Portishead Railway

Portishead Railway
The 1954 Portishead railway station, in 1960
Overview
Owner	Network Rail
History
Opened	1867
Closed	1981
Re-opened to Portbury	2002
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Old gauge	7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm)
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e Portishead Railway
Legend
mi-ch from London Paddington 130-29 Portishead Pier 129-75 Portishead (1867–1954) 129-43 Portishead Junction Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway 129-65 Portishead (1954–1964) 127-77 Portbury 127-48 Royal Portbury Dock 127-11 Coal Terminal 126-59  M5  Portbury Shipyard 126-32 Portbury Dock Junction 126-25 Shipyard 126-12 Pill Pill Viaduct 125-63 125-33 Pill Tunnel 665 yd 608 m 125-26 Ham Green Halt Ham Green Viaduct Paradise Bottom Viaduct 123-79 Sandstone Tunnel 88 yd 80 m 122-58 Clifton Bridge No 2 Tunnel 232 yd 212 m 122-37 Nightingale Valley Halt 122-24 Clifton Bridge No 1 Tunnel 59 yd 54 m 121-69  B3129  Clifton Suspension Bridge 121-63 Clifton Bridge 121-30 Ashton Gate Bristol Harbour Railway 121-19 Ashton Junction Bristol–Exeter line West Depot 120-28 Parson Street Junction 120-15 Parson Street Bristol–Exeter line

The Portishead Railway is a branch line railway running from Portishead in North Somerset to the main line immediately west of Bristol, England.^{[1][page needed]} It was constructed by the Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway Company, but it was always operated by its main line neighbour, and was more usually thought of as the Portishead branch or the Portishead railway.

It opened as a broad gauge (7 ft 1⁄4 in [2,140 mm]) line to connect new docks at Portbury, at the west side of the mouth of the River Avon, with the railway network. The line opened to Portishead in 1867, and to the docks in 1879.

The docks were always overshadowed by Bristol and Avonmouth docks. The ordinary passenger service declined in the twentieth century, leading to closure to passengers in 1964, and to all traffic in 1981.

When a new high capacity freight terminal was opened at the site of the Royal Portbury Dock, the line as far as that point was reopened to accommodate the new traffic, in 2002. Public consultation took place in 2015 regarding the reopening of the entire line to passenger traffic in 2020, as part of the MetroWest proposals. By 2020, the line was scheduled to reopen in December 2024.^[2]

It was reported in November 2022 that construction work to reopen the remaining line to Portishead for passengers will not start until 2024 and the earliest opening date will not be before 2026.^[3] In 2023, this was revised to 2028.^{[citation needed]}