Pilning - the station, services, viability and closure of down platform - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[grahame]

07:54 Cardiff Central to Taunton due 10:06

This train will be started from Bristol Temple Meads.It will no longer call at: Cardiff Central, Newport South Wales, Severn Tunnel Jn, Pilning, Patchway and Filton Abbey Wood.This is due to an earlier train fault.

08:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 11:52

This train has been revised.It will call additionally at: Pilning.This is due to an earlier train fault.

[Brucey]

The passengers (if any) would be standing at Pilning quite a while if a replacement was not provided... 

[JayMac]

Indeed. Good job that later Cardiff departure called at Pilning. Should there have been pax waiting and no alternative train was laid on they could've faced a 168 hour delay to their journey. 

[grahame]

Dave Wood On Track column: Two trains a week from Pilning Station? Where is the sense in this

Read more: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Dave-Wood-Track-column-trains-week-Pilning/story-25995240-detail/story.html?

LEADERS from Bristol, Cardiff and Newport met to discus the priorities for stimulation on the Severn Region's economy in the years to come.

[snip]

I would like to draw attention to Pilning railway station, South Gloucestershire. This station has two functioning good platforms, a footbridge connecting the two platforms, and original station building that was a messing room, toilet for railway maintenance workers/welders/patrolmen on the up platform to Bristol, to the best of my knowledge now used by a building company.

This station has only two passenger trains a week calling at it on a Saturday. This means people living on Severnside on the Bristol side of the Bristol Channel working in South Wales have to travel by car, bus, to Bristol Parkway or Patchway stations and get a train to South Wales. Where is the sense in this?

[snip]

Although Pilning is in South Gloucestershire, and George Ferguson is a Bristol Mayor, surely Mr Ferguson could talk to South Gloucestershire Council, West of England Partnership who are the body over-seeing the MetroWest train package, involve Network Rail and come to a agreement to run more passenger trains from Pilning station to South Wales.

Mr Ferguson wants to stimulate the Severn Region's economy in years to come. Transport links are vital to this, Pilning station is on the Great Western main line route to South Wales via the Severn Tunnel, which will be electrified by 2017.

Put more stopping passengers trains to Pilning in South Gloucestershire and make it easier for people/rail passengers in Severnside to get to their work destinations in South Wales.

David Wood, Rail Maritime and Transport Union , Bristol

Written in a personal capacity.

[Rhydgaled]

With electrification, if (as I think should happen) the Cardiff-Taunton service becomes a Swansea-Bristol EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) and the faster Cardiff-Portsmouth in the other half-hour is retained (which presumably would remain a DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit)) would there be any capacity hit from stopping the Swansea-Bristol EMU at additional stops, eg. Pilning?

[TonyK]

Dave Wood On Track column: Two trains a week from Pilning Station? Where is the sense in this

Read more: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Dave-Wood-Track-column-trains-week-Pilning/story-25995240-detail/story.html?

LEADERS from Bristol, Cardiff and Newport met to discus the priorities for stimulation on the Severn Region's economy in the years to come.

[snip]

I would like to draw attention to Pilning railway station, South Gloucestershire. This station has two functioning good platforms, a footbridge connecting the two platforms, and original station building that was a messing room, toilet for railway maintenance workers/welders/patrolmen on the up platform to Bristol, to the best of my knowledge now used by a building company.

This station has only two passenger trains a week calling at it on a Saturday. This means people living on Severnside on the Bristol side of the Bristol Channel working in South Wales have to travel by car, bus, to Bristol Parkway or Patchway stations and get a train to South Wales. Where is the sense in this?

[snip]

Although Pilning is in South Gloucestershire, and George Ferguson is a Bristol Mayor, surely Mr Ferguson could talk to South Gloucestershire Council, West of England Partnership who are the body over-seeing the MetroWest train package, involve Network Rail and come to a agreement to run more passenger trains from Pilning station to South Wales.

Mr Ferguson wants to stimulate the Severn Region's economy in years to come. Transport links are vital to this, Pilning station is on the Great Western main line route to South Wales via the Severn Tunnel, which will be electrified by 2017.

Put more stopping passengers trains to Pilning in South Gloucestershire and make it easier for people/rail passengers in Severnside to get to their work destinations in South Wales.

David Wood, Rail Maritime and Transport Union , Bristol

Written in a personal capacity.

The reasons for what is known as a "Parliamentary Service" have been correctly described in earlier posts and remain valid. David Wood lists the many attractions and facilities to be found at Pilning station, but omits to say what is not to be found, which is basically Pilning. Much of Pilning lies closer to Severn Beach station than to Pilning's, making it currently less attractive to passengers.

So why not close it? South Gloucestershire is an expansionist authority, fond of the smell of council tax and Section 106 receipts. Pilning may yet achieve the critical mass or geographic spread to merit a meaningful service. Capacity is lacking at present, but electrification and re-signalling may solve that problem, but only if there is political will.

With the population to support it, Pilning could provide useful links to Parkway and beyond, and to Temple Meads via Patchway. EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) services would be better able to manage this without getting in the way of other services. To answer Rhydgaled's question, capacity can probably be found. Political will and operator enthusiasm may be much harder to come by.

