Nailsea and Backwell railway station
Nailsea and Backwell  |
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| Looking westwards from the footbridge | |
| Location | |
| Place | Backwell |
| Local authority | North Somerset |
| Coordinates | 51°25′10″N 2°45′01″W / 51.41952°N 2.75030°WCoordinates: 51°25′10″N 2°45′01″W / 51.41952°N 2.75030°W |
| Operations | |
| Station code | NLS |
| Managed by | First Great Western |
| Number of platforms | 2 |
| Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries |
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| Annual rail passenger usage | |
| 2002/03 * | 0.204 million |
| 2004/05 * |  0.239 million |
| 2005/06 * | 0.268 million |
| 2006/07 * | 0.296 million |
| 2007/08 * | 0.344 million |
| 2008/09 * | 0.380 million |
| History | |
| Original company | Bristol and Exeter Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Great Western Railway |
| Post-grouping | Great Western Railway |
| Opened | 1841 |
| National Rail - UK railway stations | |
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | |
| * Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Nailsea and Backwell from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year. | |
Nailsea and Backwell railway station is a station on the Bristol to Taunton Line. It is located in the village of Backwell and close to the town of Nailsea in North Somerset, England. The station is 8 miles (13 km) west of Bristol Temple Meads railway station.
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[edit] History
The station was opened by the Bristol and Exeter Railway on 14 June 1841 as 'Nailsea'[1] and was the first station after leaving Bristol until Bedminster opened in 1871. When it was built it was surrounded by fields and served these rural communities, but both Nailsea and Backwell have expanded to accommodate commuters for Bristol and further afield since the 1970s. The main station buildings were provided on the Nailsea side of the station; Backwell has now spread right up to the railway line while the edge of Nailsea is still a little way distant to the north. Because of this, the station was renamed 'Nailsea and Backwell' on 1 May 1905. It reverted to plain Nailsea in 1974 but has been has since become 'Nailsea & Backwell' once again.[2]
Goods sidings were placed on the north side of the station, immediately west of the platforms.[3] A connection from these ran to the Nailsea Colliery, a long-closed outlying mine of the Somerset coalfield. Goods traffic ceased entirely from 1 June 1964.
[edit] Description
The station sits atop a bridge that spans the main road between Nailsea and Backwell. There is a car park on the Nailsea side of the station, and bus services from Nailsea to Backwell and Flax Bourton stop on the main road next to the car park.
Access to the two platforms is by steps from the road on either side; there is also a ramp leading up to the platform for trains towards Bristol. A small ticket kiosk on this platform was re-opened by the Severnside Rail Partnership in 2008, and 2 ticket machines are located under the platform. These are subject to frequent vandalism. There are waiting shelters on both platforms and even a footbridge between them, built by E. Finch and Company Ltd of Chepstow in 1907. There are "next train" monitors and an automated public address system to announce the trains.
The remains of the old station buildings can still be seen behind the shelters on Platform 2 (Bristol Bound) as well as from the taxi rank
[edit] Services
The station is managed and all trains are operated by First Great Western. The basic train service comprises two trains in each direction each hour. One train is the Bristol Parkway to Weston-super-Mare service that calls at all stations; the second is the faster Cardiff Central to Taunton service which runs non-stop between Bristol Temple Meads and Nailsea & Backwell. A similar stopping pattern is used by the peak period services to and from London Paddington. All trains call at Yatton, the next station westwards.
The typical journey time to Bristol Temple Meads is 11 minutes, while to London takes about two hours. The High Speed Trains used on the London services are longer than the station, and so passengers in the frontmost carriage have to go to a different carriage to disembark.
A morning eastbound CrossCountry service made a stop at the station to serve as a morning peak service, but this operation was dropped in the December 2008 timetable change. Instead, First Great Western now operates a loco-hauled set to replace this service. CrossCountry services still pass through the station, but none stop.
| Preceding station |  National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parson Street | First Great Western Bristol to Taunton Line |
Yatton | ||
[edit] References
- ^ Oakley, Mike (2006). Somerset Railway Stations. Bristol: Redcliffe Press. ISBN 1-90453-754-5.
- ^ The Bristol Railway Archive
- ^ Cooke, RA (1979). Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR, Section 16: West Somerset. Harwell: RA Cooke.
[edit] See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nailsea and Backwell railway station |
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