The Portishead Railway is a branch line railway running from Portishead in North Somerset to the main line immediately west of Bristol, England. It was constructed by the Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company, but it was always operated by its main line neighbour, and was more usually thought of as the Portishead branch or the Portishead railway.
It opened as a broad gauge () line to connect new docks at Portbury, at the west side of the mouth of the River Avon, with the railway network. The line opened to Portishead in 1867, and to the docks in 1879. The docks were always overshadowed by Bristol and Avonmouth docks. The ordinary passenger service declined in the twentieth century, leading to closure to passengers in 1964, and to all traffic in 1981.
When a new high capacity freight terminal was opened at the site of the Royal Portbury Dock, the line as far as that point was reopened to accommodate the new traffic, in 2002. Public consultation took place in 2015 regarding the reopening of the entire line to passenger traffic in 2020, as part of the MetroWest proposals. By 2020, the line was scheduled to reopen in December 2024. In February 2025, funding of £55million was about to be agreed, with construction expected to start in mid-2025 and services in 2027.
History
Getting authorisation
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Bristol harbour had been paramount as the focus of international trade with the New World. However the city centre location, and the difficult tidal negotiation of the Avon valley, was increasingly a constraint on development, particularly as larger vessels came into use. A number of schemes were put forward without success, but in 1846 the Portbury Pier and Railway Company obtained authority in the (9 & 10 Vict. c. cccxliv) to build a floating pier near Portbury, on the west side of the Avon near its mouth, and a railway to connect it to Bristol. Isambard Kingdom Brunel had proposed the development, and the railway was to be operated on the atmospheric principle, in which trains were propelled by a piston in a tube between the rails, from which the air ahead of the train had been exhausted by stationary steam engines.
At this time the collapse of investor confidence following the period of railway mania was taking effect, therefore finance for the work could not be raised and the new company was dissolved.
In 1849 a small stone pier was built at Portishead, and packet steamers unloaded passengers there from that time; but this did little to reduce the desire to improve the city's port facilities, and competing factions tried to get approval for their schemes. In July 1862 the Bristol Port Railway and Pier Company obtained an act of Parliament, the Bristol Port, Railway and Pier Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. clix), giving authority for a railway on the eastern side of the Avon at "Clifton" (actually Hotwells), to a new dock at Avonmouth. This line opened in March 1865.
Those who favoured a port on the western side of the Avon were not deterred by the progress of the alternative, and formulated a scheme for a dock at Portbury, and a railway to serve it running from a junction with the Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER), with a branch to Portishead. The company would be the Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company. The main line would have curved sharply to the north before reaching Portished, and run directly to a northwards pier on the coast somewhat east of the present Portbury Wharf location. The branch was to continue directly west from a junction near Sheepway Gate Farm to the Portishead station. This scheme easily got its authorising act of Parliament, the (26 & 27 Vict. c. cvii), on 29 June 1863, with a capital of £300,000 and borrowing powers of £66,600.
Construction, and a change of location Work progressed swiftly, and a portion mayVincent appears to base this inference on a prediction at a September 1864 Board meeting, but does not confirm that it actually took place. have been opened in early 1865 from Rownham near Clifton Bridge to the junction with the B&ER main line near the Telegraph Inn in Bedminster.
A number of changes were made to the intended route as work progressed, and the most significant was the change from a pier at Portbury to a dock at Portishead. The pier would have been exposed to westerly winds and would have had limited accommodation for the reception and loading of vessels. The intended Portishead branch became the main line, curving north at Portishead to service the west side of the new dock, and the Portbury section of the originally intended main line was abandoned; these changes were authorised in the (29 & 30 Vict. c. lxxxviii). Evidently the dock required more expenditure than the pier, and an additional £66,000 of share capital and £20,000 in loans were authorised.
The access to the new dock required a crossing of Portishead Pill on a curve, and a wooden trestle viaduct of 23 spans was required.
Colonel Yolland of the Board of Trade carried out an inspection of the line on 12 April 1867. He noted that the gradients and curves were significantly inferior to those on the original 1863 design; this probably indicates that they were sacrificed to reduce earthworks and avoid one of the tunnels. The line was in length, with an additional at the dock. The track was broad gauge, and there were stations at Clifton Bridge, Pill, Portbury and Portishead, and a siding at Ashton Vale Works; there was an engine turntable at Portishead. However Yolland found numerous shortcomings; as well as fencing deficiencies there were inadequate clearances to two bridge abutments and to retaining walls, and in the No. 2 Tunnel; and proper signalling needed to be provided at the junction with the B&ER and at the Ashton Vale siding.
