South Wales 'Metro' updates

[S-Bahn]

Latest update here - There are also some diagrams on TFW's Facebook page.

Another step closer towards delivering the South Wales Metro

From 2 June passengers from across the South Wales Valleys and Cardiff will benefit from more frequent services later into the night as delivery of the south Wales Metro moves another step closer.

news.tfw.wales

 

[Cambrian359]

Latest update here - There are also some diagrams on TFW's Facebook page.

Another step closer towards delivering the South Wales Metro

From 2 June passengers from across the South Wales Valleys and Cardiff will benefit from more frequent services later into the night as delivery of the south Wales Metro moves another step closer.

news.tfw.wales

Do we know if these improvements are being made possible by using one of the several dedicated south wales/metro fleets that were ordered but currently sat idle or by using more mainline stock from elsewhere?

 

[AdamWW]

Latest update here -

Another step closer towards delivering the South Wales Metro

From 2 June passengers from across the South Wales Valleys and Cardiff will benefit from more frequent services later into the night as delivery of the south Wales Metro moves another step closer.

news.tfw.wales

This seems a little disingenious:

These changes will signal a new way of travelling for passengers, providing them with more choice and on some routes quicker commutes to and from the city.

For example, from June customers travelling from Aberdare, Llandaf, Cathays or Queen Street will have the option to change trains at Pontypridd or Radyr to reach their destination quicker.

Looking at the more honest "notes to editors" below, this seems to mean that the small number of people travelling between City Line stations and Aberdare or Merthyr will have a faster journey in one direction as they will no longer need to change at Radyr, but people travelling on the trains that have been diverted round the City Line may need to change to speed up their journey (particularly to/from Llandaf).

I.e. they will have the option to change to reach their destination more quickly than under the new timetetable, but not more quickly than they do at present which is what that seems to imply to me.

Schoolchildren travelling between the Coryton and City Lines will also have a longer journey and risk of missed connections.

 

[Envoy]

The change that will affect the most people is that services to/from the central valleys will no longer proceed south-west of Cardiff to Barry Island etc.

Incredible that Pontypridd gets 8 trains per hour and Caerphilly 6 yet Rhoose & Llantwit Major remain at 1 train per hour.

 

[Brissle Girl]

The change that will affect the most people is that services to/from the central valleys will no longer proceed south-west of Cardiff to Barry Island etc.

Incredible that Pontypridd gets 8 trains per hour and Caerphilly 6 yet Rhoose & Llantwit Major remain at 1 train per hour.

Rhoose and Llantwit Major have a combined population of 20,000, whereas Caerphilly has 176,000 and the route down from Pontypridd is a link from the population centres in the valleys above it, not just the town itself.

So maybe not so incredible.

 

[AdamWW]

Rhoose and Llantwit Major have a combined population of 20,000, whereas Caerphilly has 176,000 and the route down from Pontypridd is a link from the population centres in the valleys above it, not just the town itself.

So maybe not so incredible.

And even then Wikipedia gives (pre-Covid) .884 million passengers per year for Pontypridd vs .301 for Llantwit Major.

Looking at the more honest "notes to editors" below, this seems to mean that the small number of people travelling between City Line stations and Aberdare or Merthyr will have a faster journey in one direction as they will no longer need to change at Radyr, but people travelling on the trains that have been diverted round the City Line may need to change to speed up their journey (particularly to/from Llandaf).

I.e. they will have the option to change to reach their destination more quickly than under the new timetetable, but not more quickly than they do at present which is what that seems to imply to me

OK I will have to correct myself here.

Firstly this affects Aberdare both ways rather than Aberdare one way and Merthyr the other (I hadn't thought through properly how the looping via the City Line thing works).

But also the Aberdare to Pontypridd journey time has been reduced, so in fact under the new timetable changing to go from Aberdare to Queen Street, Cathays or Llandaf is actually a whole minute faster than a through train under the current timetable. Though I think it's 3 minutes longer going the other way.

Personally I'd rather spend a minute longer on the train than have to change.

I wonder if the resources that went into poster and leafletting campaigns to announce the arrival of new trains will be put into warning people on the Aberdare Line that many of them are going to have to choose between changing trains or having a somewhat longer journey?

 

[56xx]

The 231s are going to be spread rather thinly on the Rhymney line having to travel to Barry Island and Bridgend before returning. Or am I missing something?

 

[anthony263]

The 231s are going to be spread rather thinly on the Rhymney line having to travel to Barry Island and Bridgend before returning. Or am I missing something?

756s going to the CVL routes so 241s staying on Rhymney lines

 

[AdamWW]

756s going to the CVL routes so 241s staying on Rhymney lines

But instead of Rhymney line trains just running to Penarth they will also be going to Barry and Bridgend. I also thought I'd seen suggestions that 231s were going to temporarily move over to the Pontypridd routes.
(Does CVL exclude Rhymney? - I thought it meant core valley lines and included the Rhymney Line).

