I have received in the post the October issue of RailWatch - the magazine of RailFuture - which includes a whole page article on Pilning.  I have blurred the text here so that I'm bringing up the station again and helping keep it on the radar, but yet not crossing any Railfuture copyright lines.



Network Rail and (First) Great Western had a problem when electrifying the line.  But some of the things done (and not done) by them to this day remain, in my opinion, very poor practise, leaving a bad taste and getting away with things they should not.  At the same time, the local communities around the area were seeking outcomes which were unsustainable, and options which would have included a forward looking stations - bringing a much improved service and helping raise (for example) house values for current residents - were opposed in anticipation of potential negative side effects,  even where those could have been mitigated.

 
I have written up my promised article at https://grahamellis.uk/blog1866.html
Section headers:

* Old History
* Recent History
* The Station today
* Local use of the station
* National what the future many bring
* So what the future may bring for Pilning
* Opinion

The opinion piece is a personal one - and some may disagree with me ...

 
The new station was built on flyash foundations  from the old CEGB Portishead A and B power stations.and had subsidence from the very beginnig. Towards the end, at least one of the platorms had to be cordoned off as unsafe, in case a window or door fell on you!

 
Portishead: a whole new station built in 1954, only to be closed to passengers completely (and turned into a car dealership forecourt) in 1964.

Oh, the irony. 

 

Too true, and not just stations. I remember my Dad telling me how a level crossing on the Avonside Wharf branch got a new set of beautifully-painted gates the week before it closed...

 
If you look back to Beeching closures, how many times did stations receive a full maintenance and repaint job, just before closure was announced .....

 

My understanding is that at the end of a franchise / contract, the operator is required to return stations leased to the same maintenance standard as when they took them over, and Pilning has been getting to be a bit of an eyesore - was it 2006 or even earlier it became the responsibility of First Group?  Not sure if it was them or Wales and West / Wessex before that?

Christmas would, in my view, be a return to the facilities of those days which includes a second platform to similar standards, but I would be happy with a temporary compromise of a couple of trains every day running "wrong line" from the Patchway / Filton area to the Pilning crossover, providing passenger services from Bristol and to Wales at around 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. with similar calls in the other direction.

 
PIGS MIGHT FLY.....
Yes I know that's not at all likely,
However,on a little trip out this afternoon,I chanced to drop in at Pilning Station!
 
Now in the past I've been known to complain about many things to do with Pilning
The lack of a second platform,and also no way of getting too what's left of the original platform two ,the general poor state of the one that remains in service,not to mention only two trains calling a week.

But blow me down Pilning Has had one hell of a face lift !...
Platform edge has been repaired,tactile paving has been installed,yellow line is in place the entire length,and wonder of wonders the whole of platform one has been completely resurfaced with a good standard of Tarmac.
Not only but also,the old bus stop waiting shelter has been scrapped and replaced with a bright shiny new one which has been moved back from the platform and placed in a more comfortable position.
Wait there's more,as well as all of the above, new signage ,a new help point ,new platform entry gate ,new fencing the entire length of the platform egg crates at both ends with access gates to platform ends.

And last but not least Platform Lighting has been fitted

My Flabber is well and Truly Gasted.

Note the car park surface still resembles a dirt track ,oh and by the he way the gates that were fitted a while back to prevent fly tipping have been adjusted by bending them so as to prevent them from being closed .
One would imagine that the application of a transit van or something similar to the gate was employed to prevent access being denied

Has Christmas Come Early To Pilning....
Remains to be seen..

However a very big Thankyou to Network Rail and GWR is deserved

Going to have a cup of tea and a bit of a lye down now ,to get over the surprise.

 
Before Pilning lost its footbridge, it was served by two trains a week. Having lost its footbridge it is still served by two trains a week.

So the question is not about building a footbridge, it's about whether Pilning can justify a useful service. If it can, then it is likely that the cost of a new footbridge will be a fraction of the cost of the full package of improvements required to deliver this service.

 
I found myself looking at various ways that passengers cross the line today ... wondering if a solution is any nearer for Pilning or if no-one's thinking about doing anything there any more ...











