abandoned in 1970 and is overgrown. The station is only accessible via a footpath from the car park on Station Road, which is just off the A4 Portway. Timetable information is provided at the station; help points show next train information and allow users to contact railway staff. There is no ticket office or other means for buying or collecting tickets. There is a car park with 10 spaces on Station Road, as well as stands for four bicycles. The nearest bus stops are on the A4 Portway. The line through Shirehampton has a speed limit of for locomotive-hauled trains and for diesel multiple units. The line, which is not electrified, handles less than 5 million train tonnes per year, has a loading gauge of W6 and a route availability of 7. , approximately 50,000 passengers used Shirehampton station, making it the 1,915th busiest station in the country and the eleventh busiest within the Bristol unitary authority area, busier only than . This was an increase of 34% from the 2002–03 financial year, and reflected a general rise in usage of the Severn Beach Line. Services All services at Shirehampton are operated by Great Western Railway using Turbo DMUs. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: 2 tph to of which 1 continues to 2 tph to of which 1 continues to On Sundays, there is an hourly service between Bristol Temple Meads and Severn Beach with one train per day to and from Weston-super-Mare. Services previously ran every 40 minutes in each direction but were increased to half-hourly in the December 2021 timetable change. History Construction and initial operations The station was opened on 6 March 1865 when services began on the Bristol Port Railway and Pier (BPRP), a self-contained railway which ran along the north bank of the River Avon to a deep water pier on the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth. The route was standard gauge single track, with Shirehampton initially the second station along the line, from the southern terminus at . Shirehampton was the BPRP's headquarters, and was the site where construction of the railway began – the first sod being turned on 19 February 1863 by the Mayoress of Bristol, Mrs Sholto Vere Hare. The original station was situated at a passing loop, with a single platform on the north side of the line. The building, which is noted as having been architecturally