Bristol Temple Meads railway station

Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is located away from London Paddington. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city; there are bus services to many parts of the city and surrounding districts, with a ferry to the city centre. It is the busiest station in South West England, and the fifth busiest in Southern England outside of London. Bristol's other major station, Bristol Parkway, is a more recent station on the northern outskirts of the conurbation.

Temple Meads was opened on 31 August 1840, as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway. The railway, including Temple Meads, was the first to be designed by the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Soon, the station was also used by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, the Bristol Harbour Railway and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. To accommodate the increasing number of trains, the station was expanded in the 1870s by Francis Fox and again between 1930 and 1935 by Percy Emerson Culverhouse. Brunel's terminus is no longer part of the operational station. The historical significance of the station has been noted and most of the site is Grade I listed.

Temple Meads, which has 13 active platforms across eight tracks, is managed by Network Rail. Most services are operated by the present-day Great Western Railway, with others by CrossCountry.

History

The name Temple Meads derives from the nearby Temple Church, which was gutted by bombing during the Second World War. The word "meads" is a derivation of "mæd", an Old English variation of "mædwe", meadow, referring to the water meadows alongside the River Avon that were part of Temple parish. As late as 1820 the site was undeveloped pasture outside the boundaries of the old city, some distance from the commercial centre. It lay between the Floating Harbour and the city's cattle market, which was built in 1830.

Brunel's station

thumb|left|Engraving of interior of Brunel's train-shed from c1843, by [[John Cooke Bourne]]

The original terminus was built in 1839–41 for the Great Western Railway (GWR), the first passenger railway in Bristol, and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the railway's engineer. It was built to accommodate Brunel's broad gauge. The station was on a viaduct to raise it above the level of the Floating Harbour and River Avon, the latter being crossed via the Grade I listed Avon Bridge. The station was covered by a train shed, extended beyond the platforms by into a storage area and engine shed, fronted by an office building in the Tudor style. Train services to Bath commenced on 31 August 1840 and were extended to Paddington on 30 June 1841 following the completion of Box Tunnel.

thumb|right|Brunel's original station as it appeared in 2004

A few weeks before the start of the services to Paddington the Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) had opened, on 14 June 1841, its trains reversing in and out of the GWR station. The third railway at Temple Meads was the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, which opened on 8 July 1844 and was taken over by the Midland Railway (MR) on 1 July 1845.

In 1850 an engine shed was opened on the south bank of the River Avon on the east side of the line to the B&ER station. Between 1859 and 1875, 23 engines were built in the workshops attached to the shed, including several distinctive Bristol and Exeter Railway 4-2-4T locomotives.

Goods stations

thumb|right|A 1911 [[Railway Clearing House junction diagram showing railways around Bristol]]

The GWR built a goods shed on the north side of the station adjacent to the Floating Harbour, with a small dock for transhipment of goods to barges (not seagoing ships, as the wharf was upstream of Bristol Bridge). Wagons had to be lowered to the goods shed on hoists. On 11 March 1872, a direct connection to the harbour was made in the form of the Bristol Harbour Railway, a joint operation of the three railways, which ran between the passenger station and the goods yard, across the street outside on a bridge, and descended into a tunnel under the churchyard of St. Mary Redcliffe on its way to a wharf downstream of Bristol Bridge.

Effects of the change of gauge

On 29 May 1854 the Midland Railway laid a third rail along their line to Gloucester to provide mixed gauge so that it could operate standard gauge passenger trains while broad gauge goods trains could still run to collieries north of Bristol. Sidings at South Wales Junction allowed traffic to be transhipped between wagons on the two different gauges. The GWR continued to operate its trains on the broad gauge, From the 1960s, the work was usually attributed to Brunel's former associate Matthew Digby Wyatt, but in 2020 it was established to be by Bristol architect Henry Lloyd under the superintendence of Francis Fox, the engineer of the B&ER. The curved wrought-iron train shed over the new through platforms was long on the platform wall. The goods depot was rebuilt, with the inconvenient wagon hoists replaced by a steep incline from the east end of Temple Meads, which meant that the sidings in the goods shed were at right angles to their original alignment; and the barge dock was filled in.

Twentieth-century changes

thumb|right|Original terminus in 1958

thumb|right|A [[Paignton railway station|Paignton to Leeds express stands at Platform 7 (now Platform 5) in 1960.]]

thumb|right|A view looking northwards from Bath Road. The 1870s arched [[train shed is surrounded by the flatter canopies of the newer platforms opened in 1935.]]

In 1924 the goods depot was rebuilt with 15 platforms, each long. Large warehousing and cellar space was provided to store goods, although by this time another city centre goods depot had been opened at Canons Marsh.

The construction of this signal box, completed in 1970, involved the demolition of almost half of the 1870s extension to Brunel's terminus and completely blocked rail access to the Old Station.

A second main-line station serving the city, , opened in 1972. It is on the northern outskirts of the conurbation close to the M32 motorway and was designed as a park and ride facility for long-distance travellers.

