South Wales 'Metro' updates

[Solaris]

Cardiff Council have appointed consultants to design the Cardiff Central to Cardiff Bay link. Helpfully the WalesClickbateOnline article does name them and doesn’t give anything else away that’s news. Here’s the full text:

(It also comically suggests this is needed to allow Valley services to run to the Bay which speaks volumes about the quality of journalism in this piece)

£100m plans to start the transformation of public transport in Cardiff

The first phase of Cardiff's transformative Crossrail scheme is taking a major step forward but there are major concerns over its budget and potentially conflicting Network Rail plans

www.walesonline.co.uk

Actually, the intention with the full Crossrail is to connect to the west & city line and so allow CVL services the option to route to the bay via Central - more network capacity and redundancy.

 

[AdamWW]

Actually, the intention with the full Crossrail is to connect to the west & city line and so allow CVL services the option to route to the bay via Central - more network capacity and redundancy.

But the way the article was written rather implied you could have all this for the current £100M...

 

[PaulHarding150]

Actually, the intention with the full Crossrail is to connect to the west & city line and so allow CVL services the option to route to the bay via Central - more network capacity and redundancy.

Do you mean a train coming south from Pontypridd via the City line, calls at Central then goes across Callahan Square to the Bay? If so I wouldn’t say that’s the intention of the Crossrail plan more of a by product.

 

[CapitalStar378]

Do you mean a train coming south from Pontypridd via the City line, calls at Central then goes across Callahan Square to the Bay? If so I wouldn’t say that’s the intention of the Crossrail plan more of a by product.

The long term intention is for the line to go via the City line up to Creigau via Plasdwr but I doubt I'll ever see that!

 

[edwin_m]

Cardiff Council have appointed consultants to design the Cardiff Central to Cardiff Bay link. Helpfully the WalesClickbateOnline article does name them and doesn’t give anything else away that’s news. Here’s the full text:

(It also comically suggests this is needed to allow Valley services to run to the Bay which speaks volumes about the quality of journalism in this piece)

£100m plans to start the transformation of public transport in Cardiff

The first phase of Cardiff's transformative Crossrail scheme is taking a major step forward but there are major concerns over its budget and potentially conflicting Network Rail plans

www.walesonline.co.uk

It only says "to provide programme and cost management services for the project". It's likely no designer has been appointed, but WSP will be managing them when they are.

 

[Envoy]

Did Brunel & the other Victorian rail builders pay out loads of money to consultants to tell them what to do? I bet they just looked at maps and the lie of the land & got on with it - and they did not have to deal with all this environmental / how will it affect minorities stuff.

I don’t like the look of that multi storey car park that they appear to want to build on the site of the present south side car park. Fancy coming out of the Central station and seeing that!

 

[takno]

Did Brunel & the other Victorian rail builders pay out loads of money to consultants to tell them what to do? I bet they just looked at maps and the lie of the land & got on with it - and they did not have to deal with all this environmental / how will it affect minorities stuff

Hate to break it to you, but a lot of the time Brunel was a consultant

 

[edwin_m]

Hate to break it to you, but a lot of the time Brunel was a consultant

Indeed, and how many different railways hired the Stephensons?

 

[anthony263]

Did Brunel & the other Victorian rail builders pay out loads of money to consultants to tell them what to do? I bet they just looked at maps and the lie of the land & got on with it - and they did not have to deal with all this environmental / how will it affect minorities stuff.

I don’t like the look of that multi storey car park that they appear to want to build on the site of the present south side car park. Fancy coming out of the Central station and seeing that!

Tfw planning on another multistorey at Taff's well where our bus garage is

 

[Bald Rick]

Did Brunel & the other Victorian rail builders pay out loads of money to consultants to tell them what to do?

Yes, they did. The promoters of every railway hired people including consulting engineers to tell them what to do (and how to do it).

