Portishead Railway | |||
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![]() 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) | ||
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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]