Portishead Railway - The Route

The Route

The railway branches from the mainline at Parson Street Station in south Bristol and runs north along the south west bank of the River Avon. Ashton junction is where a former line across the river and into Bristol Harbour curved off. (On the opposite bank is CREATE Centre platform served by the Bristol Harbour Railway, with the former rail bridge now a walk way.) To the north The first station was Ashton Gate, opened 1906, followed by Clifton Bridge, half a mile south of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, near the Cumberland Basin and modern Brunel Way road. In the Avon Gorge the railway runs through a short tunnel where the Clifton Suspension Bridge runs overhead. In 1928 a halt was opened at Nightingale Valley, a footpath which leads up to the Leigh Woods suburb of Bristol, but this was closed four years later. The railway then crosses the flood plains south of the Avon estuary on an embankment, passes through another short tunnel and across a viaduct at Pill. Ham Green Halt, serving a now demolished hospital just east of Pill, opened in 1926. There were then stations at Pill, and Portbury. From there the line then runs west to Portishead.

In the 1920s a second Portbury Station was built to serve a planned shipyard, though this was never built and the station soon closed. The derelict shell of the station building remains to the north of the line. A short line branched off back towards the River Avon at this point to serve the proposed development. In 1954 the original Portishead station was demolished, to provide space for the second Portishead power station, and a new station constructed in a new location, lasting only a decade before the line stopped carrying passengers.

The former line towards Portishead is severed just north of Pill, where the line to the Royal Portbury Dock leads off to the north, crossing the adjoining cyclepath on a low concrete bridge. No points have been installed to create a junction with the former line onwards to Portishead. Track remains in situ from here on towards Portishead, although is not maintained and very overgrown. The derelict track passes under the M5 motorway via a bridge that was constructed with sufficient clearance to allow for electrification, which is currently shared with a cycleway and footpath. The track is further breached on the southern approach to Portishead by a new road constructed to serve housing development around the former dockside, although a crossing will be installed here if reopening proceeds.