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East of Bath Park and Ride - In Swindon |
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Alternatives to the private car to access Bath City centre from the east are essential for a balanced transport strategy for the city. With the abandonment of a proposed Park and Ride site to the east of the city, Callidus set itself a project challenge to come up with an alternative solution. One solution identified is to intercept longer distance trips to Bath at Swindon. This would be achieved by way of a new Parkway Railway Station for Swindon to be located at junction 16 of the M4. At this location the Great Western mainline and the M4 converge conveniently at an existing motorway junction.
The existing railway services or new additional shuttle railway services could be caught by Park and Ride users at the new Parkway Station.
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Map showing the location for a new Parkway Station for
Swindon and the rail connections |
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The combination of a new Swindon Parkway Station, along with the existing Bristol Parkway Station, would create a Park and Ride route for Bath from both the east and the west for longer distance car journeys that use the M4 motorway. This would in particular be of benefit to the visitors to Bath who start their journeys at locations that are spread throughout the UK. It could also be used by commuters to Bath from areas to the east of Chippenham, north of the M4, South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire.
The route of the railway line from Swindon to Bath is much more direct that the equivalent car journey. The travel time by train would be less than 30 minutes to the centre of Bath, far less than the car journey.
Two further benefit of the Swindon Parkway Station would be firstly, to open up an interchange between car and rail for journeys to the south such as to Salisbury, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth and Dorchester. The road system to the south of the M4 to these locations has limited capacity but the train services could be expanded with additional capacity.
Secondly, the Swindon Parkway Station would provide a Park and Ride site for Swindon. There is high demand for trips to Swindon from the west and these could be intercepted at the Park and Ride site for onward rail journeys to the town centre.
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M4 Junction 16 |
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