56xx
Member
Start of new service to Newport now delayed until possibly mid-late January. Letter from James Price to AM.
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Ebbw Vale line improvements
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Brissle Girl
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Do you have a link or reference? What’s the reason given?
Dai Corner
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Shortage of stock due to wheel damage and late delivery of 197s.
CapitalStar378
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Yet they've sent the 175s, 170s and Northern 150s back, weird planning. The 175s are doing literally nothing. I'm not sure that James Price is a very competent CEO.
Anonymous10
Established Member
It's been posted here before that 175s required a dedicated depot and Chester could not maintaine both and believe there was supposed to have been a new home initially.
Also the class 170s I believe have had multiple deadlines which couldn't be pushed back for going to EMR.
Re the northern class 150s it might be northern have requested them back as they're sub loaned.
Oh dear! "Transport for Fails"! Please don't turn the comments on here into a childish copy of WalesOnline.
Except for those of us who use the miserable service in the valleys it is a daily occurrence of failure. 2/3 trains allocated for Ebbw Vale to Cardiff services and frequent delays because there is no slack in the turn around times. Under Arriva 3 trains were allocated and the line was so reliable! We even got 4 coaches on a Saturday and during school holidays (those were the days).
PaulHarding150
Member
Are you talking about trains or carriages?
I knew it would happen at some point, but I didn’t think it would be a commuter from the Valleys who’d say it first!
Dai Corner
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Trains I think.
The round trip from Cardiff to Ebbw Vale and back takes about two hours so they really need three trains to provide a resilient service, with one laying over at Cardiff for about 50-55 minutes.
Brissle Girl
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It's the lack of notice that stinks here, given that they must have known for a couple of weeks that this was highly likely. Given that the Treherbert line is currently OOU, which will be saving at least 4 units (unless the remaining services up the Taff Vale are strengthened to compensate?) that will be needed at some point in the New Year (Feb?), what confidence is there that the delay will only be a month?
Trains it was. It was always 3 trains allocated to the line to run a reliable and resilient timetable under Arriva. Nowadays there are only 2 trains allocated which causes a timetable that is neither reliable nor resilient.
Arriva certainly weren’t perfect but you did know that if you turned up at Ebbw Vale station the train was there are mostly on time. When you have an hourly timetable to work with to commute to work, it unacceptable for the train to be delayed and cancelled.
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56xx
Member
Service times changing next week for Ebbw Vale - Cardiff Central despite no Newport service.
oglord
Member
Yes, as part of the December 11th timetable change. The Newport services will slot in eventually.
56xx
Member
Realtime Trains showing the Ebbw Vale to Newport service commencing on Saturday 20th January and then weekdays from w/c 22nd January.
Will have to wait and see if TfW have enough units.
Will have to wait and see if TfW have enough units.
oglord
Member
That's just because they haven't got around to cancelling them in the system yet. It has been a rolling two-week's ahead since December 11th!
oglord
Member
Yes, but that is achieved using the current amount of rolling stock. The additional services promised (and in the timetable) are still entirely absent.
Last Hurrah
Member
With depot space being something of a premium, would a small depot capable of housing 3/4 trains overnight, similar to Machynlleth be a worthwhile investment, rather than last service returning ecs to Canton depot
With the introduction of Newport services being imminent, a 2nd track from EVP to EVT, along with 2nd terminus platform in conjunction with a depot, would continue enhancement of the line
With the introduction of Newport services being imminent, a 2nd track from EVP to EVT, along with 2nd terminus platform in conjunction with a depot, would continue enhancement of the line
Brissle Girl
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Given how over budget the whole metro project is, I suspect the Ebbw Vale branch has had its share of enhancements for the foreseeable future. Unless your proposal had a benefit for passengers, it seems a lot to spend for little benefit.
oglord
Member
As predicted the Ebbw <-> Newport services for the week of the 22nd have all vanished from the timetable. Has there ever been a worse operator in the history of the railway than TfW?
Almost certainly - the difference now being the fact that everyone can see what is going on and easily comment about it. In the not too distant past, the best the public would have got would have been a footnote to the timetable saying “service may commence during the validity of this timetable”. IIRC, sometimes it did; sometimes it didn’t!
56xx
Member
Still showing from Monday 29th January on RTT.
Bookings for direct service also showing on TfW from the same date. Don't know if this was the case previously.
I just asked the TfW twitter team and the reply was “Hi Tom, we are expecting the Ebbw Vale - Newport services to start on the 29th January, thank you for your patience ^Gwen” . There has been no advertising about it starting online which isn’t great for attracting passengers!
Western 52
Member
Maybe no publicity due to the high risk of it not actually starting!
Quite! I won’t hold my breath until Monday.
That will add a few more hundreds of thousands to the cost of building a new station.
The people who invent these requirements are the ones who need to explain the rampant inflation impacting infrastructure costs in this country. It is a small miracle anything gets built any more.
While they seem to have got CCTV and loudspeakers on the same posts on the new platform, is it also a requirements that signs, CIS screens and CCTV all need their own set of metal posts? A CIS screen can apparently hang off one post, but a station name board with 11 letters in two languages seems to need two great big posts.
56xx
Member
Ebbw Vale - Newport services have commenced this morning.
oglord
Member
Hallelujah! Only 16 years late!