Trains every half hour to UK's third largest arena in Bristol 'unaffordable'

"Not enough passengers" would use a rail service planned for Bristol's new arena to justify running trains every half an hour, according to Bristol's mayor Marvin Rees.

The new train line running to the YTL arena in Filton is planned to run once every hour, despite the venue's 17,000-person capacity.

The proposed line will run through Ashley Down to Bristol Temple Meads, serving thousands of new homes near the North Filton train station. The line will also extend to Henbury.

Marvin Rees faced new calls to support the increased frequency of trains on the Henbury spur line, during a member forum meeting at Bristol City Council on December 13.

He said that if passenger numbers are higher than expected, the service could be increased in due course.

“I support increased frequency, accessibility and affordability of all public transport. So I do support this aspiration, and our commitment to improving rail travel in Bristol is clear — we’re building the first new station for almost a century and secured the investment for improvements at Temple Meads to improve capacity.

“Just to provide background, a 30-minute service frequency option was explored earlier in the development of the MetroWest Phase 2 project.

“Although technically feasible, the requirement for an additional train and crew to operate this was shown to be unaffordable within the available budget and predicted passenger numbers did not support a strong enough business case." He added.

“The project is therefore being developed as an initial hourly service to enable the Henbury line to be reopened to passenger services and two new stations to be delivered.

“Once operational, I would expect that future growth in passenger numbers will support the case for increased frequencies and options to deliver this can be explored further.”

Councillor Mark Weston, leader of the Conservative group, said: “The service frequency on the Henbury spur line will be totally out-of-kilter to the phased new town development.

“However, I understand the junctions, signalling and track would be able to handle 30-minute passenger trains as opposed to hourly services.

“I would ask the mayor if you could look again at the business case.

“Since it was first done, you have the arena moving up into the area, which wasn’t there at first, but also the YTL section of development with 2,700 homes is now a minimum of 3,700 homes, and actually they’re trying for 6,700 homes.

“I would argue that there is some fundamental change now in the North Filton station catchment area which would support a higher frequency.”

The North Filton Station was due to open next year, ahead of the arena's opening in 2024. Delays mean that mid-2026 is now the target.

Credit: Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporter