Highbridge and Burnham station serves the adjacent towns of Highbridge and Burnham-on-Sea in…read moreSomerset, on the line between Bristol and Taunton. Today, it's an unstaffed halt with a small shelter on the Taunton platform and a larger shelter on the Bristol-bound side. It's hard to appreciate that in former times, this was an important junction with 7 platforms and a locomotive and carriage works employing over 400 hundred people. The first station (and the one open today) was on the Bristol and Exeter Railway, and opened on 14 June 1841, with trains running from Bristol to Bridgwater, and was extended to Exeter in 1844. Highbridge was provided with a standard Brunel-designed station in the Italianate style, with the main offices on the Up (Bristol) platform. The next development was the opening of the Somerset Central Railway from Highbridge to Glastonbury on 28 August 1854, extended in 1858 a few miles westwards to the little seaside resort of Burnham-on-Sea via one of the rare rail-rail level crossings across the Bristol and Exeter tracks. The Somerset Central buildings were smaller, brick-built affairs, but the station - at a 45 degree angle to the Bristol & Exeter line - was provided with five platforms! The Somerset Central Railway amalgamated with the Dorset Central Railway in 1862, and Highbridge became the site of the company's main engineering works, although only one locomotive was built there - the main activity being carriages and wagons manufcature and rolling stock maintenance. The Bristol and Exeter became part of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1876. Thus things remained until 1930, when the railway works were closed. In 1951, the line from Highbridge to Burnham closed to regular traffic, although summer excursion trains survived until 1962 and freight in 1963. In 1966 the remainder of the Somerset and Dorset (S&D) line closed, and Highbridge reverted to being a small 2-platform station. A few miles of the S&D line east to Bason Bridge survived for freight traffic until 1972. The GWR buildings remained until the late 1970s when they were demolished (despite being listed) replaced with smaller bus shelter type huts - since replaced by more modern equivalents. The site of the former works is now occupied by light industy and the remains of the S&D station now lie under a new housing development, appropriatelt enough called 'Somerset Way' and 'Dorset Close'. The station has a small car-park and cycle racks, and a ticket machine, but is otherwise fairly bleak. There is roughly an hourly service of trains in each direction on the Cardiff-Exeter line, with peak-time departures to London via Bristol.

Just outside Coleford, Perrygrove railway offers a ride on a narrow-gauge railway and more…read more On entry we were greeted by friendly staff who explained the timetable and handed out a quiz sheet to each of our children together with a key that opens the appropriate prize box once you've finished. The aim of our time at the place was to explore the whole site finding shapes and pictures to answer the clues on the sheet. They provided two different sets of questions, depending on whether you want to just take the train or wish to wander through the wooded area. Next to the entrance there's a miniature 'village' inside that the kids can explore. There's a reasonable amount of scope for them to play hide-and-seek, crawl and run about, spy on Mum and Dad sitting in the cafe and invent other games to play. The railway journey takes you to the top of a hill and you have plenty to look out for on the way. There are a several places where you can get off and explore and there's no limit to how long you spend doing so; you can get on and off as much as you like. At the to of the hill there's a small covered childrens playframe built to a very high standard. From here a series of narrow paths lead down through the wooded area back to the main 'station' at the entrance. I'd suggest that if you have a pushchair, you might struggle pushing it along these paths unless it is one that has large wheels. Once you've finished wandering about outside collecting answers to the questions on the quiz, you return to the main building and enter a miniature 'village' to find your prize. The prizes are obtained by identifying the correct locker to open with your key. Inside you'll find some sweets and some 'party-bag' gifts. The cafe provides basic hot and cold drinks, sandwiches and simple heated-up food. There was also a small selection of items for sale; postcards, toy trains etc. It is spacious and you can just about see the trains coming and going. Prices were reasonable. We found Perrygrove a good place to spend a 2-3 hours and a good choice on a rainy day as well as with good weather.

If you wanna taunt me about writing railway station reviews, go ahead, I don't care. Feel free to…read moreget your Taunt On. This is a very modern looking railway station, which gets quite a bit of traffic and has a bunch of different tracks, and some heavy trains coming through here. It has coverings on all the platforms, except for the big middle one. The building looks like it was just built yesterday, but I wasn't born yesterday, so I'm sure it wasn't. The entrance way looks especially futuristic, and even though the station dates back to 1842, it had a major facelift pretty recently. The footbridge that is next to the station is known as 40 steps, but it's no longer here. Sadly this legend is gone, which was demolished in 2013, and was very sad because it was one of the most famous parts of the station, and that's why I took one star off the station.

This your average station. They charge fair, average prices that make it worthwhile travelling by…read moretrain compared to car or plane. It is just out of Taunton towards the Minehead road. They have a large car park and car hire at a good rate. They travel to a wide variety of destinations at reasonable times and quite often. They have wi-fi which is useful if you need an internet connection. There are also alot of bed and breakfasts and hotels nearby if you need to stay. I would recommend travelling by train if you want to arrive quickly and cheaply to your destination with no fuss or hassle.

