Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 32, 2015

Shirehampton railway station is on the Severn Beach Line and serves the district of Shirehampton in Bristol, England, 7.6 mi from Bristol Temple Meads. The station has a single platform which serves trains in both directions. it is managed by First Great Western, which is the third franchise to be responsible for the station since privatisation in 1997. The station was opened in 1865 as the headquarters of the Bristol Port Railway and Pier, a railway which ran along the River Avon from Hotwells to a pier at Avonmouth, and was linked to the national network in 1877. The station had a single platform to begin with, but was rebuilt with a second in 1903, as well as a signal box and a goods yard. By the 1930s the station had ten staff. The Severn Beach Line declined over the latter half of the twentieth century, with passenger numbers falling significantly. Goods services at Shirehampton ended in 1965, and all staff were withdrawn in 1967. The second platform and signal box were taken out of use in 1970, with the station buildings sold off and later destroyed by fire. Services had decreased to ten per day each direction by 2005, but have since increased to twenty-four trains per day.