‘Not enough passengers’ for half-hourly train services to arena

“Not enough passengers” would use a rail service planned for Bristol’s new arena to justify running trains every half an hour.

The new train line running to the YTL Arena in Filton is currently planned to run only once an hour, despite the arena’s maximum capacity of 17,000.

Thousands of new homes are also being built near the planned North Filton train station, but residents there will have to wait up to an hour for the train service running through Ashley Down and then to Temple Meads. The line also runs to Henbury, after North Filton.

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees faced new calls to support increased frequency of trains on the Henbury spur line, during a member forum meeting at Bristol City Council on December 13.

Rees said future growth in passenger numbers could later lead to more frequent services – image: YTL/ Network Rail

Mark Weston, leader of the Conservative group and councillor for Henbury & Brentry, said: “The service frequency on the Henbury spur line will be totally out-of-kilter to the phased new town development.

“However, I understand the junctions, signalling and track would be able to handle 30-minute passenger trains as opposed to hourly services.

“I would ask the mayor if you could look again at the business case. Since it was first done, you have the arena moving up into the area, which wasn’t there at first, but also the YTL section of development with 2,700 homes is now a minimum of 3,700 homes, and actually they’re trying for 6,700 homes.

“I would argue that there is some fundamental change now in the North Filton station catchment area which would support a higher frequency.”

The North Filton station has already been hit by delays. Initially it was due to open next year, a year before the new arena opens in 2024, as a key part of the transport plan to get people to concerts. However in October YTL, the developer of the arena and thousands of new homes at the neighbouring Brabazon housing estate, said ‘mid 2026’ was now the target opening date.

YTL said at the time that responsibility for delivering the station sits with the West of England combined authority and Network Rail, and that it was “working with Network Rail and Great Western Railway on the frequency of trains, particularly on event days”.

According to the mayor, business cases for building the North Filton station showed it would be too expensive to run trains every half an hour. But he added he supported calls to increase the frequency of services, which could be bolstered by future growth in passenger numbers, once the station eventually opens.

Rees said: “I support increased frequency, accessibility and affordability of all public transport. So I do support this aspiration, and our commitment to improving rail travel in Bristol is clear — we’re building the first new station for almost a century and secured the investment for improvements at Temple Meads to improve capacity.

Rees added: “Just to provide background, a 30-minute service frequency option was explored earlier in the development of the MetroWest Phase 2 project. Although technically feasible, the requirement for an additional train and crew to operate this was shown to be unaffordable within the available budget and predicted passenger numbers did not support a strong enough business case.

“The project is therefore being developed as an initial hourly service to enable the Henbury line to be reopened to passenger services and two new stations to be delivered. Once operational, I would expect that future growth in passenger numbers will support the case for increased frequencies and options to deliver this can be explored further.”

Main image: YTL

Read next:

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• Critics of underground need to ‘stop talking city down’
• Work to build new station to start one year after arena due to open

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