Great Western Railway and CrossCountry Trains at Bristol Parkway on February 18th 2023

4th visit to Bristol Parkway station on the South Wales Main Line

Featuring services from Great Western Railway, CrossCountry Trains, a freighter and some Penzance Diverts.

Bristol Parkway station being located North of Bristol itself in fact serves the Northern Suburbs of Bristol and Stoke Gifford

It was one of the first park / ride and parkway stations to be introduced on the UK Rail network opening on May 1st 1972 by British Rail

It's the 3rd busiest station in Western England after both Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa respectively.

Since it's opening It's been expanded twice firstly with a third Platform opening in 2007 and followed by a fourth Platform now today's Platform 1 opening in 2018 at the time of the arrival of the Electrification of the GWML to Swindon and South Wales Main Line to Cardiff Central which was eventually was fully completed in June 2020.

Nearby to the West of the station is Great Western Railway's Stoke Gifford Depot which can be accessed easily from the station it's one of two depots in Bristol the other being St Philips Mrsh H S T D with the latter being used by Local Diesel services and CrossCountry although can occasionally be used by IETs as well.

Situated on the triangle junction with Patchway station on one side next station to the West, Bristol Parkway to the east and Filton Abbey Wood to the South

Since May 2021 electric services from London Paddington aren't just provided by Class 800 or 802 IETs however after the IET Problems with Cracks uncovered around that time it was a decision on a temporary basis to run Class 387s beyond Didcot Parkway firstly to Swindon then Bristol Parkway however since December 2021 gradually Class 387s now cover the stopping services to Bristol Parkway and Cardiff Central in Electric mode whilst the IETs continue West to Swansea or Carmarthen or sometimes to Bristol Temple Meads on Divert or stock movements which continue on Diesel Mode.

The Class 387s are mainly based at Reading Traincare Depot just outside to the west of Reading station.

CrossCountry services provided by Class 220 and 221 Voyagers

The only long distance Class 43 HSTs left are in their last months of operation which are due to withdraw from May until mid October which was confirmed by CrossCountry 13 days after filming.

GWR are also due to completely withdraw their Castle HST sets by end of 2023

On the day of filming due to engineering works between Westbury and Theale meant that Penzance services were diverted either via Westbury then through Chippenham or some via Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway

Due to a landslip near Hanborough on the evening of Friday February 10th meant all GWR services between Oxford and Worcester Shrub Hill were cut back to Charlbury however services wouldn’t resume through directly to Oxford until 3 days after filming which meant 5 car IET sets were operating ECS moves to and from Bristol area.

Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS

Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
   • JJD - Adventure | Glitch Hop | NCS - Copyr...  

Filmed on Saturday February 18th 2023 on iPhone 14 Pro and edited on iMovie

#greatwesternrailway #hitachi #bristol #class800 #gwr #class43 #class158 #intercityexpresstrain #crosscountrytrains