| Taunton Metro Rail (Proposed) | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Locale | Taunton, Somerset |
| Stations | 8 |
| Service | |
| Type | Light rail, Rapid transit |
| Services | Wellington - Bridgwater |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 30.6 km (19.0 mi) |
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Taunton Metro Rail (TMR) was a light rail network proposed in 2009 to use a combination of existing rail infrastructure and the construction of new infrastructure in and around Taunton, Somerset.
Project Taunton, the authority responsible for Taunton's major regeneration project, revealed plans for TMR in 2009 as part of their transport sustainability plan. A feasibility proposal was to be drawn for Somerset County Council.
It was anticipated that TMR will be modelled against driverless systems such as London's Docklands Light Railway, providing an anticipated peak frequency of five trains per hour and an off-peak frequency of three trains per hour.
If implemented, the avoiding line in Taunton's Station Road would be used as a calling point, rather than integrating it to Taunton's National Rail station. Also, this will mean that Wellington's rail station would be reopened, which had been already proposed by the Conservative Party. [1] [2] The move to re-open Wellington's former rail station gained widespread support from local businesses and residents. [3]
The proposal was due to be submitted in Autumn 2009. However, due to the economic climate and a lack of funding, this has been delayed until further notice.
Somerset once had a much more extensive rail network than today. However, many stations and routes were closed following the Reshaping of British Railways report of 1963. [4] A tram system opened in 1901 serving Taunton but closed in 1921 due to a dispute about electricity costs. [5]
NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent company is the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), and is one of Four publicly owned train operators in the United Kingdom, the others being Direct Rail Services, Northern Trains, Transport for Wales Rail and LNER. It has a common Board of Management with the other two companies in the group, Ulsterbus and Metro. The rail network in Northern Ireland is not part of the National Rail network of Great Britain, nor does it use Standard Gauge, instead using Irish Gauge in common with the rest of Ireland. Also, NIR is the only commercial non-heritage passenger operator in the United Kingdom to operate a vertical integration model, with responsibility of all aspects of the network including running trains, maintaining rolling stock and infrastructure, and pricing. However, since the Single European Railway Directive 2012, the company has allowed open access operations by other rail operators. In 2017, NI Railways carried 15 million passengers.
The West Somerset Railway (WSR) is a 22.75-mile (36.6 km) heritage railway line in Somerset, England. The freehold of the line and stations is owned by Somerset County Council; the railway is leased to and operated by West Somerset Railway plc ; which is supported and minority-owned by charitable trust the West Somerset Railway Association (WSRA) and the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust (WSSRT). The WSR plc operates services using both heritage steam and diesel trains.
The Gospel Oak to Barking line is part of the Network Rail network of railway lines. It is 13 miles 58 chains (22.1 km) in length from one terminus to the other and carries both through goods trains and London Overground passenger trains, connecting Gospel Oak station in north London and Barking station in east London. The line is part of Network Rail Strategic Route 6, and is classified as a London and South East Commuter line.
The Gold Coast railway line is an interurban railway line operated by Queensland Rail in Queensland, Australia, connecting Brisbane with the Gold Coast.
The Abbey Line, also called the St Albans Abbey branch line, is a railway line from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. The 6.5-mile (10.5 km) route passes through town and countryside in the county of Hertfordshire, just outside the boundaries of the Oyster Card and London fare zones. Its northern terminus in St Albans Abbey is located in the south of the city, around 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) away from the larger St Albans City railway station on the Midland Main Line.
Taunton railway station is a junction station on the route from London to Penzance, 143 miles (230 km) west of London Paddington station. It is situated in Taunton, Somerset, and is operated by Great Western Railway. It is also served by CrossCountry trains and by the West Somerset Railway on special event days and by mainline steam excursions.
Westbury railway station serves the town of Westbury in Wiltshire, England. The station is managed by Great Western Railway.
