Nailsea and Backwell Railway Station - Services

Services

The station is managed by First Great Western, which also operates all rail services from the station. As of the December 2011 timetable, the basic service from Monday to Saturday consists of two trains in each direction per hour. One is the Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare service, calling at all stations; the second is the faster Cardiff Central to Taunton service, non-stop between Bristol Temple Meads and Nailsea & Backwell. All trains call at Yatton, the next station westwards. A greater proportion of services continue beyond Weston-super-Mare in the evening, but fewer services continue to Cardiff. There is one evening service to Avonmouth via the Severn Beach Line. Sunday sees roughly one train per hour, with services again alternating between Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare and Cardiff to Taunton, with two services to and from the Severn Beach Line: during summer months these terminate at Severn Beach; the rest of the year only one does, the other terminating at Avonmouth. The typical journey time to Bristol Temple Meads is 11 minutes.

The local services described above are formed using Class 150, 153 and 158 diesel multiple-unit trains. Until 2012, Class 143 Pacer units were a regular sight, but these have been moved south to work in Devon and Cornwall following a cascade of Class 150/1 units from London Midland and London Overground.

Services between London Paddington and Weston-super-Mare call at Nailsea and Backwell in the early morning and evening, running non-stop between Bristol Temple Meads and Nailsea and Backwell, also stopping at Yatton, but not always at Worle or Weston Milton. From Monday to Friday there are five morning services and one evening service to London, with seven services from London, all in the evening. Saturday sees three services to London, all in the morning, and four services from London, all in the evening. There are seven services to and six from London on Sundays, spread throughout the day. These intercity services are formed of High Speed Train sets, which are longer than the station, so passengers in the front carriage have to move to a different carriage to get out. Passengers are prevented from getting out onto the tracks by a selective door-opening system. The typical journey time to London is roughly two hours.

In 2008, one morning northbound CrossCountry service would make a stop at Nailsea and Backwell to serve as a morning peak service, but this operation has ceased. CrossCountry services still pass through the station, but do not stop. Occasional First Great Western intercity services between London and Weston-super-Mare or Taunton and Exeter also pass through non-stop.

The station has an adjacent bus stop, served by the First Somerset & Avon number 362 and 363 buses between Bristol and Clevedon, with an hourly service in each direction providing a public transport link to Nailsea town centre, Tickenham, Flax Bourton and Long Ashton. In addition, a school day only service operated by North Somerset Coaches runs between the station, Nailsea School and Backwell School at the start and end of the school day. The North Somerset Coaches daytime service between Nailsea and Backwell via the station was withdrawn in November 2012.