The Bristol Airport problem

[sh24]

Improve the bus link - more of them, better designed, more bus lanes - and the need for anything else goes away.

That said not an airport I would choose to use unless there really was no other choice.

 

[Severnia333]

Indeed. I suspect that for the vast majority of airport users there is not a "Bristol Airport Problem".

Less a problem, but it does feel lackluster compared to Birmingham/Southampton/any London airport with regard to connectivity (and not just rail, the road access isn't great either).

I don't see why a small branch off somewhere around Long Ashton wouldn't fit into a completed Metro West.

 

[zwk500]

Less a problem, but it does feel lackluster compared to Birmingham/Southampton/any London airport with regard to connectivity (and not just rail, the road access isn't great either).

The bus (and indeed taxi) access isn't bad. At least the Bus runs through the city centre from the Bus station.

I don't see why a small branch off somewhere around Long Ashton wouldn't fit into a completed Metro West.

It could probably be made to fit, but heavy rail is a bad answer to the problem of getting more people to/from Bristol Airport by public transport because of the trade-offs that would need to be made.

A branch would need more mainline capacity, on a network that doesn't actually serve Bristol that well. There are big sectors of the city not served at all (East and South Bristol as well as the area around Westbury on Trym), and Bristol Temple Meads is a reasonable (10-20 mins depending on speed and luggage) walk from Broadmead (shopping quarter, about to be redeveloped), Old City, the Harbour, and Park Street (Cathedral at the bottom, Uni at the top). The Mainline network needs that capacity for services beyond the Bristol area to Devon and Cornwall, and even if more track capacity is provided as far as Parson Street, it would be a poor use of very costly mainline resources to provide train services at an acceptable frequency.

Bear in mind that flights from Bristol are usually operating with planes in about the 180-200 seat capacity area, and there aren't *that* many flights per hour.

Whereas a tram system would be able to fill the gaps in Bristol's high-capacity transport provision, offer a high-frequency service to the airport for lower operating costs, connect directly into the city centre area as well as Temple Meads with frequent connectivity out to any branches, and (if isolated operationally from the rail network as it should be, no nonsense about tram-trains), insulated from Rail network delays.
Trams would be susceptible to road network delays, although that could be mitigated by tram prioritisation measures in the traffic lights.

 

[Metrider]

I could cycle it faster than the bus. I did the bus last year, catching it from the bus station, the journey included a tortuous lap of the centre with a ten minute wait at Temple Meads, a crawl out through Bedminster with several stops (despite the millions spent on a segregated route out through Ashton that was supposed to bypass that section) before finally getting to an open road up to the airport. Something like 45 minutes from memory. It didn’t feel like a premium service at all.

You're right that the A1 was originally going to avoid Bedminster, but then once that part was built it came to light that a lot of airport workers actually live in south Bristol and relied on the A1 to get to work. So they kept running it through Bemmy. Wonderful planning!

 

[Severnia333]

The bus (and indeed taxi) access isn't bad. At least the Bus runs through the city centre from the Bus station.

It could probably be made to fit, but heavy rail is a bad answer to the problem of getting more people to/from Bristol Airport by public transport because of the trade-offs that would need to be made.

A branch would need more mainline capacity, on a network that doesn't actually serve Bristol that well. There are big sectors of the city not served at all (East and South Bristol as well as the area around Westbury on Trym), and Bristol Temple Meads is a reasonable (10-20 mins depending on speed and luggage) walk from Broadmead (shopping quarter, about to be redeveloped), Old City, the Harbour, and Park Street (Cathedral at the bottom, Uni at the top). The Mainline network needs that capacity for services beyond the Bristol area to Devon and Cornwall, and even if more track capacity is provided as far as Parson Street, it would be a poor use of very costly mainline resources to provide train services at an acceptable frequency.

Bear in mind that flights from Bristol are usually operating with planes in about the 180-200 seat capacity area, and there aren't *that* many flights per hour.

