Ashton Gate railway station was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

serving the Ashton Gate area of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, which included Ashton Gate football ground, the home ground of

Bristol City F.C. Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

It was located on the

Portishead Railway The Portishead Railway is a branch line railway running from Portishead in North Somerset to the main line immediately west of Bristol, England. It was constructed by the Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway Company, but it was always operated ...

. Recent proposals have been made for the station to reopen as part of the MetroWest project to improve rail transport in the Greater Bristol area.

History

The railway through Ashton Gate was opened on 18 April 1867 by the Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company, when services began on their line from the Bristol and Exeter Railway at Portishead Junction to a pier on the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...

at . The line was built as

broad-gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

, and was largely single track. The line was relaid as standard gauge between 24 and 27 January 1880, and in 1883 the line was double-tracked. Ashton Gate station was built after local football team

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

were promoted to the Football League First Division, then the top tier of English football. The station was opened to serve their home ground, Ashton Gate Stadium, which was situated nearby. The station opened for supporters on 15 September 1906, and to the general public on 1 October that year. In 1914 it was temporarily renamed "Exhibition Station" for the

Bristol International Exhibition The Bristol International Exhibition was held on Ashton Meadows in the Bower Ashton area of Bristol, England in 1914. The exhibition which had been planned since 1912 was a commercial venture and not fully supported by the civic dignitaries of th ...

. The station was from the line's terminus at Portishead, from and from the Great Western Railway's terminus at .Railways in the United Kingdom are, for historical reasons, measured in miles and chains. There are 80 chains to the mile. The station closed due to economies during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It then passed on to the

Western Region of British Railways The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex-Great We ...

on nationalisation in 1948. It was then closed by the

British Railways Board British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in 1964, then briefly reopened for traffic to the football ground until 1977, and temporarily re-opened in May 1984 to serve Mission England, a series of evangelical rallies by

Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...

at the football ground.

Future

The Portishead Branch Line is to be reopened as part of the MetroWest scheme, a rail transport plan which aims to enhance transport capacity in the Bristol area. The scheme was given the go-ahead in July 2012 as part of the

City Deal City Deals are an initiative enacted by the UK government in 2012 to promote economic growth and infrastructure while ultimately shifting control of decisions away from the central government to local authorities. City Deals are generally set for t ...

, whereby local councils would be given greater control over money by the government. A consultation on the plans was held between 22 June and 3 August 2015 to gather views from the community and stakeholders before moving on to detailed designs. The detailed proposals will be subject to a second consultation before the plans are finalised. Due to the additional

capital cost Capital costs are fixed, one-time expenses incurred on the purchase of land, buildings, construction, and equipment used in the production of goods or in the rendering of services. In other words, it is the total cost needed to bring a projec ...

s, the line will not be electrified, however the design will include passive provision for future electrification. The line through Ashton Gate would be increased to double track.

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

stated that it was not feasible to reopen Ashton Gate during the initial stage of the project, but that the scheme will be future-proofed to allow the construction of a station at a later date. Trains along the reopened line will operate between Portishead and , with two trains per hour in each direction. Services would call at Pill and , with aspirations to also call at and Ashton Gate. Trains could also be extended on to the Severn Beach Line. The trains used will be

diesel multiple units A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

, likely three carriages long. The line will be operated as part of the Greater Western passenger franchise. Great Western Railway, a subsidiary of

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland. In May 2016, it was reported that

Bristol City Council Bristol City Council is the local authority of Bristol, England. The council is a unitary authority, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Bristol. Bristol has 34 ward ...

did not consider there was a business case for the station's reopening due to its low predicted annual patronage of 67,000 excluding Bristol City matches.

Notes

References

* * ''Notes to references:''

External links

*
Pictures of the station
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashton Gate Railway Station Former Great Western Railway stations Disused railway stations in Bristol Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1906 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Beeching closures in England