Pilning Station Group stepped in promptly when they discovered that a slip-up by rail operator GWR would have left the station without any trains on New Year’s Eve. Pilning only gets two trains a week (yes, really!), but GWR had rescheduled both of these on Dec 31st to run through the station without stopping. Pilning Station Group immediately swung into action, tweeting GWR to point this out and requesting urgently that stops at Pilning be reinstated so that passengers would not find themselves helplessly stranded on the platform as the train swept past them. GWR duly responded by ordering two other trains to stop at the station instead, but the reason for the oversight is as yet unknown.
Said Pilning Station Group Chair, Parish Cllr Olga Taylor,
This highlights the vital role that rail user groups play in keeping an eye on things and calling train operators to account when they go wrong. It is very worrying that our station should have been overlooked in this way – though we in Pilning are unfortunately all too used to being overlooked and dismissed by the railway. Since our footbridge was controversially demolished in 2016 – leaving us with two trains a week in one direction only – they have stubbornly refused all our pleas to stop even just a couple more trains there, even though usage of the station has increased significantly since then. We know that more people want to use the station – but they can’t use it if hardly any trains stop there!