Whereas a tram system would be able to fill the gaps in Bristol's high-capacity transport provision, offer a high-frequency service to the airport for lower operating costs, connect directly into the city centre area as well as Temple Meads with frequent connectivity out to any branches, and (if isolated operationally from the rail network as it should be, no nonsense about tram-trains), insulated from Rail network delays.
Trams would be susceptible to road network delays, although that could be mitigated by tram prioritisation measures in the traffic lights.

Generally sound considerations, I do think Bristol needs some additional provision (realistically some kind of tram) as well as improvement of suburban rail (which is happening slowly).

I had more convenience for those travelling to the airport from outside the city, Gloucestershire/Wiltshire/ Bath directions in mind with a heavy rail link, I imagine a tram would be fairly slow and stop lots between Temple Meads and the centre in the way a heavy rail link would be either direct or stop only at Bedminster and Parson Street.

I don't really buy into the 'Temple Meads isn't really in the centre' argument, but that's been had many times on this forum.

 

[The exile]

You're right that the A1 was originally going to avoid Bedminster, but then once that part was built it came to light that a lot of airport workers actually live in south Bristol and relied on the A1 to get to work. So they kept running it through Bemmy. Wonderful planning!

There was a (brief?) period before the world ended in 2020 when there were both express and stopping bus services between the airport and central Bristol. Were they numbered A1 and A2, possibly?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 May 2026 ==

The bus (and indeed taxi) access isn't bad. At least the Bus runs through the city centre from the Bus station.

It could probably be made to fit, but heavy rail is a bad answer to the problem of getting more people to/from Bristol Airport by public transport because of the trade-offs that would need to be made.

A branch would need more mainline capacity, on a network that doesn't actually serve Bristol that well. There are big sectors of the city not served at all (East and South Bristol as well as the area around Westbury on Trym), and Bristol Temple Meads is a reasonable (10-20 mins depending on speed and luggage) walk from Broadmead (shopping quarter, about to be redeveloped), Old City, the Harbour, and Park Street (Cathedral at the bottom, Uni at the top). The Mainline network needs that capacity for services beyond the Bristol area to Devon and Cornwall, and even if more track capacity is provided as far as Parson Street, it would be a poor use of very costly mainline resources to provide train services at an acceptable frequency.

In terms of serving the airport that’s very true (and I know that that’s what the thread is about), but operationally it would provide a useful extra terminating point for local services heading out of the west end of Bristol TM. Currently there is only Weston - Exeter (certainly) and Taunton (arguably) being too far to be “local” - and soon also Portishead - compare that to the other end.

 

[Zomboid]

terms of serving the airport that’s very true (and I know that that’s what the thread is about), but operationally it would provide a useful extra terminating point for local services heading out of the west end of Bristol TM. Currently there is only Weston - Exeter (certainly) and Taunton (arguably) being too far to be “local” - and soon also Portishead - compare that to the other end.

It would certainly be convenient to have a third southern terminus for the local "metro" trains (Weston & Portishead plus ???) to pair with the 3 northern branches (Severn Beach, Henbury, Yate). Not sure that quite justifies boring a tunnel to the airport though.

Seems like the kind of place where an airport station might be worth building if the railway went close to the terminal (eg Southend), but if it can't even justify an express bus to the city centre then a dedicated branch line isn't close to be necessary.

 

[The exile]

It would certainly be convenient to have a third southern terminus for the local "metro" trains (Weston & Portishead plus ???) to pair with the 3 northern branches (Severn Beach, Henbury, Yate). Not sure that quite justifies boring a tunnel to the airport though.

4 branches - though the 4th one is the main line!
Agreed about the costs of the infrastructure though. Less so about the lack of an express bus indicating low demand. Think it indicates more that on existing infrastructure the time gained by running express wouldn’t be enough to counter the fact that a lot of people want the intermediate stops (and if they don’t, the bus is effectively an express!)

 

[Zomboid]

A better bet would probably be to double the line to Weston and terminate two of the northern branches there.
I don't imagine very many tourists consider the local buses when making their airport based travel plans. It's not the journey time so much as the lack of a distinctly branded airport to city service that suggests that the Bristol airport custom demographic doesn't overlap greatly with the get the bus to the airport demographic.

