Clifton Down railway station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Clifton Down | |||
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|---|---|---|---|
| Location | |||
| Place | Clifton | ||
| Local authority | Bristol | ||
| Operations | |||
| Station code | CFN | ||
| Managed by | First Great Western | ||
| Platforms in use | 2 | ||
| Live departures and station information from National Rail | |||
| Annual Rail Passenger Usage | |||
| 2004/05 * | 0.141 million | ||
| 2005/06 * | 0.153 million | ||
| History | |||
| Key dates | Opened October 1874[1] | ||
| National Rail - UK railway stations | |||
| * Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Clifton Down from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. | |||
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Clifton Down railway station is located on Whiteladies Road in Clifton, Bristol, England. The station is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) west of Bristol Temple Meads on the Severn Beach Line. To the west of the station the line passes through a mile-long tunnel under the Downs; the station takes its name from Clifton Down, the southern part of this open public space.
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[edit] History
The station was opened on 1 October 1874, when the first section of the Severn Line branch was opened. Initially there were 10 Great Western Railway trains a day from the station to Temple Meads and 13 Midland Railway trains a day to Mangotsfield. Trains to Mangotsfield ceased in 1941, but by 1947 there were 33 trains a day in each direction (18 on Sundays). Until the 1970s excursion trains were run to the station from South Wales for visitors to Bristol Zoo - trains known as "monkey specials".[2]
The original station waiting room, ticket office and station-master's house, which stands as a testament to previous grandeur, is now an Australian theme pub known as the "Roo Bar". The station building, pub and attached screen walls date from 1874 and have been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building.[3]
[edit] Today
The station is next to Clifton Down shopping centre. It is the closest railway station to the BBC's main Bristol studios and offices on Whiteladies Road, and to Bristol Zoo (just under 1 km). It is now unstaffed with no ticket machines, meaning tickets should be bought on the train.
The station is the passing place of the main section of the line as there are two tracks there on the mainly single tracked line.
[edit] Services
From Sunday 18 May 2008 an improved service is in operation on the line[4]. There are three trains in every 2-hour cycle during the daytime on Mondays to Saturdays, eastbound to Bristol Temple Meads and westbound to Avonmouth, with one train every 2 hours continuing to Severn Beach. In addition to improving the frequency of services this will also increase turnaround time, so the timetable should be more reliable. This will have the unfortunate side-effect of trains not being at the same times past each hour.
Services to Severn Beach will be reduced overall, with only one train every two hours Mondays to Fridays, as opposed to the current service provided by a bus every hour connecting with every train. However, overall journey time is shortened by 8 minutes by removing the need to change at Avonmouth, and bicycles can be carried on the train while they were banned from the bus. The bus continues to run on Saturdays to provide one additional journey per 2 hour period to/from Severn Beach.
For the first time in recent history, there will be a Sunday service, with hourly departures between 10am and 6pm towards both Bristol and Avonmouth, running until September only. St Andrew's Road and Severn Beach itself continue to have no Sunday service.
| Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redland | First Great Western Severn Beach Line |
Sea Mills | ||
[edit] Proposed improvements
In March 2007 First Great Western, published details of the improvements they plan to undertake over the next three years.[5] At Clifton Down they are;
- CCTV
- Help and information points
- Public address system
- Seal off area under bridge
- Sign on road bridge
- Zoo branding/signing
[edit] References
- ^ History of the Severn Beach Line
- ^ Maggs, C. (1981) Rail Centres: Bristol Ian Allan ISBN 0 7110 1153 2 p.31
- ^ Clifton Down Station, Steam Tavern Public House and attached screen walls. Images of England. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
- ^ http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/DC%20MAY%202008%20TIMETABLE/Bristol%20Temple%20Meads%20to%20Severn%20Beach.pdf New timetable from First Great Western
- ^ First Great Western improvement plans
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Train times and station information for Clifton Down railway station from National Rail
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