Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

It's illuminating to compare Portishead's forthcoming provision with Scotland's newish terminus at Leven, opened 2024 with two platforms of 205 metres in length.

Mark

[IndustryInsider]

I never understand the obsession with making it suitable for 5car trains, not 6car.   Especially as the rumours are that Project Churchward (or whatever the class 158, 165, 166 diesel unit replacement is now called) is likely to be 3car suburban units and 5car regional units.   The last I heard was going to be no 2car units.

So if the suburban trains are going to be 3car, or multiples (6, 9 etc) why make the platforms 5car.   

My understanding is that stations like Parson Street & Bedminster were rebuilt in 1930s with platforms over 200m long (although part is now not used) so why have some platforms only about 125m long, not nearer 145m

Totally agree with this if it restricts 6-car operation in the future.

However, new units are very likely to have SDO^▸ (Selective Door Operation) fitted and so therefore as long as six cars can be operated in the future using that I’m not so concerned.

It would also be very useful to have passive provision for extension to six (or even nine) carriages built into the design of Pill and Portishead.

In both cases that does mean making sure platform furniture and starting signals are positioned in a way that doesn’t affect those things from happening.

I can’t imagine Portishead will have a starting signal and the only signals on the branch will be those protecting the route back onto the main line.

[chuffed]

A very good meeting was held yesterday for the over 65s in Portishead at the Youth centre, where we all had to show our bus passes to be admitted...It  was given by the Secretary of PRAG Peter Maliphant giving us the background past, present and future journey of the railway. It was excellent and two interesting points were made in discussion...1) Had a wind assessment been done, given the proposed modular design ( very similar to Ebbw Vale) and the location, given the removal of almost all shelter in the form of trees and bushes ...and 2) was there a case for a Friends of Portishead station to be set up now between PRAG, the Town Council and other interested parties to enhance/embellish the very basic stripped down station building and facilities eg a pop up coffee trike or similar.
A reminder that Network Rail and North Somerset Council are presenting drop in sessions at Somerset hall, Portishead and Pill Community Centre respectively on March 26th and March 31st 3.30 to 7.30 pm

[grahame]

From Somerset Live

Cost of reopening Portishead railway balloons to almost £200m

Government ministers have had to approve an additional £14.69m for the project to reopen the railway between Bristol and Portishead. The scheme is already well underway, with vegetation cleared along the three mile route and work beginning on the construction compounds for the new stations in Pill and Portishead.

The cost of the scheme has increased by almost £50m since January 2025. The scheme had been set to cost £152.01m but inflation and rising costs saw this increase to £182.21m as of July 2025. Now, following the tender process and negotiations to appoint the contractors to deliver the track infrastructure, civil engineering, and signals and controls, the price tag has risen again to £196.9m.

Continues

[ray951]

So costs have increased by 33% in 14 months, although it still undercuts the £234m price tag for just replacing Oxford’s Botley Road bridge.

With costs like these, it’s hard not to question whether large infrastructure schemes, rail especially, remain value for money.

I’m curious where the money ends up, though perhaps that’s best treated as a rhetorical question.

[Mark A]

Wondering how much of the expense is for work to the in-use frieght line vs the cost of work to the out-of-use section & new station at Portishead.

It would be useful to have a single-page schedule from the perpetrators to the effect: 'This is what we need to do and here are the dates when we'll be undertaking those tasks'.

Mark

[eXPassenger]

Wondering how much of the expense is for work to the in-use frieght line vs the cost of work to the out-of-use section & new station at Portishead.

It would be useful to have a single-page schedule from the perpetrators to the effect: 'This is what we need to do and here are the dates when we'll be undertaking those tasks'.

Mark

I would like to add 2 columns to your schedule showing, for each high level task, the budgeted cost at approval and the currently estimated outturn cost.

[IndustryInsider]

I did manage a trip to the area at the end of last month taking some images with a view of returning in a couple of years to see how it has changed.