These and other shortcomings were attended to at once, and the line opened on 18 April 1867. The train service in 1870 was eight trains each way daily, with a journey time of 30 to 35 minutes; there was one train each way on Sundays, the return to Bristol leaving at 8:30 pm.
MacDermot describes the original opening: On 18 April 1867 the single line opened, constructed on the broad gauge (). There were four tunnels, respectively in length. The stations on the line were , , and .
Subsequent history The emphasis now was on passenger and ordinary goods traffic, and the original objective, the shipping facility, was on the back burner; reporting the opening, the Bristol Times said, "It is intended shortly to commence a port, which is expected to occupy about two years in the erection."Bristol Times and Mirror newspaper, 20 April 1867, quoted in Vincent
However, in June 1868 a tidal pier was opened, and by April 1870 a low-water extension was ready. Vincent says that the railway company itself ran steamer services to Cardiff and Newport, and summer excursions to Ilfracombe.
The Great Western Railway progressively converted its main lines and branches to standard gauge, , and the Portishead line, still the property of the Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company, was converted between Saturday 24 and Tuesday 27 January 1880.
By the Bristol Dock Act 1897 (60 & 61 Vict. c. ciii), the GWR was authorised to make a connection between the branch and the Bristol Harbour Railway, also with the north side of the Floating Harbour following agreement with the Corporation of Bristol. These lines were completed to Canons Marsh and, via the water-hydraulic powered Ashton Swing Bridge to Wapping Wharf, opening to goods traffic on 4 October 1906, together with the West Loop at Ashton Gate, facing Exeter.
Closure Passenger services were discontinued in 1964 as part of the Reshaping of British Railways report. Freight was discontinued in 1981 but the railway was not dismantled. In 1985 a series of steam excursions ran along the line as part of the "GW150" celebrations. This is thought to be the last commercial use before the line was rebuilt.
Reopening of the line Reopening for freight to Royal Portbury Docks
During 2000 and 2001 the railway was rebuilt as far as Pill, and a short spur constructed to the Royal Portbury Dock to carry freight. The total cost of this work was £21 million. The guests for the official opening ceremony were taken from Parson Street station to Portbury on a train hauled by Bristol Industrial Museum's Portbury locomotive on 21 December.
Proposed extension to Portishead The railway alignment has been safeguarded by local planning policies, and when the site of Portishead station was redeveloped as a Waitrose supermarket, a nearby site was safeguarded for a potential new station. The alignment is breached on the southern approach to Portishead by Quays Avenue, constructed to serve housing development around the former dockside.
Some local politicians and organisations campaigned to have the remaining repaired and a new station constructed at Portishead. A campaign group advocated reopening the station and the short stretch of unopened line. The coastal town largely serves as a dormitory town for Bristol workers, and the main route into the city – the single carriageway A369 – carries much commuter traffic.
The 2006–2011 Joint Local Transport Plan reserved £1 million for the project. In January 2009, it was announced that Network Rail was to carry out a feasibility study on re-opening the line. During the Rail Priority Conference organised by the West of England Partnership in November 2011, delegates travelled on the line, using sections of track not open for passenger traffic.
Metrowest programme The project to reopen the Portishead line to passenger rail services is part of the MetroWest programme to improve local rail services in the West of England combined authority area (which covers most of greater Bristol, but excludes Portishead). This will use both existing and disused rail lines in the Bristol area, operating half-hourly services subject to a proven business case being made and infrastructure constraints. Phase 1 of the programme will include reopening the Portishead line to passenger services and increasing the frequency of services on the routes to Severn Beach and Bath. The project is being led by North Somerset Council on behalf of the three West of England combined authority councils (Bath & North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, and Bristol City), with oversight from 2014 by the West of England Joint Transport Board within the West of England local enterprise partnership.
In March 2013, track clearance works began to allow surveying of the original route to Portishead. This was the beginning of the work required to reopen the line for passenger use. Technical assessment of potential sites for a new Portishead station was undertaken in 2013 and followed by public consultation in 2014. The site chosen in 2015 is at the junction of Harbour Road and Quays Avenue, some 600 metres short of the 1950s station.
In March 2017, MetroWest reported a substantial increase in the estimated costs of Phase 1, owing to the work required to upgrade the line in the Avon Gorge to achieve the line speeds required for a half-hourly service, and to reroute road traffic away from a level crossing in Ashton Vale. In order to reduce the cost from an estimated £145million to £116M, the Joint Transport Board agreed to downsize the project to provide an hourly service to Portishead. A January 2019 report by the Campaign for Better Transport listed the line as a "priority 1" candidate for reopening.
In April 2019, £31 million of funding was promised by Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport. The Department for Transport's Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline, published in October 2019, listed the project among those in development, awaiting a "Decision to Deliver" and the completion of a full business case.