Bristol Temple Meads is being transformed and the railway serving the area upgraded – paving the way for more train services to move more people, more reliably.
The work is part of the Bristol Rail Regeneration programme that will see improvements to the iconic Bristol Temple Meads station over the next three years, supporting the city’s Temple Quarter development.
This programme will also deliver new railway tracks and signalling in and around Bristol that, once complete, will increase capacity in the area allowing more trains to run on the network.
These services will provide over 4,000 additional seats on trains every day in the area plus 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.
There will also be no impact on long-distance train services to/from Bristol Temple Meads for the first four weeks, but some local stopping services will be different.
Confirmed timetable changes include:
Saturday, July 10 to Friday, August 13
Saturday, August 7 and Monday to Friday, August 9-13
Sunday, August 8
Saturday 14 to Monday 30 August
Tuesday, August 31 to Friday, September 3
As an alternative, Great Western Railway will aim to have ticket acceptance on First West of England buses in the Bristol area on any reasonable route for the duration of this period.
GWR Regional Development Manager Matt Barnes said: “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 during 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 during the period.”
Wherever possible rail improvements will be completed overnight or at weekends to minimise impact on customers. However, this summer Network Rail is replacing a major junction near Bristol Temple Meads to improve the track layout which will require a solid block of 24/7 working. This will mean changes to some train services but will make for better journeys for passengers in the future.
Jonathan Davies, Network Rail Project Director, said: “We would like to thank in advance our passengers and local residents for their patience while we undertake this important, transformative work at Bristol East junction.
“We are working closely with the train operating companies to ensure disruption is minimised as much as possible and we encourage passengers to plan ahead and check before they travel, particularly during this period.”
For more information visit GWR.com/Bristol.
You can also find out more about the Bristol Rail Regeneration programme at Networkrail.co.uk/BristolRailRegen.
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