The Anonymous Widower

Portway Park & Ride Station – 10th August 2023

Portway Park & Ride station, opened on the first of this month, so I went to visit today.

Note.

  1. The Portway Park & Ride is served by both buses and trains.
  2. Buses serve the City Centre and rugby and football at Ashton Gate stadium.
  3. Trains serve Avonmouth, Bristol Temple Meads, Severn Beach, Weston-super-Mare and a large number of other Bristol stations.

The M5 crosses over the railway to the West of the station.

This Google Map shows the M5 and the Portway Park & Ride.

Note.

  1. The M5 goes diagonally SW-NE across the map.
  2. The wide river is the Avon.
  3. Portway Park & Ride with its station is in the middle of the bottom of the map.
  4. Avonmouth station is in the North-West corner of the map.

The Portway Park & Ride seems to be an extremely well-connected Park & Ride.

These are my thoughts.

Are There Any Other Park & Ride Sites, Where A Station Could Be Added?

Consider.

Has Portway Park & Ride been developed to see if sites served by buses and trains are a good idea?

Is Portway Park & Ride The Solution To Big Matches At Ashton Gate?

Consider.

  • Ashton Gate Stadium has a capacity of 27,000.
  • Wikipedia says that buses from Portway Park & Ride are used to bring supporters to games.
  • The platform at Portway Park & Ride might be able to take a five-car Class 802 train for a big match.

I wouldn’t be surprised that Portway Park & Ride has been designed for large crowds at big matches at Ashton Gate.

August 10, 2023 Posted by | Design, Transport/Travel | , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

T-Pylons To The West Of Yatton Station

I talked about National Grid’s first T-pylons in National Grid Energise World’s First T-Pylons.

Today, I went and had a look for them and found where they cross the Bristol-Exeter Line between Yatton and Worle stations.

I took these pictures.

Note.

  1. The first nine pictures were taken going West between Yatton and Worle and the last eleven were taken going East.
  2. Some of the mature trees seem to hide the pylons, as the train passes.

T-pylons are deliberately smaller than traditional pylons, as these pictures show.

It is certainly a good attempt at producing a less noticeable electricity transmission line.

August 10, 2023 Posted by | Design, Energy, Transport/Travel | , , , , , | 1 Comment

Northumberland Line Station Contracts Are Signed

The title of this post, is the same as that of this news item from Nexus.

These are the first three paragraphs.

The signs are good for the new Northumberland rail line after the green light was given for construction to get underway on three new stations.

Contracts have been exchanged for principal contractor Morgan Sindall Infrastructure to formally start work on Bedlington, Blyth Bebside and Seaton Delaval stations.

Main construction works are progressing at pace, with station works well underway at Newsham and works approaching completion in Ashington, and 21km of new track is already installed.

It certainly looks like it’s all systems go.

I hope Network Rail have the next reopening ready to go!

August 10, 2023 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , , | 1 Comment