I understand that none of these would be acceptable to all parties for Pilning - but they do remind me of the widely different options employed in places, some of which may be novel to the UK

 

As far as I am aware, Helen Godwin goes be she/her… Bristol Rail Campaign is reiterating the need for Pilning Station in a statement to her at the next meeting of the MCA.

 
Ask the mayor? Apparently, he can open stations, so must be able to fund a station bridge?

 
"On this day" reminds me of Pilning today - 27th June.  On may current excursions around Europe I have seen a whole load of footbridges, crossings, subways and other solutions to getting people to and from trains which call in both directions. I just have to wonder why the "can't do that in England" / "but can't be done at Pilning" seems to have won the day.

 
https://busandtrainuser.com/2025/06/01/britains-quirkiest-railway-station/
Britain’s quirkiest railway station
I’ve been meaning to visit Pilning railway station for years and finally got round to treating myself to that delight yesterday, so what better way to begin this summer’s blogging?

....................continues..............

 

Source: Gloucestershire County Cricket Club

 

You are 100% correct in saying "it would seem that the residents Of Pilning and its environs really don't have the need of a station".  They don't. There has been no viable train service there for 20 years, and the people and the businesses have a lifestyle which has no connection to it.  The railway line passing through their village/town is irrelevant to their way of life.  The idea of a nice little village station has an attraction, but ... the fright of the idea of hordes of people racing through their streets to get to the station in time in their cars, parking in their Closes to save the cost of parking, and littering as they go ... the fright of uncouth warehouse workers wandering the streets as they wait for their trains ... the fright of the seedier side of life in houses around the rail hub ... the fright of people walking to and from the village pub and shop in an inebriated state ... has brought about something of a negative attitude and fanning the flames of those fears is those seeking public office, looking to promise they'll protect the status quo.

I recognise the frights, but on experience of other development they are much exadurated if there's any substantive negative effect at all.  And few people have stuck their heads above the parapet to say "a useable train service would raise the value of our house / give our son who still live at home a chance to get a job in Bristol / will help the local shops, pubs and businesses".  And many of these are likely to be amongst the real gains of having a decent train service - in fact there would be so many gains for those slightly wider after than just in the village to make the case for a station and hourly (minimum) stop an economic one.

 
 I'm hearing that tentative moves are being considered by Gloucestershire County Cricket club to remove themselves eventually from playing matches at Neville Road the County ground in Bristol.
 They are In the process of investigating, the purchase of and obtaining planning permission for a site adjacent to the wave .
If this comes to fruition the flow of traffic to matches and other events at the New County Ground, it would I feel be more than enough to overwhelm the roads in the village and create congestion at the nearby junction of the M5 which being the feeder for the retail park at Cribs is consistently busy it also feeds traffic from the north of the city and those from the new development at the former Filton airfield and of course the New Arenal.

Pilning,as much as I'm fond of the old place,these days is simply not fit for purpose ,and has been allowed to become a dumping ground for all sorts of muck and rubbish,the constant fly tipping on the approach to the station,has required heavy duty gates to be installed,which means that it is only able to be accessed by foot passengers,and those passengers who are less able are faced by a long struggle up a not inconsiderable slope,and then have to deal with crossing the severely deteriorated surface of the yard,which laughably is meant to be the Station Car Park.

Over the last few years a number of people,including myself to a certain extent, have spent a good deal of time and effort supporting the usage of the station,and have had a disappointingly small amount of support from the local area ,it would seem that the residents Of Pilning and its environs really don't have the need of a station !

Having said that ,you can bet your bottom dollar,that when GBR,and new network rail decides time has come to close the doors for good,as I have no doubt they will,the usual suspects will be up in arms,to no avail.

Now the time is ripe to revisit the award winning idea of moving the station closer to the village,and taking full advantage of The greatly improved road access that would come from the relocation and press for the building of a park and ride station to serve the local area Pilning Parkway for the win perhaps.

 

From my visit last September - view from that bridge

 
Plenty of trains race through Pilning Station, and just twice a week one calls there. On 3rd May, the Bristol Rail Campaign walked from Severn Beach to Pilning to join the train at 15:32 headed for Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance and around ten of us joined the 5 carriage electric train when it arrived through the Severn Tunnel from South Wales.

