{"id":8393,"date":"2024-10-02T01:29:10","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T01:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/ashley-hill-ashley-down-3\/"},"modified":"2024-10-02T01:29:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T01:29:10","slug":"ashley-hill-ashley-down-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/ashley-hill-ashley-down-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley Hill : Ashley Down (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Explore Before …<\/span><\/p>\n

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Frankly, there was little to see of Ashley Hill station once the site had been cleared post the 1964 closure. Above is a general shot before the Filton Bank route reverted to four tracks.<\/div>\n
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Fortunately, Google Streetview and\/or Google Earth sites have not been well updated to record the building of the new Ashley Down station which opened last Saturday 28th Sepember. So we can explore on-line, if not on the ground.\n
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At the bottom of the hill, Station Road veers sharp right to a dead end (with the fence, remember?). Here the ever probing eye of the Google satellite shows a pathway leading direct to the logo for the new station.<\/p><\/div>\n

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It doesn’t!\n
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The path leads to a tunnel under the tracks, but before plunging into the dark and dismal depths, you have a choice of a right hand or left hand turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This is the junction with the nobly named Concorde Way, not yet labelled when the Google noddy car nodded past.<\/div>\n
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It is a series of linked footpaths and side roads which leads, eventually, to the development on Filton Airfield, the one-time home of Concorde. The start of the route is at the top of Hopetoun Road, itself accessed by the graffiti tunnel on Mina Road “visited” by fbb yesterday.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Part of Concorde Way runs alongside the new Ashley Down station …\n
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… just as the pathway ran alongside the old Ashley Hill Station.<\/p>\n

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It has been upgraded with dire warnings about mowing down passengers entering and leaving the new station.<\/p>\n

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The station entrance\/exit is next to the pathway under the tunnel but now much more spectacular.<\/p>\n

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Quite a motorway style junction!<\/p>\n

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The hi-vis suits are actually at the gate to the station.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The good news for troglodyte rail explorers is that the tunnel still remains, seen below from the non-station side.\n
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Access from the east is via Station Lane …<\/p><\/div>\n

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… which is not the most inviting approach to the new station.<\/p><\/div>\n

The route was signposted even before the station arrived …\n
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… with a wider aerial view showing all sorts of pathways and tracks in the area.<\/p>\n

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Whether at least one of these led up to an eastern entrance to the old station before the Filton route went four track, is not certain – wll not to fbb, anyay.<\/p><\/div>\n

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And The New Station<\/span>\n
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Like most of these new-built “halts” (because that is how the real GWR would have named them) …<\/p>\n

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… there is nothing much there except a very expensive accessible footbridge costing millions.<\/div>\n
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Would it not have been better to use the existing foot tunnel, well refurbished, and provide good quality ramps? It would have saved a lot of cash and might have made it possible to have a proper shelter or two on the platforms (see below).<\/div>\n
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There are several videos on-line of the first train, but fbb will refrain from showing any of them. They are mostly made by over excitable rail enthusiasts (aren’t they all?).<\/div>\n
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But the crowds at Ashley Down station were massive …\n
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… some of whom\u00a0actually travelled<\/span> all the way (just one stop) to Filton Abbey Wood …<\/p><\/div>\n

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… which really exposed the farce of this reopening. One day, somewhere over the rainbow, this station will be part of a half hourly service between Bristol and Henbury.\u00a0\n
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But until then these trains are a very nominal hourly shuttle between Filton and Temple Meads.<\/div>\n
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It’s called Strategic Planning<\/span>!<\/div>\n
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As far as “facilities” are concerned, the station has display screens, one of which was showing this for much of the opening day:-\n
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It reads “No services from this platform.”<\/div>\n
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It has a timetable poster …<\/p>\n

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… but no staff, no toilets,\u00a0no maps and no information for, say, connecting trains at Filton.<\/div>\n
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Maybe you might be honest and strive to buy a ticket?\n
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Fair enough, but the machine does not take cash, so really great for those without bank cards, on line bank acounts or apps for crypto currency!<\/p><\/div>\n

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It is called\u00a0Customer Service<\/span>!<\/div>\n
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However, the residents of Ashley Down have gained one bonus from the opening of their station. The Concorde Way path has re-opened (at last) after four years of closure and a very inconvenient set of diversions.\n
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Closed bits are in RED<\/span>, the lengthy diversion via some busy roads …<\/p>\n

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… shown in BLUE<\/span>.<\/p><\/div>\n

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=========================<\/p>\n

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\u00a01 Day to Go\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0Next Future Vision blog : Thurs 3rd Oct\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Explore Before … Frankly, there was little to see of Ashley Hill station once the site had been cleared post the 1964 closure. Above is a general shot before the Filton Bank route reverted to four tracks. Fortunately, Google Streetview and\/or Google Earth sites have not been well updated to record the building of the new Ashley Down station…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}