Sea Mills Railway Station

Sea Mills railway station is on the Severn Beach Line and serves the districts of Sea Mills, Stoke Bishop, Sneyd Park and nearby Westbury on Trym in Bristol, England. It is 6 miles (9.7 km) from Bristol Temple Meads, situated at the confluence of the River Avon and River Trym and near the A4 Bristol Portway. Its three letter station code is SML. The station has a single platform which serves trains in both directions. As of 2015 it is managed by Great Western Railway, which is the third franchise to be responsible for the station since privatisation in 1997. They provide all train services at the station.

The station was opened in 1865 as part of a project by the Bristol Port Railway and Pier Company to construct a deep water pier at Avonmouth and connect that to Bristol city docks via a railway terminating at

Hotwells. Originally built to serve the mansions and villas of the wealthy districts of Stoke Bishop and Sneyd Park, the station had a single platform. After a tunnel was driven under The Downs, passenger services connected it to the wider rail network in the 1880s via the Clifton Extension Railway. A second platform was added and a new ticket office and waiting rooms were built in 1906. Passenger numbers greatly increased, particularly after Sea Mills Garden Suburb was built by Bristol Corporation on the opposite bank of the River Trym in the 1920s, and the remaining farmland in Stoke Bishop and Sneyd Park was infilled with private suburban housing throughout the inter-war period. At one point the station was staffed by a stationmaster and four porters. However, the line declined over the latter half of the twentieth century. By the 1970s the station had no staff and was again reduced to one platform, and in the 1980s the station buildings were sold off. Services have, however, increased since 2000 and there are now trains every 30 minutes in each direction six days a week and once an hour on Sundays.