Why is the service so thin? Does anyone use it?  Could it be better?

The history

Pilning Station is about a mile from Pilning Village.  It's located where it is because it was an operational centre where the line that descends to the Severn Tunnel forked off from the line to New Passage where the ferry used to run.  Until the opening of the first Severn Bridge in 1966, you could put your car on a train here and have it taken through the tunnel to Severn Tunnel Junction, but that service ceased when the bridge opened.

Train services at this remote station decayed over the years to two trains per day in the 1970s and then to 2 trains per week in 2006. The service ran into Bristol called on a Saturday morning, and one train retuned on that afternoon.

Faced with the cost of raising and improving the footbridge on electrification in 2016, Network Rail and their contractors simply removed the bridge, and now both weekly trains call as they emerge from the Severn Tunnel on their way to Bristol, and there's no way back by train unless you double back through the tunnel.

The present

Pretty little spot for a trip?  Sorry - it isn't. There's a scrapyard of site, a high spiked fence that makes it look more like a secure prison than a railway station, and I would not risk parking a car there. There is an unlocked pedestrian gate that lets your through to walk up the ramp and through another gate onto a platform with a shuttered old building and trains rushing by every few minutes. Across the track you see the platform that trains used to call at in the other direction, now covered in weeds and electrical poles.

Why is a train service still provided?  Because the legal procedures to close a station are complex, expensive, and subject to a lot of consultation. That makes sense because it would be so easy to stop calling there, but so difficult in the future to re-establish services - in fact the current situation is perverse because the "powers that be" have reduced the service to a near-useless level - as far as they can without all this extra expense of closure.

The future

Could the station do better with more welcoming facilities and a better service? Undoubtedly it could, but whether that would be socially and financially justified has never been (to my knowledge) seriously, officially, and publicly tested, and it would certainly need investment to bring back a viable 2 way service.

Is Pilning really "in the middle of nowhere"?  It certainly felt like it when a group of about a dozen of us walked there last Saturday to catch the train. A country lane from Pilning Village isn't signposted to the station, and there's no footpath for much of the way.  We lunched at the Plough which does survive about 100 yards from the station, quiet on a Saturday lunchtime but a clue in the large car park and adverts for entertainment in the evenings that this is an out-of-town venue where noise can be made without disturbing anyone.  Ironically, the railway does run from the station down past the village itself - a re-located station would be much more logical to serve the residents of the current villages of Pilning and Redwick which it runs into.  It's also noted that the road access to Pilning village itself is much better than to the current station, and that it's only a few hundred yards across the fields to the major Severnside employment and warehousing area, with its own Motorway junction too.

I can offer you multiple scenarios

1. Put an accessible footbridge back in at the current site, improve the service, and offer a village station for the future.

2. Our country is building new homes and they require transport - not only for cars but much more for buses and trains, and where better that around new or underutilised train stations?  Pilning is attractive - people want to live within a sensible distance of Bristol, the railway line is there as are the services going where they want to go, and it's not on a flood plain nor in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

3. Relocate Pilning Station near the bridge over the B4055. It's then at the village, within 300 metres of the employment area, and with platforms on the outer tracks accessed by slopes off the road eliminates the problem of how to access an island platform at a sensible price that we have at the current site.

4. Close the current station and have the main line railway run through the area but not serve it

5. Leave it as it is until someone comes up with a solution / decision and implements it.

Option 3 is covered in more detail at https://www.passenger.chat/mirror/leaflet.pdf - it started on 1st April 2018 with a suggestion that it was - err - distinctly tongue in cheek but yet all the elements to add up to suggest that it could make sense. Other studies have confirmed this.  However, there seems to be no consensus over future direction.

Illustrtations:

Pilning Station is certainly not welcoming ...


Pilning's current station is set in the countryside - this between the village and the station


Map showing current station (entrance - red dot) and possible alternative (cyan dot)


Bristol Rail Campaign await the train


The twice-weekly train calls. Noted that only members of the Bristol Rail Campaign party got on, and no passengers left the train.

