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According to Realtime trains were running this morning. However, the services from Newport to Crosskeys since 12.20 appear to have been cancelled until at least 17.20. No trains appear in the timetable from Monday next week. It's surely a pointless exercise until the enhancement work north of...

Yes. Unfortunately, a lot of trackbed was lost to road schemes in their area at that time as it seemed an easier option. As well as that bridge, the line beyond Abertillery to Blaina and Brynmawr, the Eastern Valley line and links from Machen to Caerphilly - which could have been useful. I...

I'm also pleased to see the Network Rail Media Centre release today (24.2.22) which provides an answer to the questions posed in my posting of 11.2.22. I will be following progress with interest! It's surely time that we in the Western Valley had an eastward connection from the Ebbw Vale line...

Has anyone heard of any progress with the track doubling project between Crosskeys and Aberbeeg recently? I seem to recall that it was hoped that the additional hourly service to Newport was to be extended from Crosskeys to Ebbw Vale in 2022. I travelled to Ebbw Vale Town earlier this week...

Rather odd to see Worcestershire Parkway scrolling with the other station stops on the Passenger Information Screen on the Cardiff to Nottingham Class 170 service earlier today. I looked on my phone to see if it had suddenly opened!

Class 170s seemed to be out in force today, observed on a journey from Risca & Pontymister to Gloucester. 170 201/2/4 and 273 were on Ebbw Vale line trains and two others on Maesteg to Cheltenham services, so perhaps some of the issues have been resolved?

Photographs from this morning. In the photograph of the Usk Bridge, the portal didn't appear to be at right angles to the track. The masts attached to the central section are not exactly opposite each other. The view from Mill Street shows some of the ongoing work required to build foundations...

I didn't see any wiring; maybe some additional SPS, but nothing significant.

Thanks for an excellent update, as usual. In answer to your question about wiring at Pilning, wiring was evident on 9.7.18 from just west of Pilning to the Severn Tunnel portal, The wiring may not have been complete but it did encompass the crossover and the loops at the Severn Tunnel end. On...

I recall a portal boom across the four tracks of the main line and a fairly adjacent Twin track cantilever across the very first part of the Ebbw Vale branch as I passed on 18.6.18.

At Newport station, the work on cutting back canopies has been going on for quite some time. Platform 1 is largely complete apart from the sections adjacent to the skeletal remains of the old footbridge, which must soon be due for removal! Platforms 2/3 are more complex because of the...

First signs of OLE masts and cantilevers, etc. at Newport station. Also, a revised signal gantry at the west end, where it appears that they have used the existing uprights with new vertical extensions and a new horizontals and signal heads. A similar structure has appeared at the east end of...

No, seats don't all line up. Some are obscured by the sliding door pockets too, as I recall from others' previous postings. Passengers were advised to move forward to coach C in the second 5-car set to alight at Bristol Parkway because the last two coaches were not 'platformed'. I'm not sure...

Likewise, I travelled from Newport to Bristol Parkway on a Class 800 today for the first time, and echo others' comments. The train seemed light and airy inside the saloons and I was surprised to see pull-down window blinds. The seats are firm - and took me by surprise when I sat down...

As well as additional masts and twin track cantilevers, I spotted a few masts now fitted with the arm for the auto-transformer lead and others with registration arms swivelled parallel with relief lines on main line beteween Newport and Cardiff near Wentlloog Freightliner Terminal today. Still...

I hadn't travelled between Newport and Cardiff for a couple of weeks and was quite impressed by the number of additional masts that had appeared. Many of the existing masts too had also been fitted with horizontal booms of at least two varieties. Most of those I saw were over the relief lines...

Enquiries I've made with local AM have been similarly fruitless...suggesting that the £40 million agreed some years ago has proved to be insufficiently funded. Meanwhile most of the additional track is in place and piles of sleepers and fittings are just lying there, or were a couple of weeks...

One would hope that the new franchisee /development partner will be able to bring far more urgency to all this work when the contract is awarded? Metro Stage 1 (or was it 2?) promised the Ebbw Vale Capacity Enhancement Scheme, but as I passed the works between Crosskeys and Aberbeeg, the whole...

On recent trips between Ebbw Valley and Cardiff I have noticed more masts erected each time in recent weeks. Two or three bridges are being worked on and the last big one in Cardiff (Splott Road) is now underway. Piling mostly throughout but with still some gaps. Observations from a trip...

I travelled between Newport and Slough today. I also saw a lot of progress in the Tilehurst to Didcot area (as others have mentioned) with long non-continuous runs of wiring, and also masts and booms between Slough and Twyford. Masts had been installed (with gaps) out to around MP62 (Wantage...