page_title: Clifton Down railway station
section_title: British Rail and privatisation
hierarchical_section_title: Clifton Down railway station / History / British Rail and privatisation
caption_attribution_description: 1956 view of Clifton Down railway station, Bristol.
context_page_description: Clifton Down railway station is on the Severn Beach line and serves the district of Clifton in Bristol, England. It is 3.9 miles from Bristol Temple Meads. Its three letter station code is CFN. The station has two platforms, each serving trains in one direction only. As of 2015 it is managed by Great Western Railway, which is the third franchise to be responsible for the station since privatisation in 1997. They provide all train services at the station, mainly a train every forty minutes in each direction between Bristol Temple Meads and Avonmouth.
  The station was opened in 1874 by the Great Western and Midland Railways as part of the Clifton Extension Railway, designed to connect the port of Avonmouth to the national rail network. The station had a large gothic revival building on the Bristol-bound platform, with smaller passenger facilities on the opposite platform and a goods yard beyond. Between 1903 and 1930 the station employed an average of 22 staff. Excursion trains were a regular sight, bringing people to nearby Bristol Zoo.
  The Severn Beach Line declined over the latter half of the twentieth century, with passenger numbers falling significantly.
context_section_description: When the railways were nationalised in 1948, services at Clifton Down came under the aegis of the Western Region of British Railways, and there remained a strong staff presence in 1958, with a station master, chief booking clerk, four other clerks, six porters, a shunter, a checker and a weighbridge assistant. Passenger numbers however dropped sharply in 1961 as the result of a fare increase, and so in 1962 a new reduced timetable was enacted, which lost more passengers, and saw the withdrawal of a special schoolchildren's service. A year later in 1963, the Beeching report suggested that all services along the Severn Beach Line be withdrawn. Following meetings with staff, it was decided to keep the line open to Severn Beach, but to close the section to Pilning, and also end services via Henbury. These services duly ended, and in July 1965 the goods yard at Clifton Down also closed. The line however was still threatened, and on 10 February 1967 it was announced that all services between Stapleton Road and Severn Beach would be discontinued. An enquiry followed, and in June that year the decision was reversed, on the condition that tickets be issued on the trains. Thus, on 17 July 1967, all stations along the line, including Clifton Down, had their staff withdrawn. The decrease of costs allowed a reduction of ticket prices, but the line was still under threat until in June 1969 it was decided that the line's closure would result in significant hardship, and so a grant was allocated to ensure continued services. Service levels however still declined: though the "Monkey Specials" were still going strong into the 1960s, with 340,000 excursion passengers arriving between 1958 and 1966, the closure of many of the Welsh Valley Lines and the construction of the Severn Bridge led to their demise in the early 1970s. Most of the Severn Beach Line was reduced to single track in late 1970, leaving Clifton Down as one of the few passing places. The glass platform canopies were completely removed in May 1971, and the glass-covered footbridge was also removed, leaving a set of steps from Whiteladies road as the only access to the southern platform. In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the Clifton Down Shopping Centre was built over most of the goods yard, the rest covered by a housing development.
  British Rail was split into business-led sectors in the 1980s, at which time operations at Clifton Down passed to Regional Railways. A programme of refurbishment was carried out in 1992/3, including the installation of a new metal footbridge and ramp access to the southern platform. In December 1994, the station building, which had been bricked up when staff were withdrawn, and was by then the Steam Tavern public house, was designated a grade II listed building, along with the screen walls. The pub was revived in the mid-2000s as the Roo Bar, an Australian-themed bar. At this time, all trains ran to Severn Beach, but the service pattern was irregular. This changed in 1995 when an hourly timetable was introduced for peak times, but services were terminated at Avonmouth, allowing a single Sprinter unit to work the service. There was a better service on Saturdays as more rolling stock was available, but there was no Sunday service. Talk arose again of the line being closed completely. Local tourism expert Bernard Lane described the line's state as
  ... the line the railway wished was not there. It was the line that got bus substitution whenever they were short of trains or queues, when a rugby match in Cardiff needed a special. It has a problem in that the route is slow and not very direct; for years it was invisible, short of marketing and lacking a regular interval timetable.
  When the railway was privatised in 1997, local services were franchised to Wales & West, which was succeeded by Wessex Trains, an arm of National Express, in 2001. Following action by Friends of Severn Beach Railway (FOSBR) and a string of protests, services had increased to 10 per day in each direction by 2005, with Bristol City Council providing a subsidy to Wessex Train
caption: The Bristol-bound platform in 1956, with the glass canopy.
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