 

[The exile]

I don't imagine very many tourists consider the local buses when making their airport based travel plans. It's not the journey time so much as the lack of a distinctly branded airport to city service that suggests that the Bristol airport custom demographic doesn't overlap greatly with the get the bus to the airport demographic.

Not sure I understand what you’re trying to say here.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Less a problem, but it does feel lackluster compared to Birmingham/Southampton/any London airport with regard to connectivity (and not just rail, the road access isn't great either).

I don't see why a small branch off somewhere around Long Ashton wouldn't fit into a completed Metro West.

Absolutely. The airport itself is fine but its location is almost comical- as though it was just dropped on a country lane in a field. The city itself has the worst transport network (both public transport and car) in the country in my opinion- the A4174 is a genuine “road to Hell” and Temple Meads is in a weird location for the handful of Sprinters that serve local services. A Metro West serving the Bristol/Bath conurbation would be the best solution to these problems, and any such network should serve the airport.

As others have noted, the real best solution would have been for the airport to have been retained to the north of the city, with access to the M4, M5, GWML, South Wales Line and CrossCountry Line- could a Bristol Airport station have fulfilled Bristol Parkway’s function? And it could have acted as the main airport for South Wales too (and- is this correct?- planes flying in over the water, not the countryside). But obviously that ship has sailed…or rather, that plane has flown!

 

[WelshBluebird]

Filton is just too close to residential suburbia. Even if the more recent developments in the area hadnt have happened the increase in size of modern planes and increase in the number of flights would have made it a non starter. An interesting thing to chat about yeah, but certainly not the solution to Bristol airports issues.

As I said I really dont see there being a huge problem tbh. Even at rush hour its about 35 mins from Temple Meads. The Edinburgh airport tram takes about the same from Waverley.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 May 2026 ==

The city itself has the worst transport network (both public transport and car) in the country in my opinion- the A4174 is a genuine “road to Hell” and Temple Meads is in a weird location for the handful of Sprinters that serve local services.

Surely that should be the priority given the airport is already well served by the buses?

 

[stuu]

A better bet would probably be to double the line to Weston and terminate two of the northern branches there.
I don't imagine very many tourists consider the local buses when making their airport based travel plans. It's not the journey time so much as the lack of a distinctly branded airport to city service that suggests that the Bristol airport custom demographic doesn't overlap greatly with the get the bus to the airport demographic.

There are branded buses every 8 minutes and they are often full, but apart from that???

 

[WelshBluebird]

I don't imagine very many tourists consider the local buses when making their airport based travel plans. It's not the journey time so much as the lack of a distinctly branded airport to city service that suggests that the Bristol airport custom demographic doesn't overlap greatly with the get the bus to the airport demographic.

I mean most tourists will just look at either the airport website or google maps. Both of which suggest the Airport Flyer bus. Which very much is a distinctly branded airport to city service that runs frequently, has luggage storage and takes about the same amount of time as some other airport connections.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Surely that should be the priority given the airport is already well served by the buses?

Sorry, I don’t understand what you mean?

 

[WelshBluebird]

Sorry, I don’t understand what you mean?

The time, effort and ultimately money that would be spent on a rail (light or heavy) connection to the airport would be better spent on improving public transport in the city and and nearby areas given the airport already has a pretty decent and frequent bus connection to the city.

By all means such a rail link could happen eventually but it absolutely isnt and shouldn't be the priority in the area.

 

[JKF]

Isn’t there a proposal for a Bristol to Cardiff service to increase frequency on that route? That would be a good one to continue to the airport given quite a few air passengers travel from South Wales.

 

[The exile]

Isn’t there a proposal for a Bristol to Cardiff service to increase frequency on that route? That would be a good one to continue to the airport given quite a few air passengers travel from South Wales.

Doubt TfW would see it that way!

