https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/plan-20m-railway-station-near-15787162
Personally, I favour Professor Barry's Metro plans - especially if it means bringing Trams back to The Mumbles some time in the not too distant future.
'West Wales Parkway', please no... The whole point of a faster service from Pembrokeshire to Cardiff in my view is to get passengers to use Pembrokeshire stations (and Carmarthen station) rather than driving to Port Talbot Parkway. 'Morriston/Ynysforgan Tawe Valley Parkway' on the other hand could be a good idea, but that would be junction 45 on the M4 not junction 46. J.45 could put the station on a bus route from the Tawe valley into Swansea, allowing connections between the two. J.46 doesn't do that; it would only serve Llangyfelach.
I don't see how an hourly Carmarthen-Cardiff express via the Swansea District Line (starting back from Milford Haven every two hours) is in any way mutually exclusive to a Metro system for Swansea.
Getting trains to Mumbles as far as I can see is a pie in the sky notion.
I agree.
Tram-trains (in tram mode) on the other hand... On-street running Mumbles-Quadrant-High Street then sharing tracks with heavy rail out to Neath Abbey where the tram-trains would turn off for street running over to Neath (GWML) station. Some of the heavy-rail trains would carry on past Neath Abbey to Cardiff via Glyn-Neath and Aberdare. Others would turn left at Llandarcy to run up to the Tawe Valley Parkway, giving a rail option into Swansea without building the connecting chord at Llansamlet proposed in the link on the first post. None of that's going to happen overnight of course.
the problem is.. there aren't many paths available between Cardiff and Bridgend to allow more services coming from Swansea.. .. and there are several Stations wanted between those 2 locations too .. Which ideally brings me to the point .. that Cardiff- Bridgend should be 3 or 4 tracked ... some parts
how many trains I wonder without looking it up on that section.
It's not just what currently uses the line, but future prospects too. Potentially there could be:
- 1tph Swansea - London (calling at Neath, Port Talbot, Bridgend, Cardiff...)
- 1tph Swansea - Manchester (as above)
- 1tph Swansea - Bristol Temple Meads (as above, plus Pyle)
- 1tph Swansea - Cardiff/Ebbw Vale/Cheltenham Spa/Abertillery (all stations)
- 1tph Carmarthen - Cardiff (calling at Llanelli, Tawe Valley Parkway, Port Talbot and Cardiff only)
- 2tph Maesteg - Cardiff/Ebbw Vale/Cheltenham Spa/Abertillery (all stations)
- ?tph freight
That's a 7tph passenger service between Cardiff and Bridgend. I note that a new station is proposed between the two, at Miskin (possibly where there is current a loop).
Would building the platforms at Miskin on a 4-track section, with platforms only on the loop lines, allowing fast trains to overtake stoppers
be enough to give capacity for all the above? The first two services obviously want to run as near as damn it 30 minutes apart from each other, and similarly for the 3rd and 4th (to give Pyle a 30min interval service) services and the Masestegs, meaning there is little scope for flighting fast and slow trains together.
The ex-Thameslink trains (769’s) are as I understand it, just a temporary fix until new fleets can come on stream. The Stadler trains that are on order for the west Wales to Manchester services are diesel only. Had the UK Government not cancelled the Cardiff to Swansea electrification, then surely it would have made sense for these to be bi-mode so that they could use the overhead wire between Swansea & Newport and those which already exist between Crewe & Manchester.
The new trains for the Manchester services are not Stadler, they're CAF. If CAF did bi-mode, I would be arguing that they should be bi-mode anyway. Regardless of electrification in south Wales, there are wires between Manchester and Crewe, and between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, that the new fleet could make use of. If the fleet were bi-mode, it might also be possible to make a case for the exension of electrification from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury.
If the SDL gained new services it will require new stock in addition to that is already spoken for on the rest of the network. The 769's would be a shoe-in.
As things stand modern CAF DMU's would have no problem whatsoever finding new homes if the amount of route that was electrified increased to the point it tipped the balance in favour of EDMU's. Everyone says Northern will find they don't have enough when the new services induce greater rail travel. The Severn Capitals HST's in Scotland are only there because there were not enough quality DMU's available in the timeframe. Southwestern 159's won't last forever. And so forth.
Personally, I think Transport for Wales should take over (and reopen) Landore depot and base the 170s due to come from Anglia there along with (when the new trains arrive) either the 24 158s from Machynlleth or the class 175 fleet. The 158s/175s would work Swansea-Pembrokeshire, Heart Of Wales and Pembrokeshire/Carmarthen-Morriston-Cardiff services while the 170s would be used to make a start on the Swansea metro by running Swansea - Gowerton - Pontarddulais - Pantyffynnon - Ammanford. The latter wouldn't (publicly) call at Llanelli, Bynea or Llangennech so that users don't become accustomed to a frequent service (in case the services are diverted via Gorseinon to join the Swansea District Line north of Grovesend).
