame]

From City Metric

Where did England’s counties get their names?

There are three other shires where the origin of the first bit of the name is, at least to modern eyes, a bit mysterious. Wiltshire is only confusing because the town it’s named for, Wilton, has descended into obscurity. It’s still there – but with a population of under 4,000, and no railway stations, it’s been almost completely over-shadowed by its near neighbour Salisbury, which is 10 times the size.

See article for other counties ...