 

[zwk500]

Isn’t there a proposal for a Bristol to Cardiff service to increase frequency on that route? That would be a good one to continue to the airport given quite a few air passengers travel from South Wales.

which one, the one originating at Carmarthen (or further) due to start this September, or the one originating at Cardiff Central that's supposed to stop at the new stations on the Relief lines?

West Wales to Bristol is currently only planned to run at 1tp2h, while the "Burns" station service is proposed to be half-hour but it'll be on very specific slots through the tunnel to manage that, which extending to the Airport isn't going to help.
Extending the Gloucester/Worcesters is an option given the Airport-Filton and Airport-Parkway links they'd provide, although they're often delayed by congestion with XC or at Parkway. Extending the Westbury would link Bath to the Airport, and are reasonbly reliable.

However, I've already said why any heavy rail is the wrong answer to public transport connectivity to Bristol Airport.

 

[bahnause]

A better bet would probably be to double the line to Weston and terminate two of the northern branches there.
I don't imagine very many tourists consider the local buses when making their airport based travel plans. It's not the journey time so much as the lack of a distinctly branded airport to city service that suggests that the Bristol airport custom demographic doesn't overlap greatly with the get the bus to the airport demographic.

As a tourist, I’m generally open to using any mode of transport, provided I know it exists. All I need is a comprehensive route planner, covering all modes of transport.

 

[morrisobrien]

Apparently Bristol is now the biggest city in Europe without any trams or electrified railway.

 

[The exile]

West Wales to Bristol is currently only planned to run at 1tp2h, while the "Burns" station service is proposed to be half-hour but it'll be on very specific slots through the tunnel to manage that, which extending to the Airport isn't going to help.

Given the fact that any extension of heavy rail train services to the airport isn't going to happen until getting on for 2040 (even if building approval were granted today), I don't think the specific slots through the Severn Tunnel which are available today are exactly the biggest argument against extending the Cardiff stopper to any putative Bristol Airport station.

 

[zwk500]

Given the fact that any extension of heavy rail train services to the airport isn't going to happen until getting on for 2040 (even if building approval were granted today), I don't think the specific slots through the Severn Tunnel which are available today are exactly the biggest argument against extending the Cardiff stopper to any putative Bristol Airport station.

Given the reason for the signalling constraints, the improvement achievable within 14 years is likely marginal at best - even ETCS L2 wouldn't get *that* much space. Building more tracks between Bristol and South Wales is going to take longer than building tracks between Bristol and the Airport, so the constraints on the tunnel can't simply be hand-waved as being 'solved by then'.

 

[The exile]

Given the reason for the signalling constraints, the improvement achievable within 14 years is likely marginal at best - even ETCS L2 wouldn't get *that* much space. Building more tracks between Bristol and South Wales is going to take longer than building tracks between Bristol and the Airport, so the constraints on the tunnel can't simply be hand-waved as being 'solved by then'.

As long as there are paths through the tunnel (which there must be as the Cardiff - Bristol stopper is happening) then any difficulty is reconciling those paths with timetabling restraints caused by getting to the airport and back from Temple Meads. Fifteen years is (in theory) plenty of time to resolve those issues.

 

[Bald Rick]

Doubt TfW would see it that way!

TfW would find that very attractive, as it might be that rarity for them: a service that actually covers it’s marginal operating costs!

 

[JKF]

Doubt TfW would see it that way!

I suspect TFW wouldn’t be keen on boosting a rival to Cardiff Airport, but it’s where people want to travel for flights!

 

[Caaardiff]

Cardiff Airport has a 2 mile bus link from Rhoose station - which at present has only 1 train per hour and these trains go from Bridgend to Rhymney in the valleys. Transport for Wales would like to run a service to Bristol Temple Meads calling at all stations - including new ones - if they are ever built. Surely it would be better to increase the train service on the Vale of Glam line to half hourly and instead of going to Rhymney - go to Bristol Temple Meads instead? Failing that, why not run the present TFW Cheltenham service to Bridgend via the VOG line and ‘plug’ Cardiff Airport into the Gloucester/Cheltenham catchment? That would also solve the problem of having terminators at Cardiff Central.

