My own view is that Abergavenny would
not be the ideal endpoint for a stopper on the southern end of the Marches. It might be good for road interchange, but for
rail interchange it's near-useless. For this reason I would strongly argue for any new stopping services (to serve potnetial new stations such as Caerleon) to continue to Hereford where interchange with services towards Worcester is available. I would also argue that this would allow the Swansea-Manchester services and 'Gerald' to run non-stop between Newport and Hereford - if the stoppers turnback at Abergavenny the fast trains would also have to stop there to pickup passengers off the stopper who want to continue north. The bigger question in my mind is where the stoppers should come from at the other end...
Those early schematic maps of the Cardiff & Newport 'Metro' concept (example attached) certainly had Treharris-Newport on there, but via Pye Corner, Newport West and Royal Gwent Hospital (none of which would be passed through if using the current direct rail route from Machen to Newport) which leads me to fear it might have been intended as a tram or bus route.
View attachment 149302
Personally, I think there should be a Gaer/Maes-Glas station (with the word 'Junction' in the title, just like 'Dovey Junction') at the place where Ebbw Vale to Newport services diverge from those heading from Ebbw Vale to Cardiff. This would allow interchange between all of the following (potential) services inspired by the above map:
- Ebbw Vale - Newport
- Ebbw Vale - Cardiff Central*
- Abertillery - Newport
- Abertillery - Cardiff Central*
- Treharris - Caerphilly - Machen - Newport
- Blackwood - Caerphilly - Machen - Newport
- Treharris - Caerphilly - Cardiff Queen Street*
- Blackwood - Caerphilly - Cardiff Queen Street*
If all the above ran hourly, you would have the target 'Metro' frequency of 4tph at Ebbw Vale line stations as far as Llanhilleth, and 2tph each to Blackwood, Treharris, Ebbw Vale and Abertillery (one each to Cardiff and Newport). 4tph would be terminating at Newport from the Ebbw Vale direction...
... Returning to the Marches stopper - turning 4tph back from Ebbw at Newport might be a bit of a stretch, so... should one of these each hour run on to Hereford as the Marches stopper? And possibly others to, Cheltenham Chepstow or Bristol? Or is having to change at Newport to reach Cardiff from Magor and Caerleon too big a drawback and all the Ebbw stuff should turnback in platform 4 at Newport?
* references to Cardiff Central here also include extensions beyond, such as to Swansea or Maesteg, while references to Cardiff Queen Street assume extensions beyond there to Ninian Park (and beyond), Barry (and beyond) and Penarth etc.
No, but I think it should as part of the 'South East Wales Metro' target to provide services every 15 minutes as widely as possible. If there are plans to increase the Maesteg services to that frequency right through to Cardiff then perhaps reconfigure the west-facing bay at Bridgend to allow the Swanlines to turnback there. Otherwise the intermediate stations on that stretch miss out on anything approaching the 'Metro' frequency, particularly while the Maesteg remains at 1tph.
Referring to the above map again, there are suggestions that the Aberdare services could be extended to Hirwaun in future. Personally, I hope they won't stop there and carry on to Glynneath and thence Swansea. Either way, extension makes the expected removal of toilets on those services (by introducing tram-trains) even harder to justify. I therefore feel strongly that the introduction of class 398s on the TAM (Treherbert, Aberdare, Merthyr) lines should become nothing more than temporary measure to facilitiate the purchase of a fleet of trams (and a depot for them) before the majority of the routes they will ultimately use can be built. Instead of TAM half the TAM services running to Cardiff Bay as currently planned, the long-term aim should be to extend the Coryton line to Taff's Well and move the 398s from TAM services onto the following:
- Taff's Well - Coryton - Ocean Way - Newport Road / Cardiff East (starting with 2tph via the current infrustructure and supplementing that, probably at a much later date, with more on-street via Heath Hospital, Cardiff Castle and Cardiff Central (new tram platforms at street level))
- Radyr - Ninian Park - Cardiff Central - Ocean Way - Newport Road / Cardiff East
The TAM services would then revert to class 756s, with my idea from the Aberdare line being 2tph Swansea - Glynneath - Aberdare - Cathays - Cardiff Queen Street - Cardiff Central - Ninian Park - Danescourt - Aberdare so that there are effectively 4tph between Aberdare and Cardiff Central (2 via Cathays and 2 via Ninian Park and Danescourt) for passengers who don't mind which route. These would either be new-build 756s (plus a few released by turning the Coryton line over to tram-trains to/from Cardiff Bay) or I'd get some 197s converted to tri-mode for the Rhymney line to release 756s from there. Either way, no additional 398s should need to be built for the tram extensions, just redeploy the 36 already ordered.
