St Philips Marsh, Bristol

infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= St Philips Marsh
latitude= 51.4479
longitude= -2.5666
map_type= Bristol
civil_parish=
population =
unitary_england= Bristol
lieutenancy_england= Bristol
region= South West England
constituency_westminster=
post_town= BRISTOL
postcode_district = BS
postcode_area= BS
dial_code= 0117
os_grid_reference=

St Philips Marsh is an industrial inner suburb of Bristol, England. The River Avon and Harbour feeder canal run through the area. The site is currently home of a large retail and leisure park with Showcase cinemas and hollywood bowl among its residents. It has been extensively redevloped in the past 15 years and a bypass runs over the River Avon creating a major transport link from the A4 road in south east Bristol, to junction 3 of the M32 motorway near the city centre.In past years St Philips marsh was a housing development for the workers of Bristol's market area (now known as Old Market). One of St Philips' more influncial residents during the early 1900s was George Townsend, a major property developer of the South Bristol area. His family home situated in the St Annes area of Bristol is still standing today and a reminder of bristols history.

Railways

St Philips Marsh is located close to Bristol Temple Meads railway station, on the Great Western Main Line. St Philips Marsh (Bristol) Traction and Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot or St Philips Marsh T&RSMD is a traction and rolling stock maintenance depot is located here.

St Philips Marsh T&RSMD is owned by Network Rail and leased to major local operator First Great Western and is used entirely for the maintenance of First Great Western InterCity 125 trains operating between London, Bristol and South Wales. Both Class 43 power cars and Mark 3 coaching stock are serviced here.

Following the merger of the old First Great Western (FGW) and Wessex Trains operations into one new franchise, now entirely called First Great Western, a decision has been made to use an extended St Philips Marsh depot to maintain FGW's fleet of diesel multiple units, previously maintained at Cardiff Canton TMD by Arriva Trains Wales on behalf of FGW.

This move will remove the need for trains to travel through the congested Severn Tunnel to reach the depot in south Wales from their operating area in the south west of England. This will free up capacity through the tunnel, but will ultimately lead to job losses at Canton due to the decreased workload.

The official depot code for St Philips Marsh T&RSMD is "PM".

External links

* [http://www.somerset.gov.uk/archives/Maps/OS62htm/0603.htm Map of St Philips Marsh circa 1900]
* An [http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=51.446632,-2.56564&spn=0.004734,0.010042&t=h&z=17&om=1 overhead view] of St Philips Marsh T&RSMD.