In the late 1960s the Royal Mail built a mail conveyor at the northern end of the station, with significant aesthetic impact. This was out of use for many years following the transfer of Royal Mail's activities to the West of England Mail Centre at Filton and the opening of the short-lived Railnet Hub next to Bristol Parkway station in May 2000. It was finally dismantled in stages and removed between October and December 2014. In 1990/91, £2 million was spent by InterCity on a renovation of the main train shed and another £7 million on restoring some of the older areas of the station, including the refurbishment of the subway and construction of new retail outlets. The shorter of the two 1935 platform islands had been used only for parcels traffic since the 1960s but was temporarily brought back into passenger use during this work. It was fully restored for passenger use in 2001. As part of this work, the quarry from which the dolomite stone had originally been extracted was reopened in Abbots Leigh.

Closure of lines

Passenger traffic on the old North Somerset line ceased on 2 November 1959, and many more closures followed after the publication of Dr Beeching's The Reshaping of British Railways in 1963. The connection to the Bristol Harbour Railway was closed on 6 January 1964; passenger trains to Portishead were withdrawn on 7 September 1964; and most local services in the north of the city were withdrawn on 23 November 1964. The following year saw local services on the Midland route to Gloucester withdrawn and the Midland route to via was closed on 7 March 1966. and on the line towards Bath survived until 5 January 1970. , the shed, now known as the Passenger Shed, is a venue for events such as conferences and weddings.

thumb|right|This sign should read "Platforms 1 to 12" but refers to the earlier numbering system when these platforms were numbers 1 and 2. They are now 15 (left) and 13 (right).

thumb|right|Bristol Panel Signal Box, built on the old Platform 14

{|class="wikitable"

!Old!!New!!Location

|1||15||

|2||13||

|3||12||West end

|4||11||East end

|5||9 & 10||East and west ends numbered differently

|6||7 & 8||East and west ends numbered differently

|7||5||East end in the main train shed

|8||6||West end beyond (new ) platform 5

|9||3||East end in the main train shed

|10||4||West end beyond (new) platform 3

|11||2||West end bay (not in use)

|12||1||East end of arrival platform

|13||Closed||West end of arrival platform

|14||Closed||East end of departure platform

|15||Closed||West end of departure platform

Enterprise zone and station redevelopment

Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, an enterprise zone with an area of centred on Temple Meads, was announced in 2011, and launched in 2012. Network Rail is a partner in coordinating development in the zone. A large bridge above the tracks at the east end of the station which was erected in the 1970s for postal traffic was demolished at Christmas 2014. In November 2016, the University of Bristol announced that it plans to build a Temple Quarter Campus to the east of the station, replacing the derelict sorting office which was formerly connected to the station by the bridge.

Bristol and Exeter House has been redeveloped by TCN UK as a business hub for small and medium-sized enterprises. Part of Brunel's station has found a new use in a redevelopment by the City Council, the University of Bristol and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership.

Plans to build a 12,000-capacity arena on the former site of the Bristol Bath Road Traction Maintenance Depot, to the south of the station, were cancelled in 2018.

21st century

The Great Western Main Line from London to Bristol was part of electrification plans first announced by the UK government in 2009. However, because of cost overruns and delays, on 8 November 2016 the government announced that several elements of the programme would be deferred including electrification south-west of Thingley Junction near Chippenham, and between Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway. Although this left Temple Meads un-electrified, the Hitachi Super Express trains are bi-mode so can operate on diesel around Bristol and can use electricity where the electrification work is complete. The electrification plans do not extend west of Bristol, so local services will continue to be provided using diesel trains, with Class 165/166s cascaded from Thames Valley services scheduled to replace the 150/153/158s on local services.

The Portishead branch line, which runs along the south side of the River Avon from a junction just beyond is proposed to be reopened. There is an aspiration of two trains per hour between and Temple Meads in peak periods, possibly calling at and Parson Street. The line was built in the 1860s but closed to passenger traffic in 1964, leaving Portishead as one of Britain's largest towns without a railway station. The line was reopened for freight traffic to serve Royal Portbury Docks in 2001, and the restoration of passenger traffic is considered part of the Greater Bristol Metro scheme, which was given the go-ahead in July 2012 as part of a City Deal, whereby local councils would be given greater control over money by the government.

On 1 April 2014, Network Rail took over management of the station from First Great Western.

In December 2021, South Western Railway services to London Waterloo were withdrawn, followed by GWR services to Brighton in 2022. In 2024, direct services to were reintroduced by GWR on a trial basis on Saturdays only. In March 2025, the regional transport body covering Oxford, England's Economic Heartland, proposed an hourly, all-week Bristol to Oxford service to start from 2026. In May 2026, GWR commenced daily direct services to Oxford every two hours Monday to Saturday.

A new station reception was opened in 2023, replacing the information desk on platform three.

Refurbishment

In 2013, it was announced that the station roof would be refurbished as part of a scheme to transform the station over the 25 years commencing 2013. In September 2021, foundations were installed for a planned eastern entrance to the station. Following the erection of scaffolding inside the station, work on the roof began in April 2022.

