Avonmouth railway station is located on the Severn Beach Line and serves the district of Avonmouth in Bristol, England. It is from . Its three letter station code is AVN. The station has two platforms, on either side of two running lines. it is managed by Great Western Railway, which is the third franchise to be responsible for the station since privatisation in 1997. They provide all train services at the station, mainly a train every 30 minutes to and one every hour to .
The station was opened in 1877 by the Bristol Port Railway and Pier, a railway which ran along the River Avon from to a pier at Avonmouth. The station, originally known as Avonmouth Dock, had a single platform, but was rebuilt with two platforms by the Great Western and Midland Railways in 1885 when they began services via . The station was enhanced numerous times in the early part of the twentieth century, and by 1913 employed 72 staff. Facilities included a goods yard, signal box and engine shed.
The Severn Beach Line declined over the latter half of the twentieth century, with passenger numbers falling significantly. Goods services at Avonmouth ended in 1966, and all staff were withdrawn in 1967. Services had decreased to 10 per day each direction by 2005, but have since increased to a train every 30 minutes to Bristol and hourly to Severn Beach.
Description
The station is located in the Avonmouth district of Bristol, an area of mixed industrial and residential usage. The station sits to the south of the junction of Gloucester Road and Portview Road, the tracks running to parallel to Portview Road and crossing Gloucester Road at a level crossing. The station is on the Severn Beach Line from to , from Temple Meads and from Severn Beach. The next station towards Temple Meads is Portway Park and Ride. The next station towards Severn Beach is .
The station is on a north-west/south-east alignment, with two platforms separated by two running lines. The southern "up" platform, adjacent to the "Up Main" line, is used for trains towards Severn Beach. The northern "down" platform, adjacent to the "Down Main" line, is bidirectionally signalled, allowing it to be used by terminating trains and those heading towards Bristol. Both platforms have significant portions of their length fenced off, giving usable lengths of for the southern platform and for the northern.
Facilities at the station are minimal – there is a wooden canopy and bench seating on the northern platform, with a small metal shelter on the southern. Timetable information is provided; help points show next train information and allow users to contact railway staff. There is no ticket office or other means for buying or collecting tickets, however an electronic ticketing trial is to be rolled out at the station. There is a car park with six spaces, as well as stands for four bicycles. The nearest bus stops are away on Avonmouth Road.
The line through Avonmouth has a speed limit of for locomotive-hauled trains and for diesel multiple units. The line, which is not electrified, handles less than 5 million train tonnes per year, has a loading gauge of W6 and a route availability of 7. , more than 110,000 passengers used Avonmouth station, making it the 1,635th busiest station in the country and the sixth busiest within the Bristol unitary authority area. This was an increase of 175% from the 2002–03 financial year, and reflected a general rise in usage of the Severn Beach Line. The 2014-15 estimates of station usage saw a further increase of 8% to 120,000 making it the 1,614th busiest station in the country.
Services
All services at Avonmouth are operated by Great Western Railway using Turbo DMUs.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: 2 tph to of which 1 continues to 1 tph to
On Sundays, there is an hourly service between Bristol Temple Meads and Severn Beach with one train per day to and from Weston-super-Mare.
Services previously ran every 40 minutes to Bristol and every two hours to Severn Beach but were increased to half-hourly to Bristol and hourly to Severn Beach in the December 2021 timetable change.