 
Hmm. 

Yesterday evening, I found myself chatting with a red squirrel, over a beer, about Pilning station. We agreed that it hopefully does have a future - but it's possibly not in quite the right location.

CfN. 

 
"On this day" has reminded me of SEWWEB - http://www.sewweb.info/april2018.html

Personal view: There remains a logical case for a passenger station at Pilning to service the catchments / flows identified in the not-really-joke.   But the case is very much harder if not impossible to make if you don't provide for / encourage those new flows and limit yourself to the traffic from within the current local community and at the current awkward station site.

 
So for the time being,the access at Pilning has been improved!...

 
Nah - fat fingers, mine!

 

Pot. Kettle.

 

I have just corrected a couple of things ... thanks for the ping

 
Graham - can I suggest you turn off your predictive text? It doesn't work, I suggest you request a refund! 

 
Well - I've posted in "Bristol (WECA) Commuters" even though commuting from Pilning by train is well nigh impossible these days unless you have a Saturday job.

 

I have not visited Longcross though I remember calling there must be 50 years ago.  In terms of stations that were dire, I have taken a look at various ones in the past such that have been in that category such as as Breich, Teeside Airport, Melksham, Altnabreac, Morfa Mawddach, Copplestone, Tygwyn.    Some are worthy of a further study / look but some like Tywyn feel just too far from anywhere.

 
Pilning has shades of Longcross on the Reading to Waterloo line, in that the catalyst for it to rise like a phoenix might well be new housing.

Longcross featured in numerous YouTube videos from the likes of Geoff Marshall last decade when it only had a smattering of trains a day.  One exit from the station led to a locked gate onto Wentworth Golf Course (and still does).  The other exit had either keycoded access to Longcross Studios or a footpath that led to a permitted bridleway and the nearest public road access which is half a mile away.

Passenger usage was as low as 266 a year in the mid 2000s, though it had picked up a little to the 2000 mark a decade later with a slight increase in services presumably traffic to and from the studios.   Extremely low figures however for a suburban station only 20 miles from London.

Then towards the end of the 2010s, Longcross Garden Village was constructed.  Making use of the existing station facility, proper paved and lit footpath access was constructed (a few minutes walk and still no road access, and little prospect of there being unless the studios close) and the station received a bit of a tart up.  It then gained a regular all day stop on all services that used to pass by from the December 2019 timetable.  That gave it two trains per hour.

Obviously Covid-19 then arrived and it's only in the last couple of years that usage has really blossomed, up to a smidge under 100000 passengers for the 2022-23 latest published figures.

Fantastic growth, but it remains a curious little station.  Perhaps a model for Pilning, and worth a fact finding visit if you've not been already, Graham?

 
A Saturday walk from Severn Beach to Pilning can be very rewarding, albeit when I last walked it, the day was punctuated by an inconvenient** earthquake.

Panoramic views of the Severn Estuary and its bridges aside, the second photo is the top of the heel post of a little pedestrian gate protecting a long-vanished level crossing on the line from Pilning to the ferry.

Close to the current Pilning Station and hidden in a hedge, the rather more robust support and substantial ironwork for one of the level crossing gates there was once to be found, and perhaps it's there still.

The new palisade fence and gate at Pilning Station's car park entrance, that will certainly be a precursor to the station being closed to passengers.

Mark

** Fortunately not actually inconvenient, earthquakes in combination with the Severn estuary have serious connotations.

 
A History

Pilning Station would have been called "Pilning Road" in times gone by to signify that it's the nearest station to Pilning, though not actually situated within the community who's name it takes. It's where it is for historic reasons - as a former junction station, and also situated on a level section of track before the main line slopes away towards the Severn Tunnel.

The original line to New Passage Pier was the way to Wales in earlier railway days, then a branch from that curved round to Severn Beach, and finally the Severn Tunnel line opened.  New Passage Pier closed at around that point, the line to Severn Beach surviving until the Beeching era with several halts including one in the township of Pilning itself.  Pilning (High Level - the station on the line to the tunnel) took on a new life as a motorail terminal from the coming of private motor cars, until the first Severn Bridge opened and took that traffic away.

