Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line - Later Years

Later Years

In the second half of the twentieth century, the line settled down to providing a basic stopping train service between Bath and Bristol; the St Philips station at Bristol was usually used until on its closure in 1953, when the trains transferred to Temple Meads, generally using the original Brunel terminus there. Many of the trains formed through services to and from Templecombe or Bournemouth. The star service was the Pines Express, a through train between Manchester and Bournemouth, and on Friday nights and Saturdays in the summer, a huge volume of trains from Midlands and Yorkshire places to the south coast resorts. There was also a nightly mail and parcels train between Bath and the Midlands.

Considered as effectively an extension of the Somerset and Dorset line, the branch suffered from poor loadings and high operating costs and the report "The Reshaping of British Railways", sometimes referred to as the Beeching Axe, cited the line for closure; this duly took place for passengers on 7 March 1966. Coal workings to Bath gas works continued over the line, which was reduced to a single line, continued until 1971.