When the Badminton line was built, it crossed over the Malmesbury branch a short distance west of Little Somerford. In 1932 the branch was altered to run into Little Somerford station instead of Dauntsey. The branch connection ran alongside the Badminton line for some distance to reach the station. The altered passenger service started on 17 July 1933. The original route to Dauntsey was closed, but part of it was retained as a stub for wagon storage for some years. By the 1960s the route for the majority of through passenger trains between Bristol and Gloucester was the former Midland Railway route through Fishponds. Very few through passenger trains used the former GWR alternative, through Filton and Westerleigh, except during busy periods at summer weekends. However it was decided to close the Fishponds line and divert all such traffic on to the Filton route, and this was done on 3 January 1970, from which date all such trains used the part of the Badminton line between Filton and Yate. All the South Wales to London trains and all the Bristol to Birmingham trains now passed through Stoke Gifford, and it was proposed to build a new station there. As an out-of-town location, it would be attractive to motorists in the Greater Bristol area, who might drive to the station and park, continuing by rail. Accordingly, the station was known as Bristol Parkway, opening on 1 May 1972. Parking was free for some years. The line between Wootton Bassett Junction and Westerleigh Junction was closed from 5 May to 6 October 1986 to enable extensive upgrading of the infrastructure. From May 1923, two down Fishguard trains slipped coaches for Temple Meads at Stoke Gifford. There was no passenger station there, and the slipped vehicles were taken on to Temple Meads by a train specially run to Stoke Gifford for the purpose. The trains concerned were the 8.45 am and the 8.0 pm from Paddington to Fishguard, and the slipped portions reached Temple Meads at 11.3 am and 10.20 pm respectively. In Table 10, Fryer shows one slip at Stoke Gifford in 1932 for Bristol Temple Meads; and two in 1938, one of which continued to Taunton and the other to Weston-super-Mare. To mark the centenary of the Great Western Railway, the company inaugurated an express train named The Bristolian in 1935. The westward route from London to Bristol was conventionally via Bath, but the return journey was over the Badminton line.