Thornbury branch line

[1] The 7.5-mile (12 km) branch of the Midland Railway line between Bristol and Gloucester opened on 2 September 1872, and started at Yate and finished at Thornbury, with stops at Iron Acton and Tytherington.

The rest of the line remained open to goods traffic, serving the Tytherington Quarry with very occasional freight services.

Following the cessation of these services and with no near term resumption of traffic expected, the line was designated 'Out of Use (temporary)' beyond milepost 0 mi 30 ch in mid 2013.

[5] Suggestion was made as part of the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) Joint Local Transport Plan to reopen the line along with others in the MetroWest project.

However, in 2017 Weca found there would be several challenges in delivering this proposal,[6] as the former rail alignment into Thornbury is now occupied by an industrial estate and there is no practical routing into the town.

The station would therefore have to be located on the edge of Thornbury at a significant distance from the town centre, making it less attractive to passengers.