Portway Parkway railway station

Portway is a planned railway station on the Severn Beach Line in the district of Avonmouth in Bristol, England. The station will serve the Portway park and ride facility on the A4 Portway and form part of the MetroWest scheme.

Portway
Severn Beach train in the background, passing the park-and-ride site
Location
PlaceAvonmouth
Local authorityBristol
Coordinates51°29′18.9″N 2°41′16.7″W
Operations
Number of platforms1
National Rail – UK railway stations

History

The railway through the site was inaugurated on 6 March 1865, when services began on the Bristol Port Railway and Pier (BPRP), a self-contained railway which ran along the north bank of the River Avon to a deep-water pier on the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth. The route was 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge single-track.[1](pp23–24) The BPRP ran into trouble by 1871, when the terminal pier at Avonmouth became difficult to use due to a build-up of silt.

With no prospect of a proper dock being funded without a connection to the national rail network, the Clifton Extension Railway (CER) was approved. This was a joint venture by the BPRP, Great Western Railway and Midland Railway which ran from Sneyd Park Junction, south of Sea Mills, via Clifton Down, to join up with the national network at Narroways Hill Junction.[1](p12) The link opened in 1877.[2](p41) Despite the increased traffic the BPRP suffered financially, and was taken over by the CER in 1890.[1](pp10–11) When the railways were nationalised in 1948, the line came under the aegis of the Western Region of British Railways and, upon privatisation, transferred to Railtrack and later Network Rail.[2](p42) A park and ride was opened near junction 18 of the M5 motorway, adjacent to the railway, in 2002.[3]

Station proposal

In 2009, it was proposed that a railway station should be built.[4] The plan was supported by Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways and the Bristol branch of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.[5][6] The plan was approved in October 2012.[7] In 2017, £2.23 million was allocated for construction, of which £1.67M came from the government's New Stations Fund, with additional funding coming from the West of England Combined Authority and West of England Local Enterprise Partnership.[8][9] Ground surveys began in 2017, with completion originally planned for 2019; however, planning permission was not granted until March 2019.[9][10]

The station, part of the MetroWest scheme, will have a platform suitable for five-car trains. There will be seven disabled parking spaces by the access point, and parking for 40 bicycles.[10]

Preceding station Future services Following station
Shirehampton   Great Western Railway
Severn Beach Line		   Avonmouth
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References
  1. Maggs, Colin (1975). The Bristol Port Railway and Pier. The Oakwood Press. pp. 3–7, 10–12, 15–18, 23–24, 47–51.
  2. Maggs, Colin G (2008) [First published 1981]. Rail Centres: Bristol (#21) (3rd ed.). Nottingham: Booklaw Publications. pp. 15–17, 40–42, 107–108. ISBN 1-901945-30-8.
  3. Staff (15 April 2002). "£2m park-and-ride opens". BBC News. London: BBC. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
  4. Bristol Evening Post (13 January 2009). "Railway station could be built at Portway park and ride". Evening Post. Northcliffe Media. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
  5. "Council leader's claim is a distortion of the facts". This is Bristol. Northcliffe Media. 29 July 2011. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
  6. "Soapbox: Severn Beach Line". This is Bristol. Northcliffe Media. 30 December 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
  7. "Station plan for park-and-ride". Bristol Post. 5 October 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  8. "Funding Boost for West of England Transport Projects". West of England Combined Authority. 28 June 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  9. Yong, Michael (15 August 2017). "Portway Park and Ride train station set to open in 2019 as work starts". Bristol Post. Local World. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  10. Wilson, Kate (15 April 2019). "Portway Park and Ride train station on track after planning permission granted". Bristol Post. Local World. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
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