Work to reopen the Portishead Railway will begin in 2026
After years of uncertainty, the long-closed Portishead railway is finally on track
Work to reopen a railway closed more than 60 years ago is set to begin this year.
In 1964, passengers from Bristol reached Portishead by rail for the last time. On the recommendation of the Beeching Report, the railway which had served the town for almost a century was closed down.
But now, in 2026, construction work is set to begin to reopen it.
Already “enabling works” have been carried out along the route of the railway which used to connect Bristol to Portishead, clearing away the trees and vegetation which had overgrown the line since it was closed in 1964. Early in the new year, full-on construction work is due to begin. The railway is expected to reopen to passengers in 2028, serving two new stations in Pill and Portishead.
Campaigners and local government leaders have fought a long battle to get the historic railway reopened once again. The idea of building a railway to Portishead had been first proposed by Brunel, but it was not until after his death that such a railway was eventually built. It opened in 1867 for passengers and goods traffic.
The line ran down Avon Gorge, where trains stopped at Clifton Bridge station, before running under the bridge, in a tunnel under Ham Green, and across the viaduct through Pill where it pulled into the station there before continuing to Portbury and Portishead. After Portishead Pier opened, the line was extended out to the pier. Passengers disembarking from steamers could now immediately board a train right into Bristol.
But in the twentieth century, railway-mania died down and Britain looked towards the motorcar. The line to Portishead railway was one of hundreds of branch lines across the country which were closed to passengers in what became known as “the Beeching Axe.”
It remained in use for some freight until the 1980s, but was then left abandoned. But unlike other former railways which have been built on, the line was “mothballed.”
People have called for the reopening of the line since almost as soon as it was closed. Major progress had been made in recent years with the scheme being taken forward as part of the Metrowest project to improve rail travel in the West of England. But it has not been a smooth journey.
Shortly after taking office in July 2024, the new Labour government axed the Restoring Your Railway fund. This had been set to cover the government’s critical contribution to the project, putting the project in limbo while the government reviewed whether to continue with the scheme.
But in February 2025, leaders of local councils and the West of England Combined Authority struck a deal with the government to get the project back on track. Finally in July, after almost a year of limbo, the government announced it would help fund the project.
In total, the government had put more than £47m into the project, with the rest of its £182m price tag being met by North Somerset Council and the West of England Combined Authority.
Now this year, construction work will finally begin. New tracks need to be laid between Pill and Portishead. The railway from Bristol Temple Meads to Pill has already been restored as part of the reopening of the line to Portbury for freight, although work would need to be done to this to make it suitable for passenger trains.
New stations also need to be built in Pill and Portishead. Pill’s station will be rebuilt in the same place that the village’s old station was, below where Station Road bridges the railway. But Portishead’s old railway station now sits underneath Waitrose. In fact, it was when planner Alan Matthews was working on the scheme to build the supermarket that he noticed the old tracks and wondered why they were not in use. Today, he is chairman of the Portishead Railway Group which has been campaigning to reopen the railway since 2000.
Although the route of the tracks runs undeveloped all the way to the edge of the Waitrose car park, Quays Avenue cuts off the last 400 metres of the route. Rather than dig up the road, the new station will be built just east of it.
Although there are no plans to reopen the old Clifton Bridge station, it is possible that a new station could open on the line as it goes through Bristol in the future. A new station at Ashton Gate could provide Bristol City fans with a new route to the stadium on match days. Although it has not been included in the current plans, an area next to the railway line has been “future proofed” to leave space to allow for an Ashton Gate station to be potentially built in the future.
Announcing in November that construction on the reopening of the railway would start in 2026, North Somerset Council leader Mike Bell said: “I know trains from Portishead have been a long time coming, which is why it’s great to be able to announce a start to works that will pave the way for construction in 2026. It is really happening.
“When journeys to Temple Meads make a return to train timetables, the reopened Portishead to Bristol line will transform our region as 50,000 people are connected back into the rail network. This makes the line more than just the new stations at Portishead and Pill, because when passengers finally pull into platforms at Temple Meads, they will also be able to enjoy all the benefits of onward travel.”