Good growth at stations like Yate and Cam & Dursley, and bizarrely at Parson St, which I can't explain.
I can explain!
1. It's not that long ago that Parson St had one train a day in each direction, so numbers started from an extremely low base.
2. Gradually services have increased to the current level of hourly for most of the day, half hourly in peaks. The extension of trains past Temple Meads to Filton and Parkway has made a big difference too.
3. There's been no publicity about the improved services, so to begin with most of the new trains stopped without anyone getting on or off. It's taken time for word to spread round the workplaces in the Filton area that if you live in South Bristol you can cut out more than half your commuting time by using the train.
4. Since the Dec 2007 timetable change connections have improved, so Parson St is useful not just for travelling towards Weston, but also Bath, Filton, Cardiff and connecting in and out of London trains and
XC▸ services.
5. There is no bus service to Temple Meads from SW Bristol and more people are finding out about the train.
6. The inbound 75/76 bus stop was moved to outside the station a couple of years ago and people from Hartcliffe and Withywood have started changing to and from the train at Parson St.
7. The station looks welcoming nowadays. The entrance used to make it look bleak and scary, a few years back it was renovated with a shelter and vastly improved train information. And there are flowerbeds on the platforms.
8. In comparison with Bedminster, Parson St serves a much larger residential area (most of the houses in central Bedminster were demolished, some as slum clearance, others to make way for a road that was never built). But traditionally more trains have always stopped at Bedminster, which used to serve a lot of workplaces, although most of the factories are long since gone. These days, on the trains I use, there are usually more getting on and off at Parson St than Bedminster.
Could the rise in traffic at Parson St be attributed to the 'rise' of Bristol City FC‡ ?
I doubt it's made a lot of difference, although I expect that passenger numbers have increased on matchdays, probably thanks to greater awareness of the train service as well as the rise in attendances. Now if they brought back the football specials that I remember seeing pulling in, as I crossed the bridge on my way to the ground a few decades ago, we could double our footfall overnight!
