One of the 2ph to Taunton could maybe be extended to Exeter once those stations open? I'd have both services follow the same semi-fast calling pattern north of Taunton though (indicatively - Bridgewater, Highbridge, WSM, Nailsea, Bristol TM, Filton AW, Patchway, Severn Tunnel Jn, Newport, Cardiff)
Could the Worcester trains continue to Birmingham Moor Street?
I was under the impression there was some MoD interest in maintaining direct trains between Filton Abbey Wood and Warminster (and possibly Portsmouth?), although I have no source for that (other than 'I think I may have read that on these forums once upon a time').
Shut em, the villagers have already annoyed Network Rail with the electrification and resultant speed limit reduction debacle with preserving their precious bridge, they need to learn they can't have everything their own way.
The service does cover at least three prominent military areas; Portsmouth has a naval base, Warminster is the nearest station to the main Salisbury plain military training areas and Filton Abbey Wood is close to a military storage site. I suspect the latter two link up most of all though, but adding Portsmouth is a bonus.
I totally disagree - I think it would be a very good idea - going via London is a real pain from Cambridge. And something to be avoided at all costs - the Elizabeth line makes some journeys via London marginally more bearable (but that involves semi-fast trains to either London Liverpool Street and Farringdon and two changes and the associated faff with time penalties, luggage, etc - a fast train from Cambridge to London King’s Cross via the Elizabeth line to London Paddington would require 3 changes or using the Circle line. But the avoiding route to the South West is an absolute game changer. Cardiff/Bristol to Norwich has been cited as possibilities. I appreciate keeping journeys simple but EWR isn’t some sort of backwater branch line, it’s a 100mph mainline. Cambridge (for its size and economic power)is a city that suffers dreadfully from poor or non existent long distance services and EWR is an opportunity to change that once and for all. And even if it was quicker - I’m not sure it would be - the pain in going into London and out is a significant penalty. Sometimes it can be quicker to get from Cambridge to Liverpool or Manchester via London but much more preferable for those with luggage to travel via Ely, or Peterborough and Leeds/York.
Totally agree - spot on with Oxford station. It’s too constrained to have multiple trains terminating there so the more through trains that can go through (taking up 2 mins rather than 20+ mins of platform space the better). Swindon is in fact in England’s Economic Heartland, a strategic partnership of local authorities trying to enhance connectivity.
Building a link road from the isolated part of the village south of the level crossing to the main B4017 road looks relatively straightforward, and could even be done as part of a housing development. The bridge definitely needs replacing regardless of what happens, and can be done offline on undeveloped land between the existing bridge and Stocks Lane level crossing.
The deciding factor on providing direct trains between Bristol and Cambridge will ultimately lie on whether the benefits and revenue gain from them outweigh the cost, capacity constraint and performance risk of doing so. Even if through trains don’t exist, some people may decide to travel via Oxford anyway for a less stressful connection experience.
If the goal is to skip Filton in order to speed up the Cardiff - Portsmouth service, the Warminster - Abbey Wood link can be maintained by extending the Salisbury - Temple Meads stopping service to Bristol Parkway.
At the cost of blocking the East end throat every time it runs. On paper, there are very good operational reasons for not having through services between the Bath and Filton lines. Commercially there are good reasons for doing so!
The MOD has moved a large number of its office staff to Filton Abbey Wood, originally a mix of London staff and army. About 20 years ago the MOD main building in Whitehall was refurbished and lots of surrounding buildings sold off. More moved to Filton Abbey Wood.
Particularly for those heading for the North Bristol centres of employment , the Bristol Channel isn’t too much of a barrier - it just restricts which bits of SE Wales are attractive to commuters.
The East West Rail game changers are Cambridge-Oxford connectivity and commuter flows into Cambridge and Oxford, at this end from Cambourne and Tempsford. Compared to those, connectivity between Cambridge and the South West is a drop in the bucket. On a daily basis the number of people doing Cambridge-South West journeys will be tiny, to claim that it is an "absolute game changer" is an absurd exaggeration.
If it is to be avoided it at all costs, nobody would be doing it, and that's not the case. In particular the time penalty of doing Thameslink to Farringdon for the Elizabeth Line, compared with a fast train to Kings Cross, is tiny, because of the amount of walking time at Kings Cross saved. The Thameslink-Elizabeth Line route is a significant improvement for Cambridge-Paddington.
