Yate railway station

Yate National Rail

150279 arrives at the Bristol side of the station.
Location
Place Yate
Local authority South Gloucestershire
Coordinates 51°32′28″N 2°25′55″W / 51.5411°N 2.4319°W / 51.5411; -2.4319Coordinates: 51°32′28″N 2°25′55″W / 51.5411°N 2.4319°W / 51.5411; -2.4319
Grid reference ST701826
Operations
Station code YAE
Managed by Great Western Railway
Number of platforms 2
DfT category F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2002/03  0.113 million
2004/05 Increase 0.128 million
2005/06 Increase 0.168 million
2006/07 Increase 0.199 million
2007/08 Increase 0.217 million
2008/09 Increase 0.240 million
2009/10 Increase 0.248 million
2010/11 Increase 0.275 million
2011/12 Increase 0.295 million
2012/13 Increase 0.307 million
2013/14 Increase 0.329 million
History
Original company Bristol and Gloucester Railway
Pre-grouping Midland Railway
Post-grouping LMS
1844 Opened
1965 Closed
1989 Reopened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Yate from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Yate railway station serves the town of Yate in South Gloucestershire, in south west England. The station is located on the main Bristol to Birmingham line between Bristol Parkway and Cam & Dursley, and is operated by Great Western Railway.

The station is staffed on weekday mornings.[1] It has two platforms, separated by the A432 road bridge. An automated ticket machine was installed in mid-2007, but stopped functioning due to vandalism and is reported to be "unlikely to be replaced in the foreseeable future".[2] A new ticket machine was installed in 2013.

History

A 1909 Railway Clearing House map of railways in the vicinity of Yate

The Yate station first opened on 8 July 1844 and closed in January 1965, along with other wayside stations on the former Bristol and Gloucester Railway; the local stopping service on the route having been withdrawn as a result of the Beeching Axe.[3][4] This had both its platforms on the southern side of the road bridge mentioned above - the original 1844 goods shed still stands (now in commercial use) next to the old southbound platform site.[5] The station was reopened by British Rail on 11 May 1989 with the backing of Avon County Council.

When first open, trains headed south along the original B&GR/Midland route via Fishponds to reach Bristol, although a connection was subsequently laid in to link this route with the rival Great Western Railway's 1903 "Badminton Line" from Wooton Bassett to Patchway (the current South Wales Main Line) in 1908. The new connection left the older line by means a flying junction at Yate South[6] before heading southwest to join the SWML at the triangular Westerleigh Junction. Though jointly built by the two companies for the purpose of giving the GWR access to the Severn Rail Bridge and Severn and Wye Railway, it also provided an alternative route to Bristol Temple Meads via Filton and the Great Western soon made use of it to compete with the Midland for Bristol to Birmingham traffic, much to the dismay of the latter company. All services now use this newer line to get to Bristol, as the original 1844 route through Mangotsfield was abandoned in January 1970 following the completion of the Bristol area resignalling scheme. A short section of the old route was retained from Yate South Junction after the rest closed, to serve a domestic waste transfer depot & fuel oil distribution terminal at Westerleigh sidings.[7] This line is still in use today.

It is the junction station for the Thornbury Branchline, however the passenger stations on this branch have long since closed (trains ceased in 1944) and the line remained open to serve Tytherington Quarry until September 2013, when it was placed 'Out of Use' by Network Rail following the mothballing of the quarry at the beginning of the year.[8][9][10]

In the Strategic Rail Authority’s 2007/08 financial year, Yate was ranked as the 1104th most-used station in the UK.

Services

The station is served Monday to Saturday by a train every hour in both directions between Gloucester and Westbury via Bristol Temple Meads (with two-hourly extensions to/from Worcester & Great Malvern, and to/from Weymouth) southbound, plus a single service to/from Brighton).[11] There have been proposals put forward to run additional services to/from Bristol as part of the second phase of the Greater Bristol Metro plans first put forward in 2008 and rebranded as "MetroWest" in 2013.[12] If implemented the station would become the new northern terminus of the current Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Parkway local service, though this would not happen until after Phase 1 of the scheme is completed in 2019.

Yate station is also served by a two-hourly Sunday service. A normal service operates on most bank holidays.

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Bristol Parkway   Great Western Railway
Gloucester - Westbury		   Cam and Dursley
Disused railways
Mangotsfield
Line and station closed		   Bristol and Gloucester Railway
Midland Railway		   Wickwar
Station closed
Terminus   Thornbury Branch Line
Midland Railway		   Iron Acton
Station closed

References

  1. ↑ National Rail Enquiries
  2. ↑ Yate Station User Group
  3. ↑ The Victoria County History of Gloucestershire, Volume 14, Yate: Settlement (draft), p.10 Victoria County History.ac.uk; Retrieved 2013-12-13
  4. ↑ British Railways Board - The Reshaping of British Railways, Part 1 Report (HMSO) 1963, p.121The Railways Archive; Retrieved 2013-12-13
  5. ↑ "Viewfinder - Goods shed, Yate Railway Station, Station Road, Yate, Avon"English Heritage; Retrieved 2013-12-12
  6. ↑ Yate South Junction signalling diagramSignalling Record Society; Retrieved 2013-12-12
  7. ↑ Railscot - Westerleigh North Junction www.railbrit.co.uk; Retrieved 2013-12-13
  8. ↑ "Establishment of proposed G1 Short Term Network Change: Tytherington Branch (from 0m 30ch) Designation as "Out of Use (temporary)"" (PDF). Swindon: Network Rail. 10 September 2013. STNC/G1/2013/WEST/565. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  9. ↑ "Calls to Restore Railway Line Following Quarry Closure" Souvebois, Marion,Gloucestershire Gazette news article 2-01-2013; Retrieved 2013-12-12
  10. ↑ "New Lease of Life Planned For Tracks Behind Thornbury Quarry" Gardner, Rachel Bristol Post article 5-01-2013; Retrieved 2013-12-12
  11. ↑ GB National Rail Timetable 2013-14, Table 123 (Network Rail)
  12. ↑ MetroWest Phase 2MetroWest Briefing Note, June 2013, Travelwest.info; Retrieved 2013-12-13
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