Yate railway station serves the town of

Yate Yate is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It lies just to the southwest of the Cotswold Hills and is northeast of Bristol city centre and from the centre of Bath, with regular rail services to Bristol and Gloucester. ...

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming ...

, in south west

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 ...

. The station is located on the main Bristol to Birmingham line between Bristol Parkway and Cam & Dursley, and is operated by Great Western Railway.

History

The Yate station first opened on 8 July 1844 and closed on 4 January 1965, along with other wayside stations on the former Bristol and Gloucester Railway; the local stopping service on the route having been withdrawn as a result of the Beeching Axe. This had both its platforms on the southern side of the road bridge mentioned above - the original 1844 goods shed still stands (now in commercial use) next to the old southbound platform site. The station was reopened by British Rail on 11 May 1989 with the backing of Avon County Council. When first open, trains headed south along the original B&GR/Midland route via to reach Bristol, although a connection was subsequently laid in to link this route with the rival Great Western Railway's 1903 "Badminton Line" from

Wootton Bassett Royal Wootton Bassett , formerly Wootton Bassett, is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001, increasing to 11,385 in 2011. Situated in the north of the county, it lies to the west of the major ...

to (the current

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. ...

) in 1908. The new connection left the older line by means a

flying junction A flying junction or flyover is a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movements. A more technical term is " g ...

at Yate South before heading southwest to join the SWML at the triangular

Westerleigh Junction Westerleigh Junction is a railway junction in Gloucestershire, England, where the Cross Country Route (XCR) from to Bristol Temple Meads meets the South Wales Main Line (SWML) from London Paddington to , near the village of Westerleigh. The j ...

. Though jointly built by the two companies for the purpose of giving the GWR access to the Severn Rail Bridge and

Severn and Wye Railway The Severn and Wye Railway began as an early tramroad network established in the Forest of Dean to facilitate the carriage of minerals to watercourses for onward conveyance. It was based on Lydney, where a small harbour was constructed, and open ...

, it also provided an alternative route to Bristol Temple Meads via

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 ...

and the Great Western soon made use of it to compete with the Midland for Bristol to Birmingham traffic, much to the dismay of the latter company. All services now use this newer line to get to Bristol, as the original 1844 route through was abandoned in January 1970 following the completion of the Bristol area resignalling scheme. A short section of the old route was retained from Yate South Junction after the rest closed, to serve a domestic waste transfer depot and fuel oil distribution terminal at Westerleigh sidings. This line is still in use today. It is the junction station for the Thornbury Branchline, however the passenger stations on this branch have long since closed (trains ceased in 1944) and the line remained open to serve Tytherington Quarry until September 2013, when it was placed 'Out of Use' by

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 ...

following the mothballing of the quarry at the beginning of the year. The line has now (summer 2017) returned to use following the reopening of the quarry, with

Mendip Rail Mendip Rail Ltd is an independent freight operating railway company in Great Britain. It is a joint venture composed of the rail-operation divisions of Aggregate Industries (formerly Foster Yeoman) and Hanson Aggregates (previously ARC). The ...

running periodic stone trains. In the Strategic Rail Authority’s 2007/08 financial year, Yate was ranked as the 1104th most-used station in the UK. In the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

's 2019/20 estimations, Yate ranked 1,114th most used station.

Facilities

The station is staffed on weekday mornings. It has two staggered platforms, separated by the

A432 road A43 or A-43 may refer to: Military * Curtiss A-43 Blackhawk, an American prototype aircraft * Douglas A-43 Jetmaster, an American prototype aircraft * Black Prince (tank), an experimental British heavy tank * Advanced Landing Ground A-43, an airf ...

bridge. An automated ticket machine was installed in mid-2007, but stopped functioning due to vandalism and is reported to be "unlikely to be replaced in the foreseeable future". A new ticket machine was installed in 2013 on platform 1, whilst the portakabin ticket office is on the opposite platform. Digital information screens, customer help points and timetable posters provide train running information, whilst CCTV was installed here in 2011. Step-free access to both platforms is available (via ramps from the road bridge to platform 1).

Services

The station is served Monday to Saturday by a train every hour in both directions between and via Bristol Temple Meads (with two-hourly extensions to/from Worcester & northbound and to/from southbound, plus a single service to/from ). There have been proposals put forward to run additional services to/from Bristol as part of the second phase of the Greater Bristol Metro plans first put forward in 2008 and rebranded as "MetroWest" in 2013.MetroWest Phase 2
'MetroWest Briefing Note, June 2013'', Travelwest.info; Retrieved 2013-12-13 If implemented the station would become the new northern terminus of the current to local service, though this would not happen until after Phase 1 of the scheme is completed in 2019. Yate station is also served by a two-hourly Sunday service. A normal service operates on most bank holidays.

References

External links

Friends of Yate Station site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yate Railway Station Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Bristol, Bath and South Gloucestershire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1844 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1989 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Beeching closures in England 1844 establishments in England 1965 disestablishments in England 1989 establishments in England Reopened railway stations in Great Britain DfT Category F1 stations