The 25-year campaign to bring a rail line back

For campaigners and residents of the North Somerset town of Portishead, it was a battle that began 25 years ago. Now they have finally been given the news that more than 60 years after their rail connection to Bristol was axed, it will be returned.

Construction on the long-awaited project to bring the line back into use for passenger trains will begin in the summer, West of England Combined Authority (Weca) Mayor Dan Norris has said.

For those who drive into and out of the town, this battle began in 2000, with frustrations over congestion at Junction 19 of the M5 and the nearby Portbury Hundred link road.

Gareth Jones from the Portishead Railway Group committee said he was “absolutely staggered” when he heard the news this week that trains could return as early as 2027.

The Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway Company opened in April 1867, about three years after Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge was constructed.

It took less than three years to build the single line, which included three tunnels.

The line helped link Bristol and Portbury to Portishead docks and supported the local power station and coal station during the 1900s.

But like hundreds of other lines around the country, the Portishead branch line closed to passengers in 1964 during the Beeching cuts.

Crucially though, unlike many others, the Portishead line was never built on or turned into a cycle route – leaving the possibility of it one day returning to passenger use.

There is, campaigners argue, a clear need to revive the line.

When trains first started running to Portishead in 1867, the population was just 1,201 people.

Now it’s more than 26,000 people with many new housing developments and the docks being transformed.

• ‘New station for Ashton Gate’

The Portishead Railway Group was set up in the early 2000s and started gathering support.

But after lobbying MPs and local council for more than two decades, many never thought they’d never see the day when trains returned to their town.

The final and missing funding was agreed between WECA, North Somerset Council and the Labour government this week.

Dave Chillistone, from the Portishead Railway committee, said: “We’ve never had wording like this before. The key was the extra money on the table.

“It’s what the town and other communities along the line have required really since the railway was closed.”

I first filmed the sad sight of the abandoned sleepers on the Portishead line 20 years ago.

The route is still there, people told me. Portishead is a growing town, they said, it needs a railway.

Year after year, the North Somerset coastal town grew. A fancy marina was developed, and a festival popped up.

But while the railway lay dormant, the tailbacks grew too.

There is only one road in and out of Portishead, and at rush hour it is plagued by tailbacks.

Politicians promised to re-open the rail line time and time again and – in 2024 – campaigners thought they’d got there.

A combination of national government, the West of England Authority, and North Somerset Council put together a £150m funding package. It was still just £30-£50m short, but they were told that gap would be bridged by a national infrastructure fund.

Then in July, the new government said that fund was ‘unfunded’, and dumped the lot. The dream of rail travel into Bristol seemed to have been snatched away again.

But suddenly, in February 2025, a way through was announced.

Is this the end of the line for this saga? Portishead residents will certainly hope so.