Pill railway station

Pill
The site of the former Pill railway station in 2009, looking west towards Portishead.
Location
Place	Pill
Area	North Somerset
Coordinates	51°28′51″N 2°41′12″W / 51.4809°N 2.6866°W / 51.4809; -2.6866Coordinates: 51°28′51″N 2°41′12″W / 51.4809°N 2.6866°W / 51.4809; -2.6866
Grid reference	ST524760
Operations
Original company	Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Platforms	2
History
18 April 1867	Opened
10 June 1963	Closed to goods traffic
7 September 1964	Closed to passengers
2019	Due to be reopened
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Pill railway station was a railway station on the Portishead Branch Line, 7.8 miles (12.6 km) west of Bristol Temple Meads, serving the village of Pill in North Somerset, England. The station was opened by the Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company on 18 April 1867. It had two platforms, on either side of a passing loop, with a goods yard and signal box later additions. Services increased until the 1930s, at which point a half-hourly service operated. However the Portishead Branch was recommended for closure by the Beeching report, and the station was closed on 7 September 1964, although the line saw freight traffic until 1981. Regular freight trains through the station began to run again in 2002 when Royal Portbury Dock was connected to the rail network.

The station is due to be reopened to passenger traffic in 2019 as part of MetroWest, a scheme to increase rail services in the Bristol area. The new station will have a single platform, an accessible footbridge and a car park, with trains running between Portishead and Bristol.

Pill railway station was opened on 18 April 1867 by the Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company, when services began on their line from the Bristol and Exeter Railway at Portishead Junction to a pier on the Severn Estuary at Portishead. The station served the village of Pill on the south bank of the River Avon. The line was built as 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad-gauge, and was largely single track. The station was sited in a cutting close to the old centre of Pill, 3 miles 73 chains (6.3 km) from the line's terminus at Portishead, 7 miles 61 chains (12.5 km) from Bristol Temple Meads and 126 miles 12 chains (203.0 km) from the Great Western Railway's terminus at London Paddington. To the east, the railway passed through the village and crossed a valley on the brick-built Pill Viaduct, while to the west the line was largely through flat, open countryside. The station was initially the second along the line from Portishead Junction, after Clifton Bridge and before Portbury.