Cam & Dursley station missed out on a service upgrade as part of the new (from May 2023) half-hourly Gloucester-Bristol Temple Meads service. The service remains hourly as every other train runs through stopping only at Yate, Bristol Parkway and Filton Abbey Wood.
Passengers and community leaders around Cam & Dursley station are disappointed they have not seen any service improvement.
MP Siobhan Baillie said in May:
“I have been contacted by a few constituents who want more train services from Cam and Dursley station. I wrote to the Department for Transport and GWR asking if this could happen. However, the reply from GWR was that it was not possible due to the other new station stops.”
A spokesperson for GWR said:
“WECA are also working with South Gloucestershire Council to progress the introduction of a new station at Charfield [with an hourly service]. Unfortunately it is simply not possible to both offer additional calls to Cam and Dursley and call at Charfield. We did consider introducing extra Cam & Dursley calls before Charfield station was built. But this would then mean removing them again in the future, and taking out stops once they have become established causes more upheaval and disruption to customers.”
Slimbridge Shuttle
For summer weekends, Gloucestershire Community Rail Partnership set up the Slimbridge Shuttle. This new hourly minibus service connects the communities of Cam and Dursley with Cam & Dursley railway station and the WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre.
The new service is designed with both visitors and local residents in mind. It gives access from mainline trains to communities and local attractions. If the trial is successful, the service could be retained and expanded in the future.
Stations south of Filton Bank
Stapleton Road (and Lawrence Hill) also missed out on a service upgrade as part of the half-hourly Gloucester-Bristol Temple Meads service. In our August 2023 Newsletter, sent out to members last week, FoSBR ally Eric Wildman describes how Stapleton Road stopping services comprise the half-hourly Severn Beach Line trains, Filton Abbey Wood shuttles and some other services in the mornings and evening to and from Wales and Bristol Parkway. This reduces interchange opportunities between, for instance, Yate and Clifton.
Eric suggests capacity improvements to allow more Filton Bank trains to stop at Stapleton Road. We think capacity improvements further north could allow a more regular service at both Cam & Dursley and Charfield. Planning permission for Charfield station was granted in March 2023, with the station not opening until 2025 at the earliest.
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