Most affordable commuting towns for Bristol

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Personnel today

A new study combining mortgage value and rail prices as established the most cost effective towns in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) when it comes to commuting into major cities.

[snip]

Bristol is increasingly seen as an attractive city to live and work in, with a university that, according to last year’s Times Top 100 Graduate Employers list, is second only to Manchester in terms of graduates most targeted by employers. The most competitive area in reach for commuting in the West Country city is, however, Newport in Wales, where combined mortgage and season ticket costs are £10,166 and the journey time to Bristol Temple Meads is around 40 minutes. Highbridge and Burnham, Somerset, is the next most affordable area, followed by Bridgwater, Caldicot in Wales and Weston-Super-Mare.

[johnneyw]

The most competitive area in reach for commuting in the West Country city is, however, Newport in Wales, where combined mortgage and season ticket costs are £10,166 and the journey time to Bristol Temple Meads is around 40 minutes.

Surely music to SEWWEB's ears.

[grahame]

The most competitive area in reach for commuting in the West Country city is, however, Newport in Wales, where combined mortgage and season ticket costs are £10,166 and the journey time to Bristol Temple Meads is around 40 minutes.

Surely music to SEWWEB's ears.

Newport to Temple Meads annual season - £2,768.00
Newport to Patchway annual season - £2,464.00
Newport to Pilning annual season - £2,768.00

So £9,862 combined costs Newport to Aztec West? 

Even offering an annual season to Pilning seems perverse, as does the pricing. 

Good case for an extra service every hour from Ebbw Vale to Weston-super-mare, by extending the Weston-super-mare all stations to Bristol Parkway Filton Abbey Wood to Patchway, Aztec West, Pilning, Severn Tunnel Junction, Magor?, Newport, Pye Corner, Rogerstone, Risca, Crosskeys, Newbridge, Llanhilleth, Ebbw Vale Parkway and Ebbw Vale Town.

As ever, the big hurdle is in moving a "blindingly obvious" case like SEWWEB to reality.

[grahame]

Sunday - and an opportunity to renew my acquaitance with the line from Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach, starting at the hub with a connection off a train that had popped out of the Severn Tunnel and through Pilning at 11:35 on its way from Birmingham to Plymouth via Newport (engineering diversion).

Newport to Bristol is an interesting study in itself, as Newport is one of the most economic places to live if you work in Bristol these days with low cost housing in Newport.  2 trains an hour on a weekdy, and with a solitary extra Cross Country service in to Bristol in the morning peak.  I remember joining this train at Temple Meads for the journey north and being astonished at the crowds that got off it.  Even Sunday lunchtime and an extra train that had plenty of seats for all from Gloucester was full with a few standing into Temple Meads.  And so onto the 12:22 out to "The Beach" which got there at 12:59.  Irony, of course, that Severn Beach station is less that 1km from the mouth of the Severn Tunnel and that it took me over an hour. 

Is Newport / Caldicot to Severn Beach / Severnside an unwanted / atypical journey (someone mentioned Forsinard to Dumfries as an example earlier) - no, I don't think so. It's a short distance (as the crow flies and as the car drives, if not as the train meanders) and from an area that's accommodation-rich to an area that's business-rich.


The morning Cross Country train from Newport has just arrived in Bristol (last October)


Plenty of housing stock near Newport


Plenty of housing stock near Caldicot and Severn Tunnel Junction


On the approach to Severn Beach Station


A train at Severn Beach Station