So although developments carried on, including lots more residents and residences even on the old trackbeds, the stations "at" Pilning faded from being a key passenger point into a less used station. It remains important operationally important, with loops to allow faster trains to bypass slower ones - usually the odd freight of works train put into the loops. Those loops are glistening shiny, but yet I've not seen trains stabled there on visits as train after train comes out of or disappears down towards the tunnel on the fast through lines.

So what of Pilning Station?  It faded, with services dropping off the timetable from a service through the day to a sparse peak only service (clock-face arrived, but Pilning was not on the clock), and then further dropped to just a token ("Parliamentary") service on Saturdays.  Full closure would have resulted in a complex, expensive and unpopular process, and re-instatement of a usable service would have brought the question "Useable for whom?".   For sure, there would have been some users but at that time and without other measures away from the railway they would have been sparse.   This was not MetroLand where the London Underground network was built with residential estates around the stations to generate the commuter traffic.

A decade ago, Pilning station had two platforms, a footbridge connecting them, and not much else. The eastbound platform was and still is accessed from a large flat parking area, one end away from the approach road being a scrapyard. The Westbound was only accessed by the bridge - an "island" platform on the main line, with the freight loop passing around the back of it. I never saw a level / barrow crossing but I'm sure there must have been one in the past.   And this layout was a distinct problem when the time came to electrify the line.

The footbridge to access the westbound island was old (and I don't know what condition it was in - said to be poor?). It was, I understand, too low to run overhead electric cables underneath it. It was certainly not "Accessible for All" - no lift, no slopes, no level or near-level way across. What to do about it? 

The next station up the line at Patchway had a similar footbridge and that has been replaced by a higher bridge with lift - but that station has a train each way every hour, not just every week. Stations like Filton Abbey Wood and Stapleton Road have magnificent footbridges and slopes - major engineering pieces that feel like sledgehammers to crack walnuts even in those much busier cases.  The question may have briefly been raised about a back access but the freight loop rules that out and people ma have even wondered about a subway under that line of even the main lines. But yet all of these are ridiculous ideas when looked at in relation to their anticipated use.  A strong local campaign called for a new footbridge, perhaps re-using a redundant higher bridge taken from several suggested stations; I'm not sure how serious that may have been looked at but it certainly flew in the face of "rules" and requirements for wheelchair access - and help for the rest of the very few who would have heavy luggage, babes in push chars, etc.

The solution adopted has been simply to close the Westbound platform. Trains now only serve Pilning, two trains on a Saturday, and only eastbound towards Bristol. This flies in the face of usability. 90% of rail journeys, I understand, are part of 2 way return trips.  Yes, you CAN do it by doubling back.  To South Wales there's sign at the station showing you the times.  From Bristol, there's no clue as to how you might get back.  Almost as if the people who run the station don't actually want to encourage (or even provide information) to have people use it.

Pilning (Station) to Temple Meads in the city of Bristol in 21 minutes is rather good. The bus from Pilning to Bristol Parkway takes 42 minutes; add time to transfer there to the train plus the train time into the city and you're up to over the hour if you're lucky.  The difference between being commutable and not.

As an aside - was the solution adopted "correct in the circumstances" and were "all options explored".  There were strong suggestions that it was done without proper consultations, with the local communities not being properly informed / taken by surprise.  It certainly is NOT one of Network Rail's finest hours, to put it mildly.  There are questions raised over the legality of some of how things were done or not, and bigger questions about the moral choices made in the process - it seems that a station was rendered impractical for normal passenger to use - "closed" to them - without going through a closure procedure an consultation that is provided for, and for very good reason, in law.  HOWEVER we are where we are, and I don't personally see the best way forward to be raking back over these issues.  I am concerned about a precent having been set and indeed I hear mention of Teeside Airport and Polesworth.  End of aside.

Pilning Station yesterday

There's a new barricaded gate at the bottom of the entrance drive - with a passenger entry there.  The gate was open; I wonder when it is open, when closed, and how it fits with the advertised "Car Parking Available" claimed by the National Rail website.