Nailsea and Backwell railway station, on the Bristol to Exeter line, is in the village of Backwell, close to the town of Nailsea in North Somerset, England. It is 8 miles (13 km) west of Bristol Temple Meads railway station, and 126 miles (203 km) from London Paddington. The station, opened in 1841 by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, has two platforms but little in the way of facilities. It is managed by Great Western Railway, the seventh company to be responsible for the station, and the third franchise since privatisation in 1997. The company provides all train services at the station, mainly hourly services between Bristol Parkway and Weston-super-Mare, and between Cardiff Central and Taunton.
The Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with the Great Western Railway (GWR), which built its main line between London and Bristol, and in time formed part of a through route between London and Cornwall.
Bishops Lydeard railway station is a heritage railway station in the village of Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, England. It is the southern terminus for regular trains on the West Somerset Railway.
Norton Fitzwarren railway station is an untimetabled station on the West Somerset Railway in Somerset, England. It was built in 2009 about 1⁄4 mile (0.4 km) north of the site of the old station that served the village of Norton Fitzwarren from 1873 until 1961. There were fatal railway accidents in the vicinity in 1890, 1940 and 1978.
The Hutt Valley Line is the electrified train service operated by Transdev Wellington on behalf of Metlink on the section of the Wairarapa Line railway between Wellington and Upper Hutt, New Zealand.
There are 22 disused railway stations in the 75 miles (121 km) between Bristol Temple Meads and Exeter St Davids, 12 of which have structures that can still be seen from passing trains. Most were closed in the 1960s but four of them, especially around Weston-super-Mare, were replaced by stations on new sites. 13 stations remain open on the line today, but there have been proposals to reopen stations at Cullompton and Wellington.
The earliest known infrastructure for transport in Somerset is a series of wooden trackways laid across the Somerset Levels, an area of low-lying marshy ground. To the west of this district lies the Bristol Channel, while the other boundaries of the county of Somerset are along chains of hills that were once exploited for their mineral deposits. These natural features have all influenced the evolution of the transport network. Roads and railways either followed the hills, or needed causeways to cross the Levels. Harbours were developed, rivers improved, and linked to sources of traffic by canals. Railways were constructed throughout the area, influenced by the needs of the city of Bristol, which lies just to the north of Somerset, and to link the ports of the far south-west with the rest of England.
Blackford Hill railway station was a railway station in the Blackford area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was located at the foot of Blackford Hill on the Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway (ESSJR). It was opened on 1 December 1884.
Go-Op is an open access train operating company which is currently proposing to operate a service between Taunton and Swindon, via Westbury. It aims to become the first cooperatively owned train operating company in the United Kingdom, to improve access to the public transport infrastructure through open access rail services linking main lines to smaller market towns, and co-ordinating services with light rail and bus links and car pools. Go-op intended to begin operating rail services in the spring of 2014, however difficulties in obtaining rolling stock and severe financial difficulties incurred by their main partner The Co-operative Bank have delayed these plans.
The Bristol to Exeter line is a major branch of the Great Western Main Line in the West of England and runs from Bristol, to Exeter, from where it continues as the Exeter to Plymouth line. It was one of the principal routes of the pre-1948 Great Western Railway which were subsequently taken over by the Western Region of British Railways and are now part of the Network Rail system.
The Taunton Tramway was an electric street tramway in Taunton, the county town of Somerset, England. It operated a fleet of six narrow gauge tramcars on a single route of 1.66 miles (2.67 km) between 1901 and 1921 when the tramway closed due to a dispute over the cost of electricity.
Somerton railway station was a railway station situated on the Great Western Railway's Langport and Castle Cary Railway. It served the town of Somerton in Somerset, England.
The BaT project was a proposed north-south tunnel that would provide bus and rail modes of transportation together in an intuitive design by combining a new underground rail line and busway in a single, double-decked, 15m-wide tunnel beneath the Brisbane River and Brisbane central business district. The tunnel was to have three underground stations at Woolloongabba, George Street and Roma Street with Dutton Park upgraded.