A small handful are attached, showing:

1)  The approximate site of the new station taken from the current footpath crossing.
2)  The same location looking towards Bristol.
3)  Looking towards Bristol from the Sheepway Bridge just out of town.
4)  Looking towards Bristol from the bridge by the old station at Portbury with old station building and platforms in view.

Track mostly lifted with the big work looking mostly 'ready to go'.

The X4 bus provided an excellent means of achieving all this as it stops near to all locations I needed to visit, which also included Pill and the site of the old station at Ashton Gate .  The main hinderance of it being that I had to walk a mile or so from Temple Meads to catch it from The Centre stop, and on the way back a similar length of walk from Bower Ashton to Parson Street station.  That does though demonstrate that the two services should be able to co-exist and complement, rather than compete, with each other as there will be a clear winner depending on where you are going to.

I can certainly recommend it to forum members as an interesting way to while away a day as there's plenty of things both new and old to see.

Update for Graham: I can't get the images to attach to the post - all four are under 4096kb but it times out with:

The following error or errors occurred while posting this message:
Your session timed out while posting. Please try to re-submit your message.
No subject was filled in.
The message body was left empty. - fixed

[grahame]

Update for Graham: I can't get the images to attach to the post - all four are under 4096kb but it times out with:

The following error or errors occurred while posting this message:
Your session timed out while posting. Please try to re-submit your message.
No subject was filled in.
The message body was left empty.

I have taken a look at our server operations and nothing out of the ordinary is being flagged up.  I can't be sure what the issues is (but I can make half a guess) - if you can email me the pictures I can take a look / have a go - complete the post, and also (maybe) offer an explanation; that will be this afternoon.   " graham @ sn12 . net "   

[IndustryInsider]

I have taken a look at our server operations and nothing out of the ordinary is being flagged up.  I can't be sure what the issues is (but I can make half a guess) - if you can email me the pictures I can take a look / have a go - complete the post, and also (maybe) offer an explanation; that will be this afternoon.   " graham @ sn12 . net "   

Thanks, Graham - images emailed to you.

For info I did try on two browsers, Firefox and Edge, and got the same result both times.

[grahame]

I have taken a look at our server operations and nothing out of the ordinary is being flagged up.  I can't be sure what the issues is (but I can make half a guess) - if you can email me the pictures I can take a look / have a go - complete the post, and also (maybe) offer an explanation; that will be this afternoon.   " graham @ sn12 . net "   

Thanks, Graham - images emailed to you.

For info I did try on two browsers, Firefox and Edge, and got the same result both times.

OK - I have them.   Not quite the problem I had guessed!  They are very high resolution indeed.  The attachment code on the forum sorts expands images fully (pixel by pixel) as it saves them - it's done as a security check to make sure there are no nasties in there an that visitors are really getting a .jpg and not a virus.   I think I can bring them down from "print quality" to "web quality" and that will probably fix it.

OK - fixed.  I images now on original post. I will come back and tidy up the thead / perhaps worth splitting out the issue you found into "News and assistance"

[IndustryInsider]

That’s great - thanks, Graham.

From my Canon R5C so yes high resolution- though I purposefully reduced the file size to be within the specified maximum, I can see how the image resolution might still have been too much to handle and I’ll remember that for next time.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I did manage a trip to the area at the end of last month taking some images with a view of returning in a couple of years to see how it has changed.
...

The X4 bus provided an excellent means of achieving all this as it stops near to all locations I needed to visit, which also included Pill and the site of the old station at Ashton Gate .  The main hinderance of it being that I had to walk a mile or so from Temple Meads to catch it from The Centre stop, and on the way back a similar length of walk from Bower Ashton to Parson Street station.  That does though demonstrate that the two services should be able to co-exist and complement, rather than compete, with each other as there will be a clear winner depending on where you are going to.

I can certainly recommend it to forum members as an interesting way to while away a day as there's plenty of things both new and old to see.

With many thanks to IndustryInsider for his update post here, may I also resurrect a parallel topic, at https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=31490.0 ?

I remain keen to do this, particularly now we have some rather warmer weather and more daylight.  Any takers?

CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum).