page_title: Portishead Railway
section_title: Partial reopening to freight
hierarchical_section_title: Portishead Railway / Reopening of the line / Partial reopening to freight
caption_attribution_description: English: Since the last goods train rolled into Portishead in 1981 a new road has been built to the Port Marine housing development. Plans are now being made to reopen the line for passenger trains so a new station will be built (here, behind the camera) to avoid a level crossing. The trackbed beyond the road will be used as a car park.
context_page_description: The Portishead Railway is a branch line railway running from Portishead in Somerset to the main line immediately west of Bristol, England. It was constructed by the Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway Company, but it was always operated by its main line neighbour, and was more usually thought of as the Portishead branch or the Portishead railway.
  It opened as a broad gauge line to connect new docks at Portbury, at the west side of the mouth of the River Avon, with the railway network. The line opened to Portishead in 1867, and to the docks in 1879.
  The docks were always overshadowed by Bristol and Avonmouth docks. The ordinary passenger service declined in the twentieth century, leading to closure to passengers in 1964, and to all traffic in 1981.
  When a new high capacity freight terminal was opened at the site of the Royal Portbury Dock, the line as far as that point was reopened to accommodate the new traffic, in 2002. Public consultation took place in 2015 regarding the reopening of the entire line to passenger traffic in 2020, as part of the MetroWest proposals. By 2019, the planned reopening date was 2021.
context_section_description: During 2000 and 2001 the railway was rebuilt as far as Pill and a short spur constructed to the Royal Portbury Dock to transport freight. The total cost of this work was £21 million. The guests for the official opening ceremony were taken from Parson Street station to Portbury on a train hauled by Bristol Industrial Museum's Portbury locomotive on 21 December.
caption: The railway station at Portishead will be built where the old route has been severed by this new road
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