 

[Tom125]

Tfw planning on another multistorey at Taff's well where our bus garage is

Seems like a sensible idea to me- easy access off the A470- saves drivers who don’t live near a station that hassle of driving into Cardiff.

 

[Tomos y Tanc]

Seems like a sensible idea to me- easy access off the A470- saves drivers who don’t live near a station that hassle of driving into Cardiff.

Indeed. You only have to see the heavy usage of the 600 bay Trefforest P&R and the Radyr P&R to see the demand is there. That said, if the proposed Taff Well MSCP is close to people's homes I have some sympathy for them.

 

[positron]

Tfw planning on another multistorey at Taff's well where our bus garage is

Didn't they plan that years back and then decide against it? I wonder why they've decided to bring the plan back?

 

[Snow1964]

DfT press release, backing new station at St Athan

• Transport Secretary visits South Wales to announce the UK government’s support to develop new station in St Athan
• new station would improve connectivity to the Cardiff Airport Enterprise Zone and planned green energy park, driving new jobs and prosperity
• move would support local growth and reconnect the village to the rail network for the first time in 60 years

Passengers in South Wales could soon benefit from better connectivity as the Transport Secretary visits the Vale of Glamorgan today (19 February 2024) to announce the UK government’s support for plans to improve rail links in the region.

As part of his visit, he will join local people including Vale of Glamorgan MP Alun Cairns to announce the UKgovernment’s commitment to fund the development of a business case to look at options for a new station in StAthan. This could offer thousands of people better access to the region’s growing number of homes, jobs and business opportunities.

A new station would restore services on the Vale of Glamorgan line to the area for the first time in 60 years, reconnecting thousands to jobs, education and business opportunities. It is part of the government’s long-term plan to grow the economy, support business and help people into work.

New railway station backed for the Vale of Glamorgan

Plans for a new station at St Athan will restore services to the area for the first time in 60 years and reconnect thousands to jobs, education and business opportunities.

www.gov.uk

 

[5021]

Yet another consultation has gone live - please see attached. This one relates to changing junction speeds at Queen Street as part of the changes in the pointwork required to double the Cardiff Bay line.



The current arrangement looks like this (diagrams grabbed from the consultation document):

View attachment 151296

The new arrangement loooks like this (changes highlighted in red):

View attachment 151297

The line marked as "3" is the stub end of the new "down" line to Cardiff Bay, but which will be blocked to trains (hence the points marked "2" being padlocked) whilst construction progresses.

There is to be a similar blockade over the Easter weekend (29th March - 1at April inclusive} - same routes affected. Any details of planned work available please? Thanks.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

DfT press release, backing new station at St Athan

New railway station backed for the Vale of Glamorgan

Plans for a new station at St Athan will restore services to the area for the first time in 60 years and reconnect thousands to jobs, education and business opportunities.

www.gov.uk

The key words being:

commitment to fund the development of a business case to look at options for a new station in StAthan.

That is clearly better than not having that funding, and a journey begins with the first step etc. but there is lot of wiggle room in that statement.
St Clears (west of Carmarthen) had funding to build an actual station, to be spent by April 2024.
Deeside Industrial Park/Northern Gateway had funding to develop proposals further.

 

[MikePJ]

A few more photos of Cardiff Bay, shot through the window of the shelter on the platform. There's still a lot of civils work going on, notably burying a very large concrete pipe under the land that will eventually be the trackbed.

 

[CapitalStar378]

A few more photos of Cardiff Bay, shot through the window of the shelter on the platform. There's still a lot of civils work going on, notably burying a very large concrete pipe under the land that will eventually be the trackbed.

I'm not a construction aficionado but I'm going to say that this work is proceeding very slowly!

 

[positron]

I'm not a construction aficionado but I'm going to say that this work is proceeding very slowly!

It's definitely behind schedule but one thing I've noticed is it looks like not much is happening for a while and then suddenly there's loads of visible changes in one go. So I suspect it's lots of preparation work burying stuff etc and then you only realise anything happened when suddenly a platform takes shape.

