Are you travelling through Bristol this weekend?

Those travelling through Bristol this August are being reminded to check before they travel as work continues to replace a major junction near to Bristol Temple Meads which will affect rail services.

After a period of work that saw no direct trains between Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff or Gloucester (with services calling at Bristol Parkway instead), attention turns to the south-east of the city, impacting services between Bristol Temple Meads and Bath.

From Saturday 7 August, and Monday 9 to Friday 13 August:

• No direct trains between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington, Cardiff Central, Gloucester or the South Coast – change at Bristol Parkway or Bath Spa instead
• In addition, Cross Country trains won’t call at Bristol Temple Meads
• Trains between Bath Spa and Filton Abbey Wood won’t call at Bristol Temple Meads
• No trains between Lawrence Hill and Bristol Temple Meads
• Buses replace trains between Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa/Bristol Parkway
• Buses also replace trains between Bristol Temple Meads and Severn Beach on Saturday 7 August

Sunday 8 August

• Buses replace all trains to/from Bristol Temple Meads

Saturday 14 to Monday 30 August

• Trains between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington will run via Bristol Parkway and won’t call at Bath Spa or Chippenham
• Trains between Bath Spa and Filton Abbey Wood won’t call at Bristol Temple Meads
• Buses replace trains between Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa

The work will help to transform Bristol Temple Meads and the railway serving the area – paving the way for more train services to move more people, more reliably.

GWR Regional Development Manager Matt Barnes said: “Regular travellers who have become used to the amended timetable should take note. As work progresses there are some further changes to train times which may alter your usual journey.

“This work will in time help us to deliver 4,000 more train seats a day into the city, on more services through Bristol and help to reduce the conflict between long-distance and local stopping services, helping to maintain the reliability of our trains.

“We will continue to operate trains through Bristol for the vast majority of the period, but there will be some alterations to timetables and journey frequency, so please do check what is best for you if you’re travelling.”

The Bristol Rail Regeneration programme will see improvements to the iconic Bristol Temple Meads station, supporting the city’s Temple Quarter development.

This programme will also deliver new railway tracks and signalling in and around Bristol to increase capacity in the area, allowing more trains to run on the network.

These trains will provide thousands of additional seats, alongside plans for new stations through the MetroWest initiative backed by the West of England Combined Authority.

Trains between London Paddington and South Wales or to the North via Bristol Parkway, or to the South West via Taunton, will continue to operate throughout this period.

Mike Gallop, Network Rail’s Western route director, said: “Our work to upgrade the track at Bristol East Junction is progressing well. This is a highly complex engineering project which, once finished, will bring numerous benefits to our passengers.

“We would like to apologise for the disruption while we undertake this vital work and thank passengers and local residents for their patience during this time.

“We are continuing to work closely with the train operating companies to ensure passengers can still get to where they need to go and we urge passengers to keep planning ahead and checking before they travel, particularly during this period.”

Please go online for more details to see how you might be affected. Plan, prepare and check before you travel at www.GWR.com or www.nationalrail.co.uk.

As an alternative, Great Western Railway has agreed ticket acceptance on First West of England buses in the Bristol area on any reasonable route for the duration of this period.

For more information visit GWR.com/Bristol.

Photo credit: Great Western Railway

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