Filton could gain a second railway station if South Gloucestershire Council’s outline plans for a new neighbourhood in North Bristol come to fruition.
The Council’s Core Srategy planning blueprint for the Cribbs/Patchway New Neighbourhood, to be built partly on the Filton Airfield site, include two new stations on the Henbury Loop railway line, one of which would be on the site of the former North Filton Platform, which was closed in 1964.
The line, which runs along the southern edge of the airfield, is currently only used for freight but there are plans for it to be returned to passenger use as part of the Greater Bristol Metro project.
However, the plans so far announced are only for a ‘Henbury Spur’ line, not the full loop line that would link Filton and Henbury up with Avonmouth, Shirehampton, Lawrence Weston – and complete the circle line round the city.
Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie has started a petition that calls for a full Henbury ‘Loop’ service to be introduced. It reads:
“We, the under-signed, believe that a Henbury ‘spur’ would be a disastrously missed opportunity of a generation; that a Henbury Loop Line would not only be well used, but transform Bristol’s transport infrastructure; and want to make the strongest possible case for demand for a Loop not a spur.”
Local MP Jack Lopresti told The Journal that the Department for Transport has agreed to carry out a feasibility study into the benefits of having a full Henbury Loop Line, which he feels would be “far preferable to the spur that is currently proposed”.
Read more: Henbury Loop Line (The Journal)
The above information with regard to the closure of North Filton Raiwlay station is not quite factually correct. Until 9th May 1986 there were two trains daily which served North Filton, Monday to Friday. The services were aimed at workers at the BAC & Rolls Royce plants at Filton & Patchway and they ran in the the morning & late afternoon to and from Bedminster, however they were publicly advertised services and appeared in the National Rail timetable. The last service to operate ran on the Friday afternoon. I was a Relief Operations Supervisor with the then British Rail, based at Bath Road and rode on the last service. The outbound train ran at around 1515 from Temple Meads and terminated at St Andrews Road station (Avonmouth). It then ran empty to North Filton (via Henbury) and formed a service at around 1550 from North Filton to Bedminster. I have a photo somewhere of the train & crew at North Filton taken prior to departure.
The Henbury Loop was the subject of David Wood’s column in the Bristol Post yesterday. It could be used to take cruise liner passengers from Bristol Parkway railway station to Avonmouth docks, he suggests.
On Track: Dave Wood’s column on railways