The car park / yard is much cleaner than it use to be, though the gate to the platform is far from obvious.  There's not the big piles of junk, nor the loose "guard" dog which in practise just woofed a bit.  The phone box is gone; there is a help point but no passenger information displays and no PA system, so nothing to suggest whether your train is running and on time.



Two notice board panels - one telling you how to travel from Pilning but only to Bristol and to South Wales, and nothing about going further, nor about getting back. The other suggesting how useful a business account is for rail travel; not something that I could imagine would be used much here.



The platform is clean enough - a short section has flagstones but much is rough cinders with just a more solid edge. The platform HAS been fitted with tactile edging for its full 5 carriage length. The old station building is shuttered with rusty stutters and even the stumps of the footbridge have gone.  Signs tell you to be careful of fishing gear near the overhead electrics.





Checking Open Train Times, I saw the train approaching Severn Tunnel Junction and indeed it rolled in a few minutes later. A five car IET, described as running through to Penzance and running under electric power.  One passenger got off, and I was the only one to join. Perhaps a third of the seats taken; neither quiet nor crowded



Looking forward, our train manager let us know that passengers for Penzance would need to change at Temple Meads, as our train was carrying on as the 16:00 to London (Paddington) ... and so it was that I stayed on the train all the way to Swindon.

So there you go - Pilning yesterday, my first ever experience of leaving there on an electric service, and and first time in my personal knowledge of a through train from Pilning to London.

The future at Pilning

And this section could be even longer than the article so far!

* Our new government is looking for major housebuilding and especially near existing public transport infrastructure.  How about somewhere 20 minutes from Bristol, and Newport, and close to Cardiff

* The line through the operational platform at Pilning is signalled for bidirectional operation

* There is no passenger reason for the station to be located where it is, and new platforms off the B road / bus route on the outskirts of the village would look to be slope accessible; to the freight loops, mind.

* Pilning and especially that B road are physically close to the Severnside business area and the new motorway junction recently put in there, and could be engineered without the need to drive through the village

* It's not far from Thornbury and would make a logical railhead and Pilning has expanded (note my earlier comments on trackbed being built on) and merged with Redwick

* The railway is now electric - clean, fast train acceleration, and TfW are proposing a much higher frequency of local trains from Cardiff though to Bristol and additional stations (but only on the Welsh side!!)

* There are local concerns / desires to improve rail services at Pilning, but fear of developments that will bring many more in and change the nature of the place. 

* Gapping (dead sections) in overhead electrification, and having cables rise and fall (Steventon / Didcot) that may effect bridge clearance.

Edit to spell check - I have changed a platform of "Rough ciders" into "rough cinders" much though a cider festival there might help draw the crowds!

 
As reported in RAIL by Barry Doe, the latest error strewn version of the NRT, has Pilning inserted between Newport and Severn Tunnel Junction.
Takes a lot to put a station in the wrong country !

They could have, at least, called it Pielota.

 

Indeed. I think it could be done with that new type of footbridge with the slope rather than step option - ((here))

 
Its a good thought,but I thought all new rail footbridges had to have access for wheelchair users.

 
This might improve the prospects for rebridging the two platforms at Pilning:

https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/network-rail-develops-new-type-of-footbridge

 
Pilning gets a mention in the West of England 10 Year Rail Delivery Plan for Investment: 2020 - 2030 (see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=24296.msg297475#msg297475), under 'Pipeline Projects, New Stations Fund, Restoring Your Railway and other schemes that could come forward 2020 to 2030'

 
From Twitter.. https://mobile.twitter.com/PilningStation/status/1317365279584886790

 

Arrgh, I forgot it was a private group. What the picture showed was the yellow "maximum height" access gate on the approach ramp that seems to have been struck by something (think bridge strike) and now looks like it could cause significant delays for emergency vehicle access.

 

A private group ... which (however) I've just applied to join. 

 
Looks like Pining station approach took a bit of a bash very recently....pic from Facebook:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/2640349129543811?view=permalink&id=2764249733820416&fs=1&focus_composer=0

Mods/admin, please move this if a more relevant thread exists.

 

Source: Jack Lopresti, MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke, Hansard 13 Feb 2020

My italics.

