‘Exciting’ update on brand new railway station for Bristol suburb

The site of the one-platform Henbury railway station is outlined in black on this map before the A4018

The reopening of a passenger railway line serving north west Bristol has moved a big step forward today (August 21) with the submission of plans for the final station on the route.

Henbury Railway Station is the terminus for the Henbury spur which will see five-carriage hourly services to Bristol Temple Meads, also stopping at new stations at North Filton and Ashley Down.

Work has already started on Ashley Down, while plans for North Filton, next to the huge Brabazon development at the old airfield, were given the go-ahead earlier this year. Now, the final piece in the jigsaw is set as Network Rail has submitted a planning application to South Gloucestershire Council for Henbury Railway Station.

The new station will be located on the eastern side of the A4018 dual carriageway and will eventually form part of the planned ‘Cribbs Patchway’ new neighbourhood being built around it, according to planning documents submitted. It will have a single platform on the northern side of the railway lines with a covered waiting area, cycle parking and ticket machines.

There will be 31 parking spaces at the station, which will be accessed on an approach road from Passage Road off the A4018. A new ramp will be built to take people on foot, bicycles and wheelchairs from the western side of the A4018 to the new station. Intially, Network Rail says trains will operate every hour and will have five carriages to take on board up to 582 passengers.

The submission of the plans is good news for people living in Henbury and the surrouding areas. Many have been long been campaigning for the opening of the station, which is expected to open in 2026. Henbury’s previous station was located nearby off Station Road.

The station development comes under the MetroWest phase 2 project which will see the ‘spur’ line reopened, almost 60 years after it was closed (although part of it to North Filton continued up to 1986).

Henbury would be the final stop in the MetroWest 2 project, with an hourly passenger service to and from Bristol Temple Meads and Henbury, with stations at Ashley Down, North Filton and Henbury. Pictured are Henbury councillors Mark Weston and Chris Windows, who want the line to go further and turn into a loop back to Temple Meads with new stations at Horfield and Chittening.

The news follows a flurry of developments in rail services over the past few months. After the approval of plans for the North Filton station in January, work started on Ashley Down in June. And last month, at the start of this month Portway Park & Ride railway station opened - the first station opening in Bristol in nearly half a century.

Henbury Councillor Mark Weston told BristolWorld: “This is really exciting to finally see the official planning application for the Henbury Station. Many of us have been campaigning for decades to get rail services restored to this area of northern Bristol. This is an important milestone on that journey and I look forward to when it is finally opened.”

South Gloucestershire Council will make a decision on the planning application in the coming months.