On track: inside Bristol Temple Mead’s new £23m entrance
On 8 November, Metro Mayor Dan Norris along with Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees and partners including Industry Programme Director at Network Rail Daniel Round visited the new ‘Eastern Entrance’ to Bristol Temple Meads station as it begins to take shape.
The build of a new station entrance is part of the Bristol Temple Quarter programme, one of the largest and most ambitious regeneration programmes in Europe.
Construction on the new entrance began in early October, with piling work into the ground (which will eventually form the walls of the new underpass) taking place next to platform 15.
While on site, project partners checked out the works that are creating a tunnel into the station. Works began this week and will see around 250 cubic metres of material removed to form the new subway into the station.
The £23m ‘Eastern Entrance’ is set to welcome its first rail travellers in late 2026. It is the first major piece of infrastructure delivery under the ambitious Temple Quarter regeneration programmes, and is being administered by the Mayoral Combined Authority.
Initial works to prepare for the delivery of the new entrance were carried out in 2021. These works were part of the £21m funding from the Mayoral Combined Authority to keep the programme on track before the government grant was secured.
Over the next 5-10 years, the first phase of the programme will see three new entrances delivered to the north, south, and east of Temple Meads station. Additionally, the programme aims to deliver 10,000 new homes, thousands of new jobs, and a £1.6bnn annual boost to the regional economy.