This is the original forum of the Bristol Railway Archive that existed between 2003 and 2013. I finally rescued it after it seemed unrecoverable after a large crash. I have made it available for viewing. It is locked, all posts to the new version please!
Use this forum to talk about the railways in and around Bristol, or for any off-topic stuff you want to share. Also request photos and information that you are missing.
Bartonhillbum wrote:ps How does one upload pictures onto this site.
Hey up
You can't upload pics to the site per se, what you have to do is upload the pics to a web server somewhere (fotopic?) and use the Img button to link to them.
Or if you want, send me the pics and I'll put them online for you. (faster if you do it yourself though, my workload has gone a bit mental this week!)
I notice that the train operating companies tend to be bus or coach operators too. This could offer oppportunities for better transport integration, but these are not always taken, although a start has been made. The following example is nowhere near Bristol, but there may be similar examples in the Bristol area.
First run most of the London trains and most buses in the Westcountry. I find that if I am returning from London to Falmouth, I get to Truro OK and then find the last Falmouth train has gone - about 21.00 - so ruling out anything leaving London much after 16.00 and certainly ruling out the 18.03 'Golden Hind' service, generally regarded as the best train on the line.
There is a bus service (run by First Devon and Cornwall buses) from Truro to Falmouth, that runs late in the evening, up to 23.30 and can fill in this gap. It is not advertised in the train timetable, nor are tickets interchangeable. As the operators are basically the same people, why not? Perhaps something to raise in the franchise tendering process?
I keep looking at the site, but no-one adds anything 'till today, is it good news for us all - or just good news for the consultants ? That First have won the fransis to run trains all over the area for the next ten years, and during that time they have made the commitment to havea feasability study done on the Portishead Line. So I ask the question
Is it good news for us all - or just good news for the consultants ?
I keep looking at the site, but no-one adds anything 'till today, is it good news for us all - or just good news for the consultants ? That First have won the fransis to run trains all over the area for the next ten years, and during that time they have made the commitment to havea feasability study done on the Portishead Line. So I ask the question
Is it good news for us all - or just good news for the consultants ?
Bye for now
The Barton Hill Bum
I have copied this from another page, as I seem to have wrongly sited it - Sorrrrrrry
Good Evening one and all (this is my first post ),
As a lifetime (although only a short one at the age of 27) resident of Portishead, I never thought I would be pleased to see the day that First won another franchise after completely decimating the bus services in the Greater Bristol area.
However on this occasion, I believe that First's failure to provide a regular, reliable bus service will work in the rail campaigns favour. Right now First are in desperate need of a publicity coup - yet again the Evening Post had a page of anti-First Group rhetoric in it's letters page - and the articles the journos themselves write don't paint the bus company in any better favour. Were First able to get this line open - and I believe the investment neccesary not to be of a grand scale for a company of this magnitude - think of the positive publicity and public favour they will gain.
When one thinks of this in repect of the inevitable congestion charging soon to be applied to Bristol, First will be laughing, because they will have cornered all the captive market and all the subsidies raised as a result.
Not being old enough to remember anything other than the GWR 150 celebrations coming in to Portishead, and having played in the redundant railtracks for many a childhood hour, I look forward to the day that I can alight from a train in Portishead!
Bartonhillbum wrote:p.s. Why do not all of Wales & West/Alpha Line Trains stop at Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road, I resent having to travel and PAY for the journey from Lawrence Hill to Temple meads, just to traval back through Lawrence Hill when I am only going to Gloucester/Cardiff
No need to get a seperate ticket, a simple return will do as via Temple Meads is a valid route.
How many passengers use Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road? Don't forget you'd be "upsetting" all the other passengers by adding about 5 minutes to their journey times. Also congestion up Filton bank is bad enough as it is with just the Avonmouths and a few Filton trains calling.