A small station with a fast main line service to London and the west of England. It has trains to…read moreWeymouth and Bristol so is an interchange. There is a ticket office and excellent toutist information is displayed in the waiting room.There is a coffee kiosk and taxis ard available here. It serves a wide area of south Somerset and there is a car park.

Five stars for the cafe; two stars for the station. The chef in the cafe was charming, friendly and…read moresang while crafting my sausage and egg bap. Was boiling over with laughter, loved his friendliness. The train station is closed on the weekends for rail work, which means it takes twice as long to get anywhere on the bus. Purchased the bus tickets from the train staff inside, who kept directing a group of us to talk to the bus coordinator, and the bus coordinator was not available/missing...poor show!

As the name implies, this serves the well-known Somerset holiday resort of Weston-super-Mare…read more The station itself is on a loop off the main Bristol-Taunton-Exeter main line, thanks to the backward nature of its residents in the 1840s, who resisted proposals for the route of the original main line to run closer to the town. Instead, on 14 June 1841, Weston was connected to the main line by a branch, just over a mile long, and worked initially by horse-drawn carriages. Horse traction remained until 1851, by which time the town had begun to regret being on the end of a branch. This was rectified in 1884 with the construction of the present loop and a handsome station built in the local stone, with large glass canopies over two through platforms and a bay platform. A separate station for summer excursion trains was built just to the north, but closed in 1964. The loop line was singled in 1972, which has since become something of a bottleneck. The station now has a regular service of trains from Weston to Bristol Parkway and from Taunton to Cardiff, providing a half-hourly service to Bristol and an hourly service south to Taunton. This is supplemented by a handful of trains to and from London, and a small number of Cross-Country trains from Plymouth or Paignton to Newcastle. Cross-Country would like to operate more services to Weston, but the timetable is constrained by the single track. The station buffet has been turned into a pub, named 'Off the Rails', known for its changing selection of real ales and cider, and it also does food. There are entrances both to the station approach and the platform, so it's easy to pop in for a pint while you are waiting! The station has level access throughout, a taxi rank, cycle storage and a large car park. Regular buses call here for other parts of the town and surrounding villages: details on http://www.travelinesw.com .

The staff are always helpful, which is painfully necessary when you have a pushchair, need to cross…read morethe bridge to the second platform and there are stairs and no lift. The station is clean and has a decent sized waiting room. Both platforms are covered so no waiting in the rain.

Bristol Parkway station is located at the intersection of the lines from London (Paddington) to…read moreSouth Wales and the main line from Bristol to Birmingham, providing a major interchange between the two. It was one of the first 'Parkway' stations to be built, in 1972, to attract car users to trains by providing ample car parking at locations with good road links, close to urban areas. This site was chosen both because of the interchange it offered, and because of its proximity to the M4 and M32, just north of Bristol. When opened, shelter was fairly meagre, with 'bus stop' shelters on the platforms and a small waiting room and ticket office by the entrance to the car park. Because of its exposed and windy position, additional long platform shelters were erected, but it still had a reputation for being a cold place to wait for a train. Over the years, substantial suburbs have developed around Stoke Gifford, and in 2001, a new and much larger station building, with a dramatic curved roofline, was built in recognition of its growing importance. In 2007 an additional platform was constructed on the London-bound (north) side, to provide additional capacity. The station is now used by over 1.75 million passengers a year, with in excess of half a million passengers changing trains here. The station now has heated waiting shelters on the platforms, and the main building has a small shop, cafe and ticket office. Other facilities include a taxi rank, payphones, cash points and bus stops for local bus services (including to Frenchay hospital and Bristol city centre). The station has level access (via lifts to the platforms). The station is served by all long distance trains on the London-South Wales main line and the cross-Country main line from the South-West to Birmingham and the North. It is also served by local services from Gloucester, Westbury and Weston-super-Mare.

This is a great, modern, functional station on the North side of Bristol. It's close to the M4/M5…read moreintersection, so it's a far better place to collect someone from than Bristol Temple Meads (in the centre of the city) if you're located to the north of the city. However, there are a few things to be aware of: 1. Parking is £5 a day. The payment meters are awkward to operate, and if you don't pay you will get clamped & fined. 2. The car park gets full by 9:30am most days, and if you park outside an official space, you will get clamped (even if you've paid for a ticket). 3. Traffic in the area is hellish at peak hours. Journeys from the motorway to the station can take in excess of 45 mins between 7:30 - 9:00 and 16:00 - 18:00 for the 2 mile journey. The station is fairly new with good facilities: clean toilets, a small newsagent, a coffee shop and a sandwich shop. There are also lifts to all platforms for the disabled.

The very best main line station very sea side look and feel. In town near race course hotels near…read morepassage house and premier Inn. In middle of estory so place for to Sets of holidays

great, clean FGW station with very helpful staff, good service to London, Midlands etcread more

I really like this little 'middle-of-nowhere' station where if you want to get on you have to stick…read moreout your hand like you are hailing a bus. The excellent local pub (http://www.qype.co.uk/place/1334594-rising-sun-Umberleigh) is probably partially responsible for my warm feeling towards the location.