Ten preposterous ideas ...

1. Extend Bristol bound platform over bridge
2. Access ramps rise over river from south bank
3. Three track section to the west becomes main lines on outside with turnback track in centre.
4. Access lifts / escalator in Prezzo Restaurant
5. Re-instate bay plaform at London end / side
6. Make better use of level access already there to car park at London end on London arrival side
7. Make all local trains 5 carriages long and stop them at the end of the platfom where people come on new local entries
8. Could there be a travellator up from the booking hall to the front of the London platform (old bay space)?
9. Could trains run on time to reduce passenger dwell time on platform?
10. Escalator / lifts in bus station to overhead walkway to platform (and across Dorchester Street?)

Agreed there is a quick win there to cut the crowds at the top of the stairs as trains arrived from the east.  But a look at the passenger and public transport flows is needed to come up with the best combination of solutions all around - and that includes flows beyond station property, and flow of trains.  "6" would be good - and would do nothing for the overcrowding on the stairs to the London bound platform or at the top of those stairs.

So glad you didn't stray to the dark side and include a list of footfall-suppression techniques. Particularly evil would be to shape the passenger profile, minimising the numbers who would consider rail to travel with children, pushchairs, luggage, or those that for one reason or other, slow crowd movements down.

Mark

How long ago was this "preposterous" idea put forward as being the gospel truth by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) with regards to the Cardiff - Portsmouth route ? ....................so don't hold your breath for the "local trains".

I wholeheartedly agree with the extra local capacity and especially the doubling of services it brings to Keynsham and Oldfield Park, and the big improvements at Dilton Marsh and between Warminster and Salisbury. Excellent.  What more short trains do, ironically, at Bath Spa is to boost that "hot spot" of people milling about at the top of the stops on the eastbound platform.

Radical question - if the stop boards were moved forward (as they are at Melksham) so that local trains stop away from the platform entrance, would that help spread people out?