Weston to Severn Beach experimental service

[whole diary]

[jakemonkfish]

I saw a reference to this on the railfuture website ( hidden in the text of the Dec 2008 magazine). I presume this is an extension/diversion of the existing service to Parkway?

[G.Uard]

The 18:15 weekday dep from WSM runs through to AVN.  Presumably the reason it is usually formed of a 143.  On the few times I have worked it, (yes we do most of Bristol's work for them as well ), through loadings have been relatively light, but the train is always busy from BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains).

[bemmy]

It would be great for me if there were regular stopping services from Weston to Avonmouth/Severn Beach that I could catch from Parson St, but any report I've read has always ruled this out. I don't know if this is for operational reasons or because more people from North Somerset want to go to Filton and Parkway than to the areas served by the 10 stations of the Severn Beach line.

For me, it's quicker to walk to Clifton than get the train or bus as there are no direct services on either mode. I never go to Filton or Parkway but would travel to Lawrence Hill, Stapleton Rd, Montpelier, Clifton Down and Avonmouth if it was possible from Parson St (the first two are possible outward but there's only one return train). If only they would organise the railways for my convenience! 

[Chris from Nailsea]

In an ideal world, we'd have services running between Portishead and Avonmouth / Severn Beach (or even beyond), via Parson Street and Bristol Temple Meads, to allow even more options!

As G.Uard says, services out of Bristol in the evenings are generally well used.

[bemmy]

In an ideal world, we'd have services running between Portishead and Avonmouth / Severn Beach (or even beyond), via Parson Street and Bristol Temple Meads, to allow even more options!

In the meantime, it would be nice if Severn Beach services could be extended somewhere, whether towards Weston or Bath, because it would enable the half hourly service that the line needs to make it a credible suburban service.

For the cost of an extra unit and crew, you could replace the hourly Weston-Parkway service and the sort-of-forty-minutely Avonmouth/Severn Beach trains with a half hourly Weston-Avonmouth service, with connections at Temple Meads for Filton & Parkway. The Taunton-Cardiff trains would also still provide services from North Somerset to Filton. The losers would be St Andrews Rd & Severn Beach, who would have to get the bus again unless another unit was found, and those passengers who would lose their direct trains to Filton. However the North Somerset stations would gain an extra train an hour and Bristol would finally get a proper suburban service linking 11 stations within the city.

It won't happen though because there's no-one to fund an extra train.

[John R]

A lot of commuters travel from North Somerset stations to Filton and Parkway and would be extremely disgruntled at the change.

Besides, I can't see the Weston line justifying 3 tph off peak, and in the peak the line is full to capacity, both the main line and the single line to Weston.

[bemmy]

Realistically you're absolutely right, but if a subsidy was available, the capacity could be improved by four tracking to Parson St, part redoubling to Weston and reinstating the bay platform there, and a couple of additional peak commuter services to Parkway could be provided. Overall it could be a relatively cheap package to provide what I think they call a "step change" in cross-Bristol services, but it would require a level of funding that doesn't exist around here, and it certainly isn't First's job to provide additional loss-making services.