 

Why do stations gets less that two passengers a day?    It could be because there aren't the trains calling there that people want to use, or it could be because there aren't the people to use the trains.     Here's a mapped example of each:


On the left, a station with two trains per week.    On the right, a station with very few people around to use the trains, though 44 call there on request each week.

The number of service at Pining is identical to the number of services that call at the station shown on the left map here ... just off a motorway junction, a big car park across, industry and housing.   No matter how fabulous the area around a station is - ripe with potential traffic - you ain't going to get a huge upturn unless you raise the service level.    And that service level, surely should be out and back journeys.

I agree with the petitioner that a both-way service should be offered.   I agree it should be far, far more than two calls a week.    I do not agree it should be "calls on request" - the number of passengers with a station in both directions and an appropriate service (and probably with much better reach to both employment and residences) should be such that every Taunton - Cardiff train has to call anyway.

 
Other threads on this forum have discussed the growing new employment centre nearby, the relocation of the station to exploit this and the emergence of SEWWEB. All these factors could make the rebuilding of the bridge unnecessary. It really is down to a longer term view being needed as to what to do there.

 
Ultimately it barely serves nearby Pilning village, and yes it would be ideal to have connections to the South Wales Mainline however it’s statistics only increased after the campaign to reopen the second platform was made public. A lot of the passengers are enthusiasts or travellers who find the station interesting. Before this it was getting usage below 100 people per year.

If you are going to improve the station you might as well go all out, asking for 2tph to serve it is optimistic.

 
The language is perhaps a tad confrontational but I suppose it helps highlight the issue.

 
From Parliament Petitions


Brought to forum members' attention ... comment / thought welcome.

 
They have good and correct research which I'm sure one or two of our team here will personally confirm. Chris Grayling also visited another station that certain members were concerned about at that time; in that case, w have seen an improvement from unusable to poor but usable in the years since.

 
Article from the latest Eye..

 
That makes me think: the disused platform from Pilning could be put to good use replacing one of the tiny "bus stops" at Dilton Marsh! 

 
Ooh, were did you go?
[/quote]
I was travelling further afield on that morning, but the fosbr website reports that some made the journey to the much more intensively used station at Dilton Marsh.

 
Ooh, were did you go?

 
It seems 25 people joined the service, so well worth making the additional call.

 
Signs as you enter the city say "Welcome to Gloucester, the home of world class rugby". At least as you come in from Tewkesbury, so into Kingsholm, I've not noticed it coming in from the south.

 

Dreadful rugby club too...............fans in the Shed the closest you will find to a rugby equivalent of Millwall, always been the same.

 
Fish n Chips at 10.30am?

And having to wait at Severn Tunnel Junction for around 40 minutes on most journey suggestions is less than ideal. Not much to do but trainspotting.

 


.... OK until the driver forgets to stop !!!!

 
There is a 1045 from Pilning eastbound this Sunday as a result of a request from the organiser if a local event. Good to see GWR respond positively to it.

 

Around the immediate area surrounding the cathedral is not so bad as I recall.

 

I certainly didn't see many nice bits. Just wanted a few nice pubs and a nice restaurant.  We wandered out to the Quay area where there were a couple of chain type pubs and restaurants but really struggled to find anywhere nice, eventually settling for a Thai not too far from the station.

 
Edited first post to reduce the size of the image.

 
I'm sure it's not an official GWR poster. The font's wrong apart from anything else!

@Industry Insider: Gloucester is a lovely city! It's not all the Eastgate Centre!

 

Doesn't look like official GWR publicity - but good on them.  Not sure if this was done in the past; 5 years are and there would have been more (though different) possibilities, and perhaps more passenger numbers ...

Went through Pilning on Wednesday morning ... nothing remained on the open platform of the footbridge; any replacement would be build from scratch.

 
I don't think I've ever fancied fish and chips that time of day and I once spent two and a half hours in Gloucester.  Far too long for my liking... 

I guess advertising the fact you can return to Severn Beach might draw in a little extra custom?

 
I was rather surprised to see this poster on the shelter at Pilning, advertising the wonderful excursions that can be made from the station.




I wonder how many people take up the suggestions?