Cambridge isn't a particularly big city, it doesn't even make the top 30 in England by population. Lots of cities bigger than Cambridge have similar long distance connectivity. The notion that Cambridge should have direct services to places all over England is unrealistic, and whether those direct trains are there or not isn't going to make significant difference to Cambridge's economic prospects.
Thanks for this interesting local insight.
And not the easiest to serve either, especially with no reversing sidings at Warminster or Frome (can reverse, but then blocking through track whilst waiting to do return service).
I'm interested in the views of people with local knowledge on what is actually feasible here.
My proposals increase frequency from Bradford upon Avon and Trowbridge to 3ph, plus Frome gets an hourly service. Maybe the Bristol-Oxford could run via Melksham? Not sure it would be worht the detour though.
Th Salisbury service doesn't exist in my proposal, it's replaced by 2ph MetroWest Henbury-Westbury stoppers and 2ph regional Bristol-Bath-Frome/Oxford. Filton passengers would have simple connections from MetroWest onto the regional Cardiff-Portsmouth at either Temple Meads or Bath.
Even for passengers who aren’t elderly /of reduced mobility /encumbered with luggage and/or children, interchange at Bristol TM is frequently anything but simple. OK, if it’s between two trains in the same island platform that’s fine, but try getting up the stairs to 13/15 just after a fully loaded London train has arrived. It wouldn’t go down well with the heritage authorities, but a footbridge at the Western end is badly needed.
Agree fully.
This would be a retrograde step for Warminster, which would go down from 2 to 1 trains per hour. Could you extend one of the MetroWest Westbury terminators to Warminster to compensate for this?
Platform alterations at Temple Meads are a frequent occurrence also. It's by no means the worst station to change at, but as discussed above there are significant cross-Bristol flows, certainly including Filton Abbey Wood. I don't personally think it's worth having the Portsmouths skip it for the sake of a couple of minutes.
You could extend both if there's space to terminate at Warminster.
And let’s not forget the aspirations for a proper Trans-Wilts (Swindon - Salisbury - calling at a reopened Wilton North) - which we can assume go ahead along with these Bristol area improvements.
Plenty of space to construct a reversing siding, just beyond the Imber Road bridge (on strip of land between running tracks and MOD sidings). There is already trailing crossover here.
Yes this is a realistic alternative, there are couple of out of use west facing platforms at Salisbury, although would need direct passenger rated signalling.
Frome has just had a massive westward extension granted 2nd April by Secretary of State for Housing, this suggests a new station at Blatchbridge might be better terminating location than Frome
It would be fairly easy to reopen Bradford north curve as single reversible track. The station site at Holt (which formerly had island platform) would be suitable for a 800m passing loop. There are few housing estates with permission at eastern end of Holt, which will soon be built.
Whether or not a new station is a good idea, Frome is badly underserved by rail and definitely justifies hourly Bristol trains.
There are already 3 trains an hour (if rather badly spaced) eg from May timetable northbound at Trowbridge towards Bristol :
Unless want Henbury to have an uneven service, going to have to do something fundamental as stoppers to Westbury are currently 18min and 42min intervals, each hour.
It is about hard headed decisions on what does most to contribute to economic growth. For Cambridge that's local connectivity, plus links with London and Oxford. Cambridge and Oxford aren't just two universities, they are 2 of the top 10 universities in the world, and they have global recognition, unlike most other UK universities.
Tempsford only became the game changer at the 2023 route announcement.
Almost all of those journeys are local. Cambridge has 25 stations where the number of one way journeys were more than 50k in 2024/25, that's 100k two way journeys or 1% in comparison with the 10m total. All of those 25 stations are in the East of England (20) or London (5). The biggest outside East of England or London is Gatwick Airport at 39k, followed by Brighton at 27k and Birmingham at 19k. Oxford, at 17k, is 4th outside East of England and London, and the biggest that doesn't have direct trains.
Whether intended for it or not, as I wrote previously EWR is going to become the most convenient and likely fastest route for many long distance journeys involving Bristol, Bath, Milton Keynes, Bletchley, Bedford, and Universal Studios. Not even considering Cambridge as we need to build the thing first. We can either take advantage of this, or not, but in my view the railway should be operated for passengers, not operational convenience.
Operational convenience is for the benefit of the passengers because it leads to a more robust and resilient service.
And that will be the case whether there are through trains or whether passengers change at Oxford.
