Category Archives: Uncategorised

Please note that trains will call at Pilning at 09:00 and 16:00 on Saturday December 31st, not at the usual times.  This follows prompt intervention by Pilning Station Group after discovering that originally no trains at all had been scheduled to stop at Pilning that day.  Proof of the importance of rail user groups keeping an eye on things!

21 December 2019 marked Pilning’s Darkest Day in its recent history as station users had another hour of their Saturday excursion time shaved off. The 15:34 service was replaced with the 14:33 afternoon stop. Why, you ask. All because GWR refused to add the Pilning stop to their shiny new electric trains’ onboard computer system. We asked the authorities to intervene, but to no avail. Pilning Challenges will be adjusted accordingly – watch out for the announcements! Here is your new pocket timetable, valid from Saturday 21/12/19.

It has come to our attention that from December 2019 Pilning’s afternoon service will depart at 14:34, instead of the current 15:34. We note that this will severely affect the service – Pilning passengers will have 59 minutes less time in Bristol Temple Meads, 51 minutes less in Weston-super-Mare, 99 less in Gloucester, 80 less in Cheltenham, 58 less in Bath, 64 less in Cardiff and 65 less in Newport. We immediately lodged an objection and demanded an explanation. GWR replied that the change is necessary because the 15:34 will be operated by one of their new Class 800 Intercity Express Trains (IETs), and that these could not call at Pilning. We challenged this, because these trains are equipped with Selective Door Opening (SDO) for the SPECIFIC PURPOSE of enabling them to call at stations with shorter platforms such as ours. So why can’t they stop here?  Well, they could, very easily…

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The ever-enterprising Pilning Station User Group have released a new song and video online to mark the second anniversary of their footbridge being demolished in November 2016. The song is a rewrite of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s song “Imagine”, and includes lines like (“Imagine there’s a footbridge / And platform lighting too”). It follows-on from last year’s anniversary song, which reworked Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”. Thanking you all for your contributions 🙂

What Improvements Can Be Made at Pilning Station?

1. Platform lighting 2. Stopping trains 3. More passengers 4. A footbridge

Pilning Station Group produced a sad song to commemorate the loss of our footbridge OTD exactly a year ago. We had some positive comments, though, which kind of lifted our spirits…. a bit… (thank you x) How wonderful, what a fantastic video, and song. Thank you for sharing and I will indeed share with my colleagues (a GWR colleague) Nothing compares to … Pilning! (Geoff Marshall, AllTheStations Project) Amazing. Great work. (Pilning Gamemaster) If this doesn’t make Network Rail put the footbridge, I [can’t think] of anything else that would! (a random panda)

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