Swindon station "Bridge to no-where" - Bye bye!

[mr_moo]

Hi everyone,

Swindon station has long had a footbridge going from the London end of platform 1/3, over the platform 1 track to the middle of an overgrown area of no use.

I've heard this was early works for a car park that was never built and the bridge never saw any actual use, but I'm not sure of this story so please correct me if you know more.

However, it's in the way of the forthcoming wires for the electrification and it is being removed this weekend.

This Saturday evening (7th March) at 5PM, a crane is due to arrive and will be parked in front of Polaris House, which is the building on the North side of the railway near the bridge. A low loader will arrive late in the evening and overnight, when the railway is under possession, the crane will lift the old bridge out and place it on the low loader.

This work will continue through into Sunday morning.

The work is scheduled to finish early on Sunday but may potentially go on till mid-day if problems are encountered.

Anyone who wishes to get some good photos should be able to get fairly close to site to see the crane working, if you are happy to be up overnight!

BTW, it is officially known within the railway as the "bridge to no-where" - it's called this on the track layout plans!

 

[John Webb]

I take it this is the bridge that's going?
Bridge to nowhere

© Copyright John M and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
(Click on the photo to go to the larger original one.)

 

[swt_passenger]

Wonder if it will be cut up on site or is re-usable?

Won't have enough rivets for a heritage site of course...

 

[MarkyT]

I remember this bridge from when I worked at Swindon in the 1990s, so it's been there 20 years at least. It's odd because there exists the older covered bridge nearby which could have provided equivalent access to the proposed car park development that never happened. That could not have been used, however, apparently as it is dedicated (theoretically) to access to the research councils complex alone, and presumably they paid for its construction. The older bridge clearly is and always has been used for general access from the north side of the station however including from the existing small car park on that side, but nevertheless, I clearly recall seeing notices to the effect of it being a private right of way.

So we have a a duplicate bridge being removed that has never been used, only provided because the parallel structure, even though perfectly suitable and widely used for public access, was not legally a right of way, yet was provided primarily for access to a government office, presumably at public expense. Would it have not been easier to negotiate between the parties on who could legally use the existing bridge? You couldn't make it up!

 

[BestWestern]

This sort of stuff fascinates me! So has the bridge quite literally never been set foot on? Rather a shame, the spotters and photters would have found it immensely beneficial!

 

[MarkyT]

There was a proposal for a station car park at Cocklebury Sidings, a little to the east of the station. The bridge in question formed part of the access for this, and beyond the bridge a walkway heading east parallel with the tracks would have been required, crossing Corporation Street either on a second dedicated structure or perhaps being squeezed onto the existing railway bridge following some further track removal. A planning application for the car park was granted by Swindon Borough Council in 1994:

http://pa.swindon.gov.uk/publicaccess/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=ZZZZP1PTXT684

Clearly the work was never carried out, perhaps because, in the wild last throws of OfQ reorganisation still being made just before privatisation, parcels of railway land were being redistributed amongst the new sectors. Maybe the newly empowered freight sector were not content with some of their estate and sidings being unilaterally annexed for an intercity car park!

 

[mr_moo]

John Webb - Yep, that's the one.

As for being cut-up etc - No idea, sorry. That's all I know, essentially as I know people who work in Polaris house so they have been told to keep out of the way in line with that schedule!

MarkyT - Indeed, the covered bridge still bears signage that it exists for the exclusive usage of the research councils, and it does have opening and closing times in line with them, rather than the times for the station. It is, as you say, used widely by a lot of people who have nothing to do with RCUK however, being a really useful way of leaving the station and heading into the North side of Swindon. I use it most days myself.
It also avoids 'muggers alley', which is always a little nerve wracking when you have to go through it (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/..._MURDER__The_dark_history_of__muggers_alley_/) for those who have never heard of it!

 

[fgwrich]

How did the Bridge to Nowhere removal go as it was booked in for this weekend.

 

[BestWestern]

It's gone!

 

[quarella]

For years I had convinced myself that when my brother and I had travelled to Swindon to go to the Oasis pool, (Funpools were a new phenomenon in the early eighties) we had crossed the now demolished bridge. Looking at Google satellite view there doesn't appear to be any evidence left of a former path leading onward, and others are of the view it was never open.
Despite a couple of weeks training at Swindon at the beginning of my career and multiple trips through the station on the way London, but as far as I can recall always platform 2 the enclosed bridge has never registered.

 

[Greenback]

I'm sad to see it go. It's been there for so long that I'll miss it, and it was a reminder of the ridiculous way that we do things in this country at times!

 

[mr_moo]

The bridge to no-where has become the steps to no-where!

Why this section was left is anyone's guess - perhaps they ran out of time or hit a problem with the crane or something?

Now it's out of the way of the forthcoming wires I do wonder if this will become a curiosity that will stay there like that for years...

 

[BestWestern]

The bridge to no-where has become the steps to no-where!

Why this section was left is anyone's guess - perhaps they ran out of time or hit a problem with the crane or something?

Now it's out of the way of the forthcoming wires I do wonder if this will become a curiosity that will stay there like that for years...

Can't see it staying there when they start putting the gantries up...

 

[jimm]

The bridge to no-where has become the steps to no-where!

Why this section was left is anyone's guess - perhaps they ran out of time or hit a problem with the crane or something?

Now it's out of the way of the forthcoming wires I do wonder if this will become a curiosity that will stay there like that for years...

Probably just that a little extra care is needed removing the footings due to that cable trough running between the supports. The last thing anyone needs on the GWML right now is yet more damaged cables...

 

[mr_moo]

The site compound is still in place and Polaris House staff have today been informed that further works will happen this coming weekend, so I assume the steps will disappear then too.

 

[mr_moo]

The steps did indeed dissapear after the second weekend.
Here's some pics of the bridge coming out.

 

[Clarence Yard]

Today I ran into the now retired manager who put the bridge in. It wasn't built new for the job but came from somewhere else, Gloucester (?). It was mean't to access that planned car park but there was a dispute between the planners and the local highways engineers over sight lines on the link to the nearby road.

The dispute never got resolved and the railway eventually lost interest leaving the bridge as a slightly odd monument to local government bureaucratic wrangling. He was amazed it had lasted so long!

 

[mr_moo]

How interesting! Thanks!