 

[AdamWW]

It seems to suggest no. It reverses at Central back up to Aberdare.

For this temporary arrangement anyway. Eventually the plan is to loop I think.

The new timetable is now on Realtimetrains, and shows services from Aberdare looping via the City Line and back to Merthyr, and vice versa.

Treherbert trains seem to be just turning round at Central.

It makes departures from City Line stations rather confusing - it's not immediately obvious whether to look for Merthyr or Aberdare departures if you want to head into Cardiff.

 

[Anonymous10]

The new timetable is now on Realtimetrains, and shows services from Aberdare looping via the City Line and back to Merthyr, and vice versa.

Treherbert trains seem to be just turning round at Central.

It makes departures from City Line stations rather confusing - it's not immediately obvious whether to look for Merthyr or Aberdare departures if you want to head into Cardiff.

With the Rhymney services going via Barry and the Vale. Hopefully it won't be class 150s but I'd expect so given the route.

 

[trawscymru27]

The losers from the new timetable are Llandaf and Cathays. Monday to Saturday, departures from Llandaf for Cardiff Central are at xx28, xx33, xx58 and xx03, from Central for Cathays and Llandaf at xx26, xx29, xx56 and xx59. There is the new half-hourly Pontypridd to Bay service in between but that doesn't serve Central.

 

[AdamWW]

With the Rhymney services going via Barry and the Vale. Hopefully it won't be class 150s but I'd expect so given the route.

So long as they don't replace the 4 car 231s with 2 car 150s...

 

[Brissle Girl]

Caerphilly to Cardiff Central increases to 6tph, with the two short shuttles continuing to Penarth.

 

[AdamWW]

The losers from the new timetable are Llandaf and Cathays. Monday to Saturday, departures from Llandaf for Cardiff Central are at xx28, xx33, xx58 and xx03, from Central for Cathays and Llandaf at xx26, xx29, xx56 and xx59. There is the new half-hourly Pontypridd to Bay service in between but that doesn't serve Central.

Overall it is a mixture of improvements in some places and making other things worse.

Not so handy for anyone commuting between Merthyr or Aberdare and Cathays.

I have possibly missed it, but if they haven't done so it would be nice if they explained that this is an interim step and told people why they have to make services worse for a while before they get better.

 

[Tomos y Tanc]

Not so handy for anyone commuting between Merthyr or Aberdare and Cathays.

It would be interesting to see just how many passengers make that journey. Obviously with major employers like the Welsh Govt. and Cardiff University nearby there will be some but a daily commute of two hours a day is pretty challenging and I'm guessing the numbers aren't huge.

 

[Brissle Girl]

It would be interesting to see just how many passengers make that journey. Obviously with major employers like the Welsh Govt. and Cardiff University nearby there will be some but a daily commute of two hours a day is pretty challenging and I'm guessing the numbers aren't huge.

I’m sure there are many commuters in the south east who commute into London who will have a wry smile at the two hours a day comment.

 

[AdamWW]

I’m sure there are many commuters in the south east who commute into London who will have a wry smile at the two hours a day comment.

And would also be amused at (pre Covid) a jam packed rush hour train consisting of a single carriage.

 

[Krokodil]

I’m sure there are many commuters in the south east who commute into London who will have a wry smile at the two hours a day comment.

A two hour commute is what they put up with in order to live in a three bedroom semi in a leafy commuter town. How many people would put up with that commute to live in a miners' terrace in Merthyr Tydfil? You'd have to be pretty desperate.

 

[Anonymous10]

A two hour commute is what they put up with in order to live in a three bedroom semi in a leafy commuter town. How many people would put up with that commute to live in a miners' terrace in Merthyr Tydfil? You'd have to be pretty desperate.

As someone working in heritage, I've looked at living around Bargoed to commute into the city centre. It's very much real now.