Bartonhillbum wrote:
because of loading restrictions and the width of the tunnels it is not possable to have double running tracks for the length of the track, but it would have been possible to have double track upto the old Clifton Bridge station and perhps 400M beyond, then to have had single track working to the juction of the Docks and Portishead. The additional cost - would if memory serves me right would have been ú16M (for signalling and track building etc).
I can't understand why they went to all the expense of building a junction at Portbury so the Portishead branch could be reopened to passengers, but didn't go the extra mile and stick the necessary signalling works in. I would have thought with a passing loop at Pill and the double section of track to just beyond Clifton Bridge, the capacity of the line would be more than adequate taking into account the level of freight that currently uses the line.
Also, and similar to my post in the congestion charging thread, why are the TOCs not simply looking at the 10,000 new homes being built in Portishead, looking at the local road system, and rubbing their hands with glee!! I can't understand why the TOCs aren't falling over each other in an attempt to capture such a lucrative captive market.
The junction with the Portishead Branch would have been necessary as they line isn't offically "closed." Network Rail are obliged to keep it connected to the national network. From memory the point at Portbury is "plain lined" with just the nose intact.
You won't find a TOC interested in investing as their franchises aren't long enough to warrant the investment. Any funding for reopening the branch has to come from government. I guess Network Rail could foot the bill if they were guaranteed track access from the TOCs but we've got no spare cash at the moment to afford such a scheme. Budget cuts are the name of the game at the moment.
stumpytrain wrote: I guess Network Rail could foot the bill if they were guaranteed track access from the TOCs but we've got no spare cash at the moment to afford such a scheme. Budget cuts are the name of the game at the moment.
Budget cuts? Does this mean that management won't be awarding themselves a six-figure bonus (each) this year then?
stumpytrain wrote: I guess Network Rail could foot the bill if they were guaranteed track access from the TOCs but we've got no spare cash at the moment to afford such a scheme. Budget cuts are the name of the game at the moment.
Budget cuts? Does this mean that management won't be awarding themselves a six-figure bonus (each) this year then?
In fairness they're not doing a bad job, whether they deserve a 6 figure bonus is another matter. I don't blame them, it's a lot of responsibility and I'd probably do the same if I was them!
reading all the above makes me boil with rage at the way a few morons are ruining the country with their short term quick buck ways. I spend half my week in portishead and every morning the hundred is stacked back to sheepway roundabout and even the old main road is stacked back to the wharf lane t junction. At night, a lot of the time, returning traffic is stacked from the M5 back to the ham green junction along the A369. It is clear that network rail, with their spare cash being used to reduce the 5 billion subsidy to the government have no money to resignal the temple meads -portbury junction section or to clear and re ballast the formation into waitrose, or rebuild the station, lay track and put the double track sections back in, even though the up main at parson st. has direct access into the old portishead platform roads over the new cut at temple meads. North Somerset Council are the only answer is this terrible and disgusting fiasco. The only way round this problem is for local businessmen and enthusiasts to form a company and raise non returnable shares from everyone in the gordano valley and beyond, then get the council to lease the waitrose site for 99 and rebuild the line themselves, with at least a 10 coach platform and run round loop. Constructive comments please to achieve this goal.
nickhowes-sdjr-midsomer-norton.fotopic.net/
Google Sketchup, 3D creation for all ! precisely rebuild a demolished station with photo textures, walk through it, even export it to pc train sims!
I think that the council were in talks with the BR Board to purchase the line from them to secure it from developers. Perhaps they should build the new station, publicise this and then embarrass the rail industry into getting off their arse and reopening the line.
Driving past this week I noticed that contractors appear to be removing the remains of a bridge in the Portishead station area.
If/when the railway is reinstalled, I hope the general greed culture that runs this country can hold back from charging to park cars at the station. The greed of FGW to charge to park at Yatton is a clear example of this.
Double standards are also applied as there are no charges at Nailsea & Backwell which becomes full early in the morning, or Worle Parkway.
The public sometimes will not (or cannot walk to the station) but should not be penalised for wanting to take public transport to a major location ie Bristol.
