Bristol Parkway railway station

Bristol Parkway railway station, on the South Wales Main Line, is in the Stoke Gifford area in the northern suburbs of the Bristol conurbation. It is 112 miles from London Paddington. Its three-letter station code is BPW. The station was opened in 1972 by British Rail, and was the first in a new generation of park and ride stations. It is the third-most heavily used station in the West of England, after Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa. There are four platforms, and a well-equipped waiting area. The station is managed by Great Western Railway, who provide most of the trains at the station, with CrossCountry providing the rest.

Electrification using the 25kV AC overhead system reached Bristol Parkway in late 2018, and electric trains in the Swindon and London direction commenced passenger service on 30th December 2018. This is part of the planned modernisation of the Great Western Main Line.

Description
Bristol Parkway is located in the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire, in the Stoke Gifford area of the Bristol conurbation. The immediate surrounding area is mostly residential, with farmland to the south east. The main road access is from the west, with the station situated close to the M4, M5 and M32 motorways, the latter being the Bristol "Parkway" from which the station takes its name, as well as the A4174 Avon Ring Road. The station is on the South Wales Main Line from London to Swansea, 111 mi from the eastern terminus at London Paddington. It is also on the Cross Country Route from Bristol Temple Meads to York. Just to the west of the station is Stoke Gifford Junction, where the Henbury Loop Line to Avonmouth Docks and Cross Country Route to Bristol Temple Meads diverge from the line to South Wales. Stoke Gifford train maintenance depot is located within the junction's confines. To the east is a Network Rail maintenance training centre. The next station north along the Cross Country Route is Yate, the next station south is Filton Abbey Wood. The next station east along the South Wales Main Line is Swindon, the next station west is Patchway, however there are only two trains per day calling at both Bristol Parkway and Patchway.

The station is on an east/west alignment, with the main station building and car park to the north of the line. There are six lines through the station, of which the inner four have platforms, the outer two being goods loops. There is a goods yard adjacent to the station to the south. The station has four platforms, numbered 1 to 4 from south to north. Platforms 1 and 2 share an island to the south of the two central lines, platform 1 is on the south side of the island and serves southbound trains towards Bristol Temple Meads, platform 2 is on the north side of the island and serves westbound trains towards Wales and Bristol Temple Meads. Platforms 3 and 4 share an island to the north of the two central running lines. Platform 3 serves mainly inter-city trains towards London and Birmingham New Street, while platform 4 is usually reserved for local services. An enclosed footbridge provides access to the platforms, approximately a third of the way along platforms 2 and 3 (from west to east), and at the west end of platforms 1 and 4. Platforms 2 and 3 are opposite each other, while platforms 1 and 4 are offset from platform 3, starting at the footbridge and extending further to the east. All platforms are 280 m long. Platforms 1, 3 and 4 are signalled for bidirectional running, while platform 2 is unidirectional. The footbridge can be accessed by both stairs and lifts.

The station building, a sweeping metal construction opened in 2001, contains a booking office, waiting rooms, payphones, cash machines, shops, toilets and a café overlooking the tracks. There are waiting rooms on each platform, as well as vending machines and LED displays giving next train information. Ticket barriers are in use at the station. The pay-and-display car park, run by APCOA, has 1,810 spaces.

Bristol Parkway was the first of a new generation of park and ride railway stations, and a large number of passengers use it for that purpose. Over the decade 2002–2012, the number of passengers starting or ending a journey at Bristol Parkway grew by 1 million passengers per year to 2.25 million, with a further 740,000 passengers changing trains there, giving an annual footfall of just under 3 million passengers and making it the 216th busiest station in the country and the third busiest in the West of England (after Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa). In the 2006/07 financial year, over 100,000 passengers used Parkway to travel to or from Bristol Temple Meads, and a further 500,000 used it to travel to or from London Paddington.

The line through Bristol Parkway has a linespeed of 60 mph on platforms 2 and 3 (40 mph westbound on platform 3), and 25 mph on platform 4. The loading gauge is W8, and the line handles over 20 million train tonnes per year. The lines through the station were electrified in late 2018 as part of the 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western Main Line.

Rail
The station is managed by Great Western Railway, who operate most rail services from the station. , the basic Great Western Railway weekday service consists of two trains per hour each way between London Paddington and Cardiff Central (with one extended to Swansea), one terminating service to and from Weston-super-Mare, and one service each way between Westbury and Gloucester via Bristol Temple Meads (with one train every two hours extended to Great Malvern and Weymouth).

CrossCountry also operate trains from Bristol Parkway, the basic weekday service consists of one hourly train each way between Bristol Temple Meads and Manchester Piccadilly, and one hourly train each way between Plymouth, Bristol and Edinburgh Waverley via Leeds and Newcastle. Both these services run via Birmingham New Street.

Great Western Railway services between London and Wales are formed of High Speed Train (HST) sets or bi-mode multiple units, while other GWR services are formed using, ,  and  diesel multiple-unit trains. CrossCountry services are usually formed of and  Voyager diesel-electric multiple units, with some services between Scotland and the South West employing HST sets.

The standard journey time to London Paddington is 90 minutes, to Cardiff Central 40 minutes, to Birmingham New Street 75 minutes, and to Bristol Temple Meads 12 minutes.

Bus
Bristol Parkway is served by several bus routes linking it with the rest of Bristol and South Gloucestershire. These include


 * 3B (The Centre to Aztec West)
 * 19 (Cribbs Causeway to Bath via Bitton and Kelston)
 * 19A (Cribbs Causeway to Bath via Keynsham and Saltford)
 * 73 (Temple Meads to Cribbs Causeway)
 * 77 (Thornbury to Broadmead)
 * Y6 (Southmead Hospital to Chipping Sodbury via Yate)
 * 625 (University of West England to Severn Beach)

These routes are operated by First West of England and Stagecoach West.