New station at Ashley Down, Bristol

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Anyone wishing to join our contingent will be most welcome!

Except grey squirrels, obviously. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

There's a lot of freshly-laundered orange hi-viz there ... 

[Western Pathfinder]

The people who really matter will be there. In the morning I've no doubt.

[johnneyw]

Hmmm, I cannot help but feel that this was a somewhat cynical ploy at hijacking the all the credit where many other individuals and groups did much of the actual campaigning.

[TonyK]

Hmmm, I cannot help but feel that this was a somewhat cynical ploy at hijacking the all the credit where many other individuals and groups did much of the actual campaigning.

To quote Tom Jones, "It's not unusual". Figureheads get the pictures in the Post, not the hordes of planners, plotters, risk assessors, diggers, theodolite holders, equal opportunities officers, rail layers and the like, and they change over the course of any civil engineering project bigger than a new street sign. The plans for Ashley Down station began even before the Mayor for West of England was a thing, IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly), when the Joint Transport Committee for the West of England LEP^» (Local Enterprise Partnership - about) held sway over matters related to stations.

Before this Grand Opening we had the Portway Parkway station, promoted first by Cllr Tim Kent, now a footnote in the political history of Bristol, but with credit taken by a jostling cohort of then-current politicians. It follows that credit for the Portishead line will be taken by someone who wasn't even born when work to reopen it first began (and may not have been born yet, heaven forbid). An angel-voiced child at primary school now could become the red-nosed shouty man with a bell and a dressing-up box who announces "Oyez, oyez, we welcome our first train on this day in the reign of our sovereign George the Seventh", as the head of the Green Party Mayoral Collective for Parts of Bristol steps off their bike to cut the vegan tape with non-sharp scissors.

I hope not, but Bristol and its surrounding authorities  don't have a reputation for dealing with anything quickly, unless it has a ticking fuse.

[johnneyw]

Hmmm, I cannot help but feel that this was a somewhat cynical ploy at hijacking the all the credit where many other individuals and groups did much of the actual campaigning.

To quote Tom Jones, "It's not unusual". Figureheads get the pictures in the Post, not the hordes of planners, plotters, risk assessors, diggers, theodolite holders, equal opportunities officers, rail layers and the like, and they change over the course of any civil engineering project bigger than a new street sign. The plans for Ashley Down station began even before the Mayor for West of England was a thing, IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly), when the Joint Transport Committee for the West of England LEP^» (Local Enterprise Partnership - about) held sway over matters related to stations.

Before this Grand Opening we had the Portway Parkway station, promoted first by Cllr Tim Kent, now a footnote in the political history of Bristol, but with credit taken by a jostling cohort of then-current politicians. It follows that credit for the Portishead line will be taken by someone who wasn't even born when work to reopen it first began (and may not have been born yet, heaven forbid). An angel-voiced child at primary school now could become the red-nosed shouty man with a bell and a dressing-up box who announces "Oyez, oyez, we welcome our first train on this day in the reign of our sovereign George the Seventh", as the head of the Green Party Mayoral Collective for Parts of Bristol steps off their bike to cut the vegan tape with non-sharp scissors.

I hope not, but Bristol and its surrounding authorities  don't have a reputation for dealing with anything quickly, unless it has a ticking fuse.

Make a well known saying out of the following words "ca, change, plus"!   

[grahame]

Let me quote what I read on Faceplant ... from late yesterday (27th September)

Today saw the first passenger service to Ashley Down. This was the grand opening in preparation for the commencement of services tomorrow.

An irony that the first sentence say "today saw the first passenger service" and the second sentence talks about "the commencement of services tomorrow".  I would suggest that yesterday's train wasn't a service, though it might have been a celebration and certainly was a photo opportunity.

Look - it frankly won't matter even next month whether in opened on 27th or 28th September - it won't make much of a difference.  And we should celebrate ... today strikes me as a good day to do so as the first real passengers start to use the station.  I travelled out from the centre of Bristol to Fulton yesterday - started on a train that was going round to The Beach and was pretty lively with people and dropped back at Stapleton Road to a train going up the bank which was carrying more fresh air than people.  We wizzed through the new station that had already had its "grand opening" and I look forward to seeing that local train up the bank being much busier today and from here daily onwards.

The real reward for campaigners and the community and the environment will be to have the service appropriate, robust and well used. 

[grahame]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdenderyjr9o

27 September 2024

The first train has called at a station which closed 60 years ago.

Ashley Down station in Bristol has been re-opened as part of the West of England Combined Authority's work to add or re-open stations, external in the area.

It is hoped the station will reduce congestion around the nearby Memorial Stadium and County Cricket Ground on match days.

Tom Pierpoint, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Business Development Portfolio Director, said: "There's 13,000 people living within a short walk of this station and it will reconnect Ashley Down and Lockleaze to the rail network."

[grahame]

BUSY first trains!   Full report to follow.

[johnneyw]

Quite a celebratory mood on the inaugural service to Ashley Down.  Big turnout too, hopefully eclipsing yesterday's political credit claiming exercise.
Here's a few pics that I took of arriving at Ashley Down and the crowd waiting for the return service to Temple Meads.

[johnneyw]

As a footnote to my above post.  Strolling back from the station, I bumped into an old friend out for a morning jog.  It turns out that that her son lives near the station and is hopeful that it might help with his commute to Yate.

[JayMac]

Could GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) not have re-jigged things and put on a 3 car Turbo for the inaigural passenger service?

A handful of dignitaries got a 3 car yesterday, today just 2 cars for the great unwashed.

[grahame]

Could GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) not have re-jigged things and put on a 3 car Turbo for the inaigural passenger service?

A handful of dignitaries got a 3 car yesterday, today just 2 cars for the great unwashed.

It coped and helped the atmosphere having it so busy!

[fintan_stack]

Watching this with interest.

To the person looking at commuting to and from Yate- the connections at Filton Abbey Wood are very close or just miss so not viable if you have to wait 29 minutes.

To the person asking for a 3 car Turbo- instead of the Bristol TM^‡(resolve) to Filton trains being regularly cancelled as they were all week due to not enough units there's a Severn Beach and a Gloucester circuit cancelled to ensure the opening day of Ashley Down isn't disrupted.

[Chris from Nailsea]

The people who really matter will be there. In the morning I've no doubt.

I spy ... a red squirrel