Description

Approaches

thumb|left|The station approach looks straight towards Fox's [[Turret (architecture)|turreted 1870s station entrance. Part of Brunel's original station on the left with Fox's 1870s extension between that and the entrance; the current station train shed is to the right of the entrance.]]

Although it is now possible to reach the station through the Temple Quay office development (on the site of the goods shed) or from the Bristol Ferry Boat Company landing stage on the Floating Harbour, the traditional and main approach is from Temple Gate. Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Tudor-style offices, later used by the former British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, face this road and are flanked on the north side by an archway that used to be the main station for departing passengers; a matching arch on the other side was the arrivals gateway but was removed when the station was expanded in the 1870s. and forms part of a proposed Great Western Railway World Heritage Site. At the top of the slope an entrance on the left to the covered car park marks the junction between the original terminus and Fox's 1870s extension.

Ahead is the turreted main station building, and to the right a flat area marks the site of the B&ER station. The tunnel beneath this area was the route for passengers to and from the Down platform from 1878 until the station was enlarged in 1935.

Station

Entering the main building, the ticket office and ticket machines are immediately ahead, and the route from Temple Quay and the ferry is on the left; a newsagent is on the right, next to the platform entrance. Customer Information System screens by the entrance show arrival and departure information for all platforms, as do displays on each of the platforms.

It is located from London Paddington.

There are 13 numbered platforms serving 8 tracks. The platforms are numbered from 1–15 with 2 and 14 omitted. Platforms 1, 13 and 15 do not share tracks with any other platform. Platforms 3–12 consist of five tracks that are each subdivided into a pair of numbered platforms. Of those, the odd numbered platforms are at the north end of the station, while even numbers are at the south end. All platforms are signalled for trains in either direction and the flexible layout means that trains on any route can use any part of the station.

thumb|Platform 3 and the ticket gates that control entrance to the platforms

Entrance to the platforms is controlled by automatic ticket gates on Platform 3, which is used by many northbound CrossCountry trains and local services to Bristol Parkway and Gloucester. The main station restaurant and bar is on the left and the short Platform 1, a bay, is beyond this. This is most frequently used by Severn Beach Line trains but is long enough to handle any four-car Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU). Behind Platform 1 is a brick wall that forms part of the signal box and on this are some metal artworks created by artists with learning difficulties to celebrate Brunel's 200th anniversary in 2006; an interpretation panel is nearby. The High Level Siding beyond Platform 1 is the rump of the Bristol Harbour Railway, and Bristol Barton Hill TMD can be seen in the distance alongside Bristol East Junction (formerly South Wales Junction) where the lines to Bristol Parkway and Bath diverge.

thumb|upright|The subway, below the station, links the platforms

On the right of the entrance is the subway that links all the platforms, reached either by steps or lift;

Passenger volume

Temple Meads is the busiest station in the Bristol area and the south west region. Official statistics show it to have the 35th-largest number of people entering or leaving any national rail station, the 14th busiest outside London. Comparing the year from April 2009 with the year from April 2002, estimated passenger numbers increased by 52%.

{| class="wikitable"

|+Passenger Volume at Bristol Temple Meads

!2002–03

!2004–05

!2005–06

!2006–07

!2007–08

!2008–09

!2009–10

!2010–11

!2011–12

!2012–13

!2013–14

!2014–15

!2015–16

!2016–17

!2017–18

!2018–19

!2019–20

!2020–21

!2021–22

!2022–23

|Entries and exits

|5,177,118

|5,641,372

|6,066,239

|6,548,859

|7,082,102

|7,829,628

|7,875,686

|8,409,340

|8,884,626

|9,099,368

|9,522,840

|10,099,526

|10,711,464

|11,336,806

|11,350,114

|11,367,652

|11,619,360

|2,032,828

|6,627,950

|9,291,680

|Interchanges

|–

|798,961

|856,644

|917,595

|845,907

|890,706

|979,955

|1,107,555

|1,327,179

|1,386,664

|1,434,465

|1,474,684

|1,477,458

|1,512,601

|1,477,064

|1,453,933

|1,631,569

|277,488

|970,539

|1,242,101

<small>The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.</small>

Services

Rail

thumb|right|Customer Information System showing arrivals and departures

Great Western Railway operates main line services between Bristol Temple Meads and , some of which continue beyond Bristol to or . The company also operates other routes through Bristol such as between and , Cardiff Central and including extensions as far as , / and /, and and . As of 2024, a trial of Saturday-only direct services to is underway.

Regular CrossCountry services run south to , and and north to , , , , and Edinburgh. A limited number of services operate to other destinations in the north such as and .

Bus

Bus services at the station include the Airport Flyer A1 service, service 73 to UWE Frenchay, and metrobus route m2.

Incidents

On 14 November 1909, suffragette activist Theresa Garnett attacked Winston Churchill – at the time an MP and government minister – with a dog whip at Temple Meads station, causing a cut on his face. She was arrested and jailed for a month.

Notes

References

External links

Detailed historic record for Bristol Temple Meads railway station, English Heritage
Bristol Temple Meads Station (excerpts from original plans), Network Rail Archive
Panoramic photograph inside the train shed
Photographs of Bristol Temple Meads