First new railway station in Bristol in over 20 years

Work is taking place to help design the first new railway station in the Bristol area in over 20 years. The station will serve the Portway Park & Ride site near Avonmouth.

Rail engineers will survey the development site next to the park and ride over the next month to assess ground conditions to inform the design of the new £2.23 million station, due to be completed by 2019.

Bristol City Council secured £1.67 million from the government’s New Stations Fund to make the project possible. They worked with Network Rail to develop the project.

The newly formed West of England Combined Authority and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is supporting the project, providing some of the additional funding required to deliver the station and wider investment to better link the station to the park and ride site.

The scheme forms part of a long-term rail strategy for Bristol City region through the MetroWest programme, including improved frequencies on the Severn Beach Line which will serve the station by 2020.

The funding from the government will help the scheme progress with credibility after being endorsed by the Department for Transport and the rail industry.

The project is currently estimated to be about £2.63 million which includes £2.23 million for delivering the rail infrastructure plus funding to make improvements to the park and ride site to accommodate the station, including a new amenity building to benefit both rail and bus passengers.

The money from the New Stations Fund will reduce the call on the Local Growth Fund (LGF) by £1.67 million, meaning that the funding will go back into the regional programme to support other key projects.

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, said: “Securing this much-needed rail funding from the government is great news for Bristol and it will help meet a long held aspiration to build a new station to serve the Portway Park & Ride site. It will complement the existing bus services which will continue to serve the city centre and encourage more people from a wider area to use these routes, reducing congestion and improving our air quality.

“Council colleagues have already been working with Network Rail over the last few years to develop the scheme and detailed development work is underway. We are working towards completing the station during 2019/20.”

Mhairi Threlfall, cabinet member for transport at Bristol City Council, said: “To improve the flow of people across the city and connect them to jobs, education and healthcare, we need the right transport infrastructure - and rail improvements like this are an important part of our travel planning. The Portway scheme will also play a critical role in improving access to both the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone and the Avonmouth Enterprise Area, which are anticipated to accommodate up to 31,000 new jobs over the next 25 years.”

Malcolm Parsons, director route business development at Network Rail, added: “This is great news and will significantly improve journeys for passengers in Bristol at a time when more people are using the railway than ever before.

“Securing the funding is the culmination of years of hard work and supports the wider upgrades being delivered in Bristol which includes the biggest signalling modernisation anywhere in the country, Filton Four Tracking and improvements to the Severn Beach Line. These upgrades will provide greater capacity, more frequent services and a more reliable railway with the new Portway Station further enhancing Bristol’s rail network.”