[grahame]

This forum started up at a time that we feared for the future of the train service on the TransWilts line, and services calling at Melksham Station.  For a two week period, the line was closed for engineering works, with a rail replacement bus running in its place, and we had very real fears that the trains wouldn't restart once the line was reopened, but rather the bus would continue. At the time there were five services eash way a day (4 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday), but with a specification for the upcoming franchise that only required 2 each way per day on Monday to Saturday, and just 2 northbound on Sunday. Examples such as Wedgwood and Barlaston, Etruria and Norton Bridge, Watford West and Croxley Green were in our minds.

I'm delighted how things have moved forward ...
1. * Getting people to realise the future should be reviewed
2. * Getting the review to work out what an appropriate service was
3. * Getting that approriate service running (if a service was indeed approrpiate)
4. * Getting that service to work well and to tune it as proven
5. * Getitng that service to stick for the longer term

From the last 10 days - four pictures. 

The first shows Melksham Station on Saturday 2nd April 2016, a late morning train to Swindon; the train itself is a 3 coach 158 (longer than our norm, since our service has been linked to the regioanl service rom Portsmouth Harbour during engineering), but the numbers getting on or off are 'nothing special' - no particular event that we or other have organsied out of the ordinary, no loading of the picture with volunteers.



The second picture was taken on the evening of Friday 8th April - at about 17:45.   Some 30 passengers had got off though single door, multiple taxis had been prebooked, at it was a bit of a "zoo" around the station entrance.   As I was arriving and behind others off the train, the picture is more of a reminder that an art piece



The third picture *is* a specially organised event - Wiltshire Ramblers have arrived on 9th April to walk around 8 miles through the countryside to Chippenham



Finally, at Bath Station the A to Z now has an extra section cut onto it - me thinks that they're finding significant requests for times of trains to Melksham



So why the heading "Pilning" ... because I hear comment that the station / service there may quietly be slipping into oblivion in all the current works going on; looking to ask what's happening and raise the flag.   Initially in "The Rumour Mill" as I'm going on a lack of definite data.   Let me be clear - Pilning is NOT Melksham - just that it may be coming to a point at which people want to be alert and take place in a look at where its future should be.

Note to anyone who follows up in "The Rumour Mill" - as and when the comments I've heard are proven to be substantive, I may move this thread to a public board

[John R]

Pilning is one of those "parly" services that I don't feel has a strong case for revival (unlike say the Stockport to Stalybridge service). 

The station is far enough away from the village that most people would feel the need to use the car for, in which case Severn Beach is just as close.  The village is small enough that it won't generate much traffic, and there's not really a catchment around it which could use it as a railhead.  Finally, given the capacity constraints through the Severn Tunnel, stopping services there may not be as simple operationally as might be expected, particularly given the long signal section through the tunnel.

[grahame]

Pilning is one of those "parly" services that I don't feel has a strong case for revival (unlike say the Stockport to Stalybridge service).  ...

You may well be right, John R ... but I do know that quietly slipping from one train each way a week to zero (but a bus) to a platform fenced off to a platform with no footbridge to access it probably doesn't have the feel of due process.

The purpose of my post is to ask "are we at a crossroads as we were on the TransWilts ten years ago". If the answer is yes, it's sensible to take a look-see

1. * Getting people to realise the future should be reviewed
2. * Getting the review to work out what an appropriate service was

And see what the answer is to question 2.   

[JayMac]

Isn't Pilning maintained for emergency use should there be issues in the Severn Tunnel?

A useful site to de-train passengers would become less useful if the footbridge were removed and the platforms fenced off.

[The Tall Controller]

The footbridge at Pilning MUST be removed for the installation of wires. The issue is getting Network Rail to spend a couple of million on a brand new footbridge with ramps to replace it.

Whilst there isn't a case to reinstate it on the current situation of the station, the key is understanding whether Pilning has a future worthy of investment.

[TonyK]

Tricky one. Certainly, I was not aware of any great outrage when the service became parliamentary only, for the reasons set out by John R. I know it has miserable passenger figures because of the lack of a real service, but the Severn Beach argument that give it a service and it will generate pax does not seem to apply. If it were nearer the village, maybe.

[Chris from Nailsea]

This subject has been discussed out on the Coffee Shop forum, in more than one topic, in the past: I'd be happy to move and merge such discussions into one definitive topic (without it needing to reach any particular conclusion, obviously!), if we're all happy with that?

[grahame]

This subject has been discussed out on the Coffee Shop forum, in more than one topic, in the past: I'd be happy to move and merge such discussions into one definitive topic (without it needing to reach any particular conclusion, obviously!), if we're all happy with that?

Yes, please Chris - now that we've established that there are very real issues with continining to provide a (usable) train service at Pilning.   You're the merge expert - I'll leave it to you as I often struggle to do it.

[John R]

The footbridge at Pilning MUST be removed for the installation of wires. The issue is getting Network Rail to spend a couple of million on a brand new footbridge with ramps to replace it.

Whilst there isn't a case to reinstate it on the current situation of the station, the key is understanding whether Pilning has a future worthy of investment.

So, the immediate question is whether it's worth spending ^2m on a footbridge for the current level of service. Clearly the answer is no.  The next question is whether the failure to do the work now would add much to the cost at a later date if it were to be decided to reinvigorate the station. I'm guessing the answer to that is that it would be slightly higher, but not by so much as to make a speculative investment of ^2m now on the off chance that it might be needed in the future worthwhile.

So unfortunately, I think it's the right decision, although given how long we've known about electrification, somebody should bite the bullet and go through the proper process.  It's not as though the station has ever had much of a service - e.g. 3 tpd each way throughout the 70s (though admittedly that's rather more than today).