Re-opening Ashley Hill and Horfield?

[jules]

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Lib-Dems ... story.html

So, re-opening Ashley Hill I can fully understand - it would serve not only Ashley Down Road area, but also the lower parts of Lockleaze. Montpelier / Stapleton Road as the closest alternatives don't really serve Ashley Hill's potential coverage area as walkable alternatives. So the case for Ashley Hill appears good.

But Horfield? Seems to me that Filton Abbey Wood is now rather too close to make a Horfield re-opening feasible or desirable in operational terms. It would be a very short hop from FAW to Horfield, similar to Montpelier to Redland, but this time on a main line. Though I can see the case for the immediate catchment area of upper Lockleaze and the mid parts of Filton Avenue.

The same issue has arisen between the existing Shirehampton and the new park-and-ride, or Shirehampton #2 station.

Build the stations but alternate the trains between them perhaps? (Too complex for the public). Or tolerate extended journey times with multiple close together stops? I suppose it comes down to whether Bristol wants a rail service or more of a tram style service ... The one certainty is, it ain't going to happen unless Dr Days to Filton is re-quadrupled - and the forthcoming electrification project would be the ideal and no-brainer opportunity.

[Rich_Eason]

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Lib-Dems ... story.html

But Horfield? Seems to me that Filton Abbey Wood is now rather too close to make a Horfield re-opening feasible or desirable in operational terms. It would be a very short hop from FAW to Horfield, similar to Montpelier to Redland, but this time on a main line.

No shorter than some of the stops on the Birmingham- Lichfield TV routes. Dont forget that the proposal is also to reinstate the 4 lines up through this section so there are a number of alternatives to provide access to platform faces without impeding the mainline services...

[the green mile]

Regardless of how many of these former stations are reopened, you have to consider that unless the metro system can be developed along tram lines, services are going into Temple Meads which I have always thought as being in the wrong place. Compare this with Birmingham New Street which to the best of my knowledge is in the heart of the city. What a pity going into the old St Philips station close to Old Market is unlikely to be an option or am I wrong?

[Robin Summerhill]

What a pity going into the old St Philips station close to Old Market is unlikely to be an option or am I wrong?

I wouldn't be impossible, but you'd need to knock the industrial units down that stand on the old station site in St Phillip's Road.

But there is a further problem with this idea. When St Phillips was open (or at least until the Luftwaffe redesigned the centre of Bristol in the 1940s) the major shopping areas were Old Market Street and Castle Street. You virtually walked out of the station and you were there. These days the major shopping area has moved north, which actually means that St Phillips wouldn't actually be much closer to the shopping centre than Temple Meads

According to Google Earth's "ruler" device, its 0.68 miles from the site of the former entrance to St Phillips station to the top of Union Street, compared to 0.83 from BTM (going via the river Path, Counterslip and across Bristol Bridge).

[Robin Summerhill]

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Lib-Dems ... story.html

But Horfield? Seems to me that Filton Abbey Wood is now rather too close to make a Horfield re-opening feasible or desirable in operational terms. It would be a very short hop from FAW to Horfield, similar to Montpelier to Redland, but this time on a main line.

No shorter than some of the stops on the Birmingham- Lichfield TV routes. Dont forget that the proposal is also to reinstate the 4 lines up through this section so there are a number of alternatives to provide access to platform faces without impeding the mainline services...

I was going to cite examples in London on the former Southern commuter routes, but Brum to Lichfield is just as good.

Looking on Google Earth again and using the ruler, I see that it is 1.25 miles from Abbey Wood to Parkway, and 0.8 from Abbey Wood to the former Horfield station site, which is almost exactly the same as the distance between Fishponds and Staple Hill stations on the MR main line. I don't recall any suggestion that there were "too many" stops between Bristol and Mangotsfield.

[the green mile]

Very true but then it might not be beyond the wit of man to extend a tram system into Old Market and even the shopping centre.

[jules]

Looking on Google Earth again and using the ruler, I see that it is 1.25 miles from Abbey Wood to Parkway, and 0.8 from Abbey Wood to the former Horfield station site, which is almost exactly the same as the distance between Fishponds and Staple Hill stations on the MR main line.

Maybe I was being less than generous - 0.8 miles is a fair walk

Very true but then it might not be beyond the wit of man to extend a tram system into Old Market and even the shopping centre.

Beyond the wit of man, no. Beyond the wit of BCC? Yes ...

What a pity going into the old St Philips station close to Old Market is unlikely to be an option or am I wrong?

Well, Old Market certainly needs all the boosts it can get as it was terribly cut off when they built the Inner Circle Road in the '60s - it never really had a chance to recover these last 50 years.

But as to a St Philips station re-opening? Sustrans would fight tooth and nail before it relinquished a single inch of cycle track ... if they weren't so firmly in possession of the former Bristol to Bath trackbed then maybe we could be looking at a rail re-opening as far as the East of the city and a transport corridor that *everybody* could use!

(Ducks flying bicycle pumps and helmets!)

[stopblock]

Horefield could attract those from the new build houses on the land that backs on to the former grounds of lockleaze school for some it may be a shorter walk to there then abbey wood. With the proposed bus expressway to be built linking Landseer ave through to the Ring road leaving a short walk down bonnignton walk.

[mow]

Bristol's new mayor George Ferguson appears to be supporting plans for a Bristol Metro.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-21196490

Whether it becomes more than another cash for transport consultants remains to be seen.

[horace]

I cannot understand the argument that TM is in the wrong place. Its been there since 1845 what may be wrong is the way the town has been planned around it. But even then I don't think its position is wrong, after all all of the new offices on the site of the old goods yard are right next door, all of the offices in the redcliffe/ temple area of town are a short walk away. The shopping area might be a bit further away, but I would say that those going shopping don't use the train. When you compare its position to say London Waterloo and Westminster it would say it is very comparable. Ok London has the tube, but those going to Westminster walk across the bridge into Westminster not use the tube.

[jules]

I read somewhere that Brunel preferred Queen Square as a location for his terminus, but the Council wouldn't agree. That would have been closer to the then commercial district, but just as far away from the shops.

[simon]

I cannot understand the argument that TM is in the wrong place. Its been there since 1845 what may be wrong is the way the town has been planned around it. But even then I don't think its position is wrong, after all all of the new offices on the site of the old goods yard are right next door, all of the offices in the redcliffe/ temple area of town are a short walk away. The shopping area might be a bit further away, but I would say that those going shopping don't use the train. When you compare its position to say London Waterloo and Westminster it would say it is very comparable. Ok London has the tube, but those going to Westminster walk across the bridge into Westminster not use the tube.

Its in the wrong place in that on at least two sides there is little in the way of places of work or of shopping.

A lot of stations were built in the wrong place - Paddington was a few miles outside London when it was built. However in a lot of cases the town expanded around the station, unfortunately for TM this wasn't the case - hindered of course, in part by the river.