Construction of new railway station to begin early 2023

Construction work on a new train station in Bristol is due to begin early in 2023.

The station, at Ashley Down, will be between Temple Meads and Filton Abbey Wood, with services eventually running to the new YTL Arena in Filton.

It will be built on Station Road, just south of the Ashley Down allotments and should be completed in 2024.

The start date for the works should be announced next month at a West of England Combine Authority meeting.

The site used to be home to Ashley Hill Station, which closed in 1964 as part of the Beeching cuts, which saw roughly 5,000 miles of track closed and more than 2,300 stations axed in the 1960s, mainly in rural areas.

Ashley Down station is part of the MetroWest Phase 2 project, which will also see new train stations built at North Filton next to the new arena, and at Henbury.

These two stations have been hit by delays and the North Filton station is expected to open in 2026, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Bristol mayor, Marvin Rees, said: "This will be the first time in almost 60 years that residents in the Ashley Down area will be able to catch trains locally, helping to better connect people to employment, education and leisure opportunities, while tackling congestion and pollution, and reducing social and economic isolation."

Green councillor, Lily Fitzgibbon, also welcomed the plans, but said a residential parking scheme should be brought in when the station opens.

"People from further out may use the residential streets around the station as a free park-and-ride, and so we will continue to put pressure on the administration for a residents' parking zone," she added.

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