The issues is demand. For people that live east of Cardiff, Bristol Airport is just as accessible as Cardiff Airport, but demand is much greater for Bristol because of the volume of flights.
Cardiff Airport is seen as the Airport of South Wales. Whereas Bristol Airport is seen as the Airport of the South West AND South Wales.
Any new rail link needs to tap into the core catchment for Cardiff Airport, which would be from West Wales.
A Swansea or further West to Cardiff Central service, via the VOG running fast from Barry to Cardiff would be a better option.


As for Bristol Airport access, any serious options would be costly. It is quite simply in an awful location, with not great road access, and little chance of direct rail access in any form.
What they need to do is make the best of what they have. There are double decker buses every few minutes from Temple meads, but the traffic to/from the city often gets backed up along the A38.
Better use of Nailsea & backwell train station with more regular train service and bus link to the Airport would filter people to the Airport from the Southwest, without having to go into Temple Meads.

The other thing to consider is who is going to stump up the cost for any major road or rail infrastructure? Should the council/government fund it? Bristol Airport are spending a huge amount on it's expansion which will tie up most of it's money. Then the other argument is, why should tax payer money be used to improve infrastructure for an expanding privately run airport? Especially given Bristol Airports failed attempt regarding Welsh Government owned Cardiff Airport funding for expansion. There is unused capacity at Exeter, Newquay and Cardiff Airports.

 

[fishwomp]

Obviously being a rail forum, we think the problem with Bristol Airport is that it has no railway.. but it really isn't a valid problem - what is it that needs to be solved, there are buses?

https://cms.ciltuk.org.uk/media/h31hmc5q/cilt_airportsurfaceaccess_paper.pdf is an interesting data source.

It doesn't summarize the data so this graph is the best source: public (passenger) transport plotted against percentage of foreign travellers - which shows the obvious corrolation that those airports with the most foreign travellers will be the ones were an arriving passenger is least likely to own their own transport and hence most likely to use public transport. However, you can just read across to the left to find out the percentage that use public transport to reach the aiport and ignore the bottom axis.



Fascinating that Bristol is doing better than Manchester with its tram and busy railway!

 

[Bald Rick]

Obviously being a rail forum, we think the problem with Bristol Airport is that it has no railway.. but it really isn't a valid problem - what is it that needs to be solved, there are buses?

https://cms.ciltuk.org.uk/media/h31hmc5q/cilt_airportsurfaceaccess_paper.pdf is an interesting data source.

It doesn't summarize the data so this graph is the best source: public (passenger) transport plotted against percentage of foreign travellers - which shows the obvious corrolation that those airports with the most foreign travellers will be the ones were an arriving passenger is least likely to own their own transport and hence most likely to use public transport. However, you can just read across to the left to find out the percentage that use public transport to reach the aiport and ignore the bottom axis.

View attachment 204100

Fascinating that Bristol is doing better than Manchester with its tram and busy railway!

Presumably Leeds / Bradford has the highest rate of foreign travellers in England outside London because they count ‘foreign’ as anyone not from Yorkshire.

 

[JKF]

We’re in west Bristol and haven’t had much problems with traffic on the A38, and probably go to the airport half a dozen times a year to pick up/drop off visiting family. Seldom have queues, and some of the improvement work on junctions in recent years have improved things. When there are traffic jams I can see that being problematic, but it’s not something I’ve encountered in eight or so years of doing this trip, even at peak times of year/day. The ever inflating drop-off charges however… (I’d like to have been in the meeting they had a few months back where it was raised from £7 to £8:50 - somebody must have proposed sticking the extra 50p on, and I’d like to know who as they’ll be in the first batch up against the wall)

The issue is getting out of the city itself, particularly with the route the buses go. Once you’re at the roundabout at the top of the new link road it’s a clear run. If we’re sticking with buses it’s the route in the city that needs sorting, with priority measures, segregated running (or just use the stuff they’ve already built at great expense).