page_title: Filton Abbey Wood railway station
section_title: Second station: Filton Junction
hierarchical_section_title: Filton Abbey Wood railway station / History / Second station: Filton Junction
caption_attribution_description: English: A Class 37 with a passenger train at Filton Junction station, 1972. his was a very unusual sight at this time and was perhaps a substitution for a failure.
context_page_description: Filton Abbey Wood railway station serves the town of Filton in South Gloucestershire, England, inside the Bristol conurbation. It is 4.4 miles from Bristol Temple Meads. Its three letter station code is FIT. There are four platforms but minimal facilities. The station is managed by Great Western Railway, the seventh company to be responsible for the station, and the third franchise since privatisation in 1997. They provide most train services at the station, with two trains per day operated by CrossCountry. The general service level is eight trains per hour - two to South Wales, two to Bristol Parkway, two toward Weston-super-Mare and two toward Westbury.
  Filton Abbey Wood is the third station on the site. The first station, Filton, was opened in 1863 by the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. The station had a single platform, with a second added in 1886 to cope with traffic from the Severn Tunnel. The station was closed in 1903, replaced by a new station, Filton Junction, 0.15 miles further north, which was built at the junction with the newly constructed Badminton Line from Wootton Bassett Junction.
context_section_description: In 1900, almost all trains from London to Wales travelled via Bath and Bristol, with some still routed via Gloucester. However, the final 15 miles (24 km) to Bristol were relatively slow and congested, so a new route was built further north, the GWR's Badminton Line, now part of the South Wales Main Line, running from Wootton Bassett Junction to Patchway. The new line opened in 1903, and allowed faster services to Wales. There was a new triangular junction between Patchway and Filton, with the new line coming in from the east. The new station, opened on 1 July 1903, was on an embankment at the southern apex of the junction, just north of the present A4174. It was 11 chains (0.22 km) north of the first station, 4 miles 64 chains (7.7 km) from Bristol Temple Meads and 112 miles 67 chains (181.6 km) from London Paddington via the new line.
  The new station had four platform faces - two outer platforms, and two inner platforms sharing an island between the southbound line from Patchway and the westbound line to London. The western platforms served trains between Bristol and Wales, while the eastern platforms served trains on the new line. The platforms were linked by a subway which led to the booking office, situated on ground level by the main entrance on the east side of the station. The approach road led south from the main entrance, towards the A4174. There were waiting rooms and large canopies on each of the platforms. There were goods facilities to the south of the road, on the west side of the line and covering the site of the first station. There was a goods shed with a loading platform on a passing loop, as well as a north-facing covered loading platform and a south-facing siding. An additional south-facing siding for coal traffic was added after the First World War. Opposite the goods yard was Filton Junction Signal Box, which controlled the junction and by 1948 had more than 70 levers.
  Following the opening of the Henbury Loop Line, which diverged from the line towards Wales 3 chains (60 m) to the north, the station was renamed Filton Junction on 1 May 1910. Trains on this line used the western platforms, and often operated loop services to and from Bristol Temple Meads via Clifton Down. From 1928, trains could also run loop services via Clifton Down, Severn Beach and Patchway. As well as being useful for passengers changing trains (due to its junction status), Filton Junction was also used by workers at the nearby Filton Aerodrome and the attendant aircraft works.
  When the railways were nationalised in 1948, Filton Junction came under the aegis of the Western Region of British Railways. Following the publication of the Beeching Report, the Henbury Line was closed to passengers in 1964, and service levels began to decline. The line between Pilning and Severn Beach was also closed, putting an end to loop services. The goods yard was closed in July 1965, and the station's name reverted to Filton from 6 May 1968. Much of the station buildings were demolished in 1976, as were the platforms serving Badminton Line trains, as no trains on this line called at Filton anymore. The remaining two platforms had small replacement shelters built on them.
  In 1974, when the Local Government Act 1972 came into effect, the southern part of Gloucestershire, including the district of Filton, became part of the new county of Avon. British Rail was split into business-led sectors in the 1980s, at which time operations at Filton passed to Regional Railways.
  In the 1990s, plans were made to build a new station in Filton and close the 1903 station. The last train called on 8 March 1996, with services moving to the new Filton Abbey Wood from 11 March, with two intervening days of no service due to a closure of the Severn Tunnel. The remains of Filton Junction can still be seen from passing trains, and the two western platforms are still present, albeit overgrown. The subway has been blocked off, and the access road is now a residential street called "The Sidings".
caption: A train passes through Filton in 1972, working a Wales-Bristol service. The line off to the left is the Henbury Loop Line.
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