UK: Network Rail has begun construction of Portway Park & Ride station on the Bristol to Severn Beach branch, with opening planned for the summer.
Preparatory works were completed in December. Much of the main construction will be carried out overnight, but services on the Severn Beach line will be suspended from February 19 to 27 to enable changes to the signalling, construction of concrete platform foundations and drainage improvement works.
The £4·2m project is being funded with £1·7m from the Department for Transport’s New Stations Fund, £1·5m from the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership administered by the West of England Combined Authority, £857 000 from Bristol City Council and £114 000 from Network Rail.
The station forms part of the Combined Authority’s wider MetroWest plan to enhance the local rail network. The half-hourly GWR service will complement the existing bus service, and the city council is planning improvements to the park-and-ride facility.
‘It’s really exciting to see work starting on the first new rail station in the city in almost a century’, said Councillor Don Alexander, Bristol City Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport on February 1. ‘Portway Park & Ride station will improve connectivity to the rail network for the local community and more widely for users of our park-and-ride site, allowing many more people to choose to travel by rail to work, study and for leisure.’
