Stoke Gifford depot (or the Filton Triangle depot) is a railway depot built for AT300 units from the

Hitachi A-train The Hitachi A-train is a family of rail rolling stock built and designed by Hitachi Rail using a common base and construction techniques. The stock is designed to facilitate a number of product life-cycle improvements including ease of manufacture ...

procured under the

Intercity Express Programme The Intercity Express Programme (IEP) is an initiative of the Department for Transport (DfT) in the United Kingdom to procure new trains to replace the InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 fleets on the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Li ...

. The depot is situated between

Filton Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church d ...

and

Stoke Gifford Stoke Gifford is a village and parish in South Gloucestershire, England, in the northern suburbs of Bristol. It had around 11,000 residents at the 2001 census, increasing to 15,494 at the 2011 census. It is home to Bristol Parkway station an ...

at a junction intersection of the

Cross Country Route A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

South Wales Main Line The South Wales Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell De Cymru), originally known as the London, Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway or simply as the Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway, is a branch of the Great Western Main Line in Great Britain. ...

and the Filton to Avonmouth Docks line. It is operated by

Agility Trains Agility Trains is consortium of Hitachi, Axa UK and John Laing, which has been awarded a contract to design, manufacture, and maintain a fleet of long-distance class 800 and 801 trains to replace the InterCity 125 fleet as part of the Department f ...

as part of its contract to maintain the Class 800 fleet operated by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

Location

The depot is sited approximately halfway between

and

, on land bounded by railway lines. The site is approximately triangular shaped, in area, formed by boundaries created by three railway lines: to the south, the Bristol Parkway to

Avonmouth Docks The Avonmouth Docks are part of the Port of Bristol, in England. They are situated on the northern side of the mouth of the River Avon, opposite the Royal Portbury Dock on the southern side, where the river joins the Severn estuary, within Avon ...

(the

Filton to Avonmouth Line The Henbury Loop Line, also known as the Filton to Avonmouth Line, is a railway line following the boundary between Bristol and South Gloucestershire between the Severn Beach Line at Hallen Marsh Junction, Avonmouth and the Cross Country Rout ...

); the western boundary is formed by the former

Bristol and South Wales Union Railway The Bristol and South Wales Union Railway was built to connect Bristol, England, with south Wales. The route involved a ferry crossing of the River Severn but was considerably shorter than the alternative route through Gloucester. The ferry w ...

(B&SWUR) route; the north-east boundary is formed by a chord connecting Bristol Parkway to the former B&SWUR line for the

Severn Tunnel The Severn Tunnel ( cy, Twnnel Hafren) is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn. It was constructed by the Great Western ...

History

Background

In the early 19th century the land between Stoke Gifford and Filton was essentially rural. The first railway at the location was the north-south

(1860s); followed by the eastward

London, Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway The South Wales Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell De Cymru), originally known as the London, Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway or simply as the Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway, is a branch of the Great Western Main Line in Great Britain ...

(1900s); and the

(1910s). The lands at the other three corners formed by the intersection of the east-west and north-south lines were also enclosed by connecting embanked earthworks of connecting chords by the 1920s.See also, information in the articles

, and

Patchway railway station Patchway railway station is on the South Wales Main Line, serving the Bristol suburbs of Patchway and Stoke Gifford in South Gloucestershire, England. It is from . Its three letter station code is PWY. It is managed by Great Western Railway, ...

By the second half of the 20th century the southern part of the site was being used as a rail connected spoil heap; this use continued up to the 21st century. The site was involved in processing of used

railway ballast Track ballast forms the trackbed upon which railroad ties (sleepers) are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to bear the load from the railroad ties, to facilitate drainage of water, and also to keep down vegetat ...

, and from 1998 non-railway rubble was also processed. A small stream,

Stoke Brook Stoke Brook is a small brook in South Gloucestershire, England. It gives its name to the settlements of Stoke Gifford, Harry Stoke, Little Stoke, Great Stoke, Stoke Lodge and Bradley Stoke. The area around the brook was built up greatly during t ...

, as well as tributaries and other drains crossed the site; it was redirected in the latter part of the 20th century, and by the 21st century had been mostly

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

ed. In 2009

was named as the preferred bidder for the

train procurement. After being placed on hold and put under review the decision to continue with procurement process was taken in May 2011.

Intercity Express Programme depot

In mid 2011

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

Rail Europe began the formal application process with

South Gloucestershire Council South Gloucestershire Council is the local authority of South Gloucestershire, England, covering an area to the north of the city of Bristol. As a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority it has the powers of a non-metropolitan county a ...

for the construction of a rail depot at the 'Stoke Gifford Triangle'. In September 2011 a planning application was submitted; as specified, the depot was designed for a maximum train length of around (10 car, 26m carriage trains) with stabling for 17 trains. The maintenance building was a two road structure including staff and office buildings, other facilities included a train washing building , a wheel lathe building , a two-floor accommodation building as well as smaller structures including pump rooms (fuel, oil, waste water), and a shunters' cabin. Other structures included electricity substations, and tank farms. The entire site's working track was to have

overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

electrification. Rail access to the site was to be via connections in the south-east corner to the Stoke Gifford junction to Patchway junction chord of the

,In ' the line is referred to as the ''South Wales and Bristol Down Tunnel line''. and to the Avonmouth and Filton Line; a connection in the northwest corner to the Stoke Gifford/Patchway junction chord is also proposed. Significant local opposition developed to the plan, including concerns about

noise pollution Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is main ...

and

light pollution Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day ...

during night shift working, as well as concerns about a negative effect on house prices. Stoke Gifford parish council also opposed the plans.

approved the plan in February 2012. Construction by

VolkerFitzpatrick VolkerRail is a specialist railway infrastructure services company based in Doncaster, England, providing services across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is wholly owned by Netherlands-based VolkerWessels, a multi-disciplinary construction an ...

commenced in August 2013. In 2013 the plans were amended by application No. PT13/1744/RVC. Minor operational changes were made: the carriage wash was moved to be adjacent to the main maintenance building, and was ~15m longer than originally stated; stabling sidings was reduced to 16; positions of plant and track layout were altered, for operational reasons, also reducing the proximity of work activities to nearby residential properties; screening earthworks and access roads were also altered. Due to the presence of biological lifeforms on the site the developers have proposed the rail bounded triangle of land to the south of the site as an

environmental mitigation Environmental mitigation, compensatory mitigation, or mitigation banking, are terms used primarily by the United States government and the related environmental industry to describe projects or programs intended to offset known impacts to an existi ...

area. Control of the site was transferred from Network Rail to Hitachi in early 2013. The depot was completed in March 2016 and became operational with the first visit by a Class 800 in summer 2016. Regular operations commenced in October 2017 when the Class 800s entered service with

.First new trains in a generation launched by GWR
FirstGroup 16 October 2017

References

Notes

Sources

* * ** ** ** ** * ** {{refend Rail transport in Gloucestershire Railway depots in England Transport infrastructure completed in 2016