The recent reopening of the Ebbw Vale line shows how things can be made to happen, however, all has not gone smoothly on that project, though a good connecting bus service was in place from the opening day.
In relation to the 23rd June Evening Post article I commented.....
"It is about time that someone took the re-opening of the Portishead Branch seriously. Time & again local authorities with disused Stations & yards cave in to backhanders from greedy little developers who come along & build housing & it horrors me that one day I might drive past Waitrose & see a huge development hoarding on the new station site. It puzzles me though, with the supposed long-term aim of re-opening, why were the highways authority allowed to remove the track panels at Quays Avenue? Why were the tracks not built into the road for a future level crossing? Perhaps someone was hoping that everyone would forget that there were once 4 stations in Portishead & actually want us to sit in gridlock? You, dear reader, need to understand that ever since WW1, the railways have been unable to compete with road transport & the playing field has not been level. Successive governments have poured billions into road schemes because the treasury gets lots of money from car taxes but nothing from the railways. They do not understand that railways are a vital service that must be subsided & cannot be expected to be run as a business. We are constantly seeing railway land sold off, sidings & crossing loops removed & the infrastructure beaten back to the core, despite a huge increase in rail travel. Network Rail is set up with no shareholders, therefore it is ônot for profitö, with all money supposedly going back into railway infrastructure. Unfortunately Network Rail only has enough money for ôshowcaseö improvements around major city stations key sections of track & life expired renewals because the rest of their money goes to reducing the treasuryÆs subsidy (back to the mentality that railways must someone pay their own way) Also, with the decimation of British primary industry & manufacturing, Britain is a backwater of insurance companies, solicitors & consultants, tying us up in red tape. Re-openings of disused trackbed & stations, upgrading goods only lines to passenger use & redoubling single sections of track is all seen as ôriskö You see if they had the money to reopen a line, & somehow, the profits didnÆt match expectations, they would be running a loss & we are back to the government subsidy thing again. Consultants step in & get paid ridiculous sums of money to tell Network Rail that they canÆt afford to do something (because the same money that would have gone into relaying the track has just gone into the consultants pockets!) Now you understand why the railways are in such a mess & why you have to sit in your car in a daily commuter jam so please donÆt blame Network Rail! The way out, is for North Somerset Council to collaborate with local business, enthusiasts & the local populace, to buy & relay the tree infested tracks, build a decent 2 platform, 10 coach station, with a building in sympathetic GWR style, with run-round facilities & at least one turn back siding. Stations at Portbury, Pill, & Ashton Gate should be re-opened, along with upgrading of the Parson St. & Bedminster station facilities, currently just vandalised weed strewn eyesores. The new service should run into the old Portishead bays at Temple Meads with the Up Relief being resignalled back to Parson St junction. The ground frame & sidings at Pylle Hill Goods should be upgraded giving separate running line access from there, all the way into Temple Meads. There used to be double track from Parson St Junction all the way to Clifton Bridge station, at Ham Green, all the way through Pill, & the last mile into Portishead. Therefore, re-insert all this capacity & you have absolutely no argument that the Passenger service would interfere with the Portbury Dock Goods trains. Now everyone has to join forces, stop talking about it & take some ôriskö to make it happen. Oh by the way, a weekend steam service would make for a fantastic scenic railway, given some woodland management along the west bank of the Avon first."
nickhowes-sdjr-midsomer-norton.fotopic.net/
Google Sketchup, 3D creation for all ! precisely rebuild a demolished station with photo textures, walk through it, even export it to pc train sims!
My goodness, calm down. Count to 10 and the try and put what you are saying into some form of structured plan and you may just get somebody to take it seriously.
All the good intentions in the world will get no where unless all can understand what you are getting at. As the comment before mine says "and....Breath"
Yes no doubt you feel very strongly about what you are saying, but put it a way that we all can get that feeling as well. then we might all join in. that could be the beginning of what you want, think about it.
By the way i am not criticising what you are trying to achieve.
