Today we visit Henbury as as they plan for a new railway station that will see carriage hourly services to Bristol Temple Meads, also stopping at new stations at North Filton and Ashley Down. The new station will be located on the eastern side of the A4018 dual carriageway and will form part of the ‘Cribbs Patchway’ neighbourhood.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 this is really exciting for us as a community. We've been pushing this for so long so to finally
00:04 have an application in is beyond words. So here we are, so we're over the dual carriageway on the A4018
00:10 heading towards Cribbs Causeway in North Bristol and we're on the Brentree side of it which I know
00:14 is ironic because it's called the Henbury station but over here we have the new Persimmon housing
00:18 development being built and the new train station is going to be here just by the tracks behind
00:23 Woolfridge Gardens. You can see a little bit of flooding so this is all going to be like sports
00:27 fields, housing going beyond it but the new station will be right down there and it connects along to
00:33 Filton North which will be where the new Brabhamson hangars are or Brabhamson arena is and then it goes
00:37 into Filton Abbey Wood into the new Ashley Down train station which is currently being built and
00:41 then into Temple Meads. So really rather exciting and I've got to say a shout out for those people
00:46 because we've been pushing this for decades. I mean I've only been 17 years, I'm a Johnny Cum
00:50 lately on this one. You've got groups like Federation of Suburban Bristol Rail, Fosborough,
00:54 that they've been decades in the making so this is really an important milestone for so many people.
00:59 What benefit will it bring people living, working in the Henbury area?
01:02 Well it just connects you to the city centre so much. I mean you'll be able to access jobs
01:07 in Temple Meads, you'll get jobs at Filton all via a non-road-based form of transport so if
01:12 they're digging up the roads which seems to be a council hobby then you can just jump on the rail
01:17 and I've got to say the real game change will be if they finally do the Henbury loop and connect
01:21 it over to the Severn Beach line because at that point you'll have the jobs at Filton, Avermouth
01:25 and Temple Meads on a circular circuit and I think from a congestion point of view that's the game
01:30 changer, that's the ultimate goal. Just on Henbury and the profile of the area, Crow Lane is quite a
01:36 deprived area in Bristol as you know, car ownership might be quite low, you've got the clean air zone
01:43 which you could say is... Let's call it controversial. Yeah, it's still known as people who operate older cars
01:49 who can't perhaps afford cars. Will this benefit people who are perhaps living in those deprived
01:53 areas do you think? Yes I think so. I mean first of all obviously you won't pay clean air zone
01:58 because actually you won't be on it, you'll be using rail. It just opens up more opportunities
02:02 because you'll be able to get direct buses to jobs in places like Filton and all the rest of it so
02:07 that's really good news. You can access jobs at the new arena, you can go to Phil & Abbey Wood,
02:11 you go to Temple Meads. Well if the loop was connected and the issue there is actually
02:16 the port, if the line is activated for passengers then you have a lot more trains running on it
02:21 so the barriers drop up and down so you have access to freight and the port becomes an issue
02:25 so that will need solving but if you were to connect it then it would go from Henbury
02:30 in a loop to the Severn Beach line so it connects up to Avonmouth, Shire, Clifton, Stow Bishop, Seamills
02:35 it connects all of that and as I say at that point you have the Avonmouth jobs, you have Filton jobs,
02:41 you have Temple Meads jobs all on a circular North Bristol line and that's amazing. We just
02:47 need to find a way and I'm afraid there'll be a cost to it of solving the access in and out of
02:51 the port because that also supports jobs so we don't want to kill that off either but if we can
02:55 find that solution, the Henbury loop, that's what we're going for. But for now I'm delighted,
03:02 new train station in the news soon I hope.