The village between Bristol and Bath with hopes for a new railway station

Latest on the campaign for a new station between Bristol and Bath
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Wind the clock back 100 years and there were two railway stations serving the attractive village of Saltford, situated half-way between Bath and Bristol.

One was located on the line from Keynsham, just off the Bath Road close to the River Avon - before that closed in 1970. The other was on the former Midland Railway, now the Bristol to Bath railway path, and was instead named after the next nearest village of Kelston - this station, interestingly used by people to get to Bath Racecourse, also closed in 1949.

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Today, the growing community of Saltford has no station and its population of around 4,500 use cars or bus services, including the X39, to get to Bristol or Bath. It’s why there is a strong, if not stuttering, campaign to ‘get our station back’.

Launched over a decade ago, the villagers want a new station at the old site off the Bath Road, now used as a storage yard by Network Rail, with a half-hourly service to Bristol and Bath. They say the station would have two platforms, a footbridge and a car park for more than 144 vehicles.

But there has been a problem. While support has been voiced from Bath and North East Somerset Council and West of England Combined Authority (WECA), and backed by politicans such as North East Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, the scheme has gone quiet, while work on other stations in the Bristol area have taken the headlines.

Saltford Parish Chairman Chris Warren is ‘station campaign leader’. Speaking to Bristol World, he’s clearly passionate about the cause and despite slow progress, he is still confident the station will be built. He reminds us that it is listed on WECA’s 10-year rail delivery plan and he explains there was strong support when BANES commissioned an assessment nine years ago.

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“It’s scandulous we’ve been waiting this long when you consider all the benefits and the inadequate transport options we already have here,” he said. “But I am hopeful we can secure the support for this to happen - it has to happen if want to relief congestion from cars going into Bristol and Bath. We are moving in the right direction.”

The station would cost between £10 and £15million, Councillor Warren estimates, who adds it would serve a population of 10,000 people in and around Saltford. It would also provide a stop for students getting to a Bath University campus nearby, he says.

He said: “We have a railway line which runs through the village without the benefits from it. To get the benefits we obviously need our station back where it was. All we need is the infrastructure back in place for trains to stop between Bath and Bristol.”

Trains would take around 12 minutes to get to both Bath and Bristol, he estimates.

Initial artist impression of how the reopened railway station at Saltford could look like (Credit: Joe Ryan. Saltford Environment Group)Initial artist impression of how the reopened railway station at Saltford could look like (Credit: Joe Ryan. Saltford Environment Group)
Initial artist impression of how the reopened railway station at Saltford could look like (Credit: Joe Ryan. Saltford Environment Group)
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With the Weca-led MetroWest project aiming to transform rail travel in the region, it is hoped, in Saltford, that the people in the village community will be among the 80,000 the initiative aims to provide access to the railway network.

Last April, representatives from Weca and BANES met at the station site to ‘summarise’ the case for reopening the station. Only time will tell if the village’s dream for a station becomes a reality.

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