This is part of a major change to train routing which I would have expected to be well advertised in advance.

Instead all we seem to have is a news story you can find on their web site if you go looking for it that makes a big point of improved frequences, but doesn't explicitly mention the fact that many people that currently have through journeys will have to change.

They do offer a map for the new arrangements (with nice colours for the different lines)...but it's bizarrely chopped off just below Cardiff Central (including losing the label for Central) and doesn't show what trains do south of there. Though if you look carefully you can just see that it can only be the Coryton and Rhymney lines that do go to Barry and Penarth.

Or am I missing something?

I don't follow them on Facebook - is all the information there perhaps?

 

[oglord]

Caerphilly has 176,000

Well it doesn't really... that is the population of the local government district that includes towns like Risca, Newbridge, Blackwood, etc. that are physically detached from Caerphilly by the presence of mountains. The Caerphilly BUASD is more like 33,000.

 

[Tomos y Tanc]

Well it doesn't really... that is the population of the local government district that includes towns like Risca, Newbridge, Blackwood, etc. that are physically detached from Caerphilly by the presence of mountains. The Caerphilly BUASD is more like 33,000.

That's correct although the services that terminate at Caerphilly are as much about serving northern Cardiff as the Caerphilly basin. Caerphilly is just the logical place to turn them around - I mean it wouldn't make any sense to run trains as far as Lisvane & Thornhill!

 

[Envoy]

Rhoose and Llantwit Major have a combined population of 20,000, whereas Caerphilly has 176,000 and the route down from Pontypridd is a link from the population centres in the valleys above it, not just the town itself.

So maybe not so incredible.

The 176,000 includes places like Risca - which are served by Ebbw Vale line trains.

With Rhoose & Llantwit Major, it’s not just the local population that matters - but also the fact that Barry is a sizeable town with a sandy beach and the Vale Coast Line links this population directly with Bridgend and points west. An increased rail service to half hourly would also be useful for Cardiff Airport as it has a hopeless bus service to Cardiff that takes 1 hour 50 minutes.

 

[Krokodil]

Half-hourly is really the minimum acceptable frequency for anything except minor rural stations (Church Stretton and below). The Vale ought to see frequency improvements as soon as resources allow.

 

[56xx]

756s going to the CVL routes so 231s staying on Rhymney lines

But instead of Rhymney line trains just running to Penarth they will also be going to Barry Island and Bridgend.

I have edited the two quotes above. Some Rhymney line trains will continue to Penarth, most will go to Barry Island and Bridgend.

TfW have stated that most Barry Island trains will be 231s from June. All Bridgend trains will be 150s until the Rhymney line is electrified in late 2025 and will then switch to 756s.

 

[CapitalStar378]

Half-hourly is really the minimum acceptable frequency for anything except minor rural stations (Church Stretton and below). The Vale ought to see frequency improvements as soon as resources allow.

Absolutely agree, irrespective of views on Cardiff Airport, an hourly service is not a good service and 2 tph was promised for 2023. Very poor from TfW.

 

[Envoy]

Half-hourly is really the minimum acceptable frequency for anything except minor rural stations (Church Stretton and below). The Vale ought to see frequency improvements as soon as resources allow.

Surely resources do now allow? They have had loads of 756’s sitting in sidings in Barry since last summer. The Rhymney line electrification is not complete but the central valleys electrification is complete and live but the tram-train (398) depot is not yet up and running. So, why can’t the 756’s be used on the electrified central valleys lines which would free up some 150’s to provide a half hourly service on the Vale Coast Line - even if it means they have to go up the Rhymney line?

TfW are really dragging their feet.

 

[Bob Price]

Are all the 756's handed over, have all the drivers been trained on them? You can't just drop a train into service without a lot of effort. Plus to have 2tph as promised Network Rail have to allow the paths within a wider timetable through Cardiff. Has that case been approved?

 

[5021]

Are all the 756's handed over, have all the drivers been trained on them? You can't just drop a train into service without a lot of effort. Plus to have 2tph as promised Network Rail have to allow the paths within a wider timetable through Cardiff. Has that case been approved?

The 756s are still making driver training and testing runs between Canton and Pontypridd (via the City Line) only which seems to indicate there's some way to go.

Do we know if these improvements are being made possible by using one of the several dedicated south wales/metro fleets that were ordered but currently sat idle or by using more mainline stock from elsewhere?

According to TfW the improvements require just 3 extra Class 150 units which can be released from the Ebbw Vale service thanks to the introduction of Class 197s

 

[AdamWW]

But instead of Rhymney line trains just running to Penarth they will also be going to Barry and Bridgend. I also thought I'd seen suggestions that 231s were going to temporarily move over to the Pontypridd routes.
(Does CVL exclude Rhymney? - I thought it meant core valley lines and included the Rhymney Line).

This is part of a major change to train routing which I would have expected to be well advertised in advance.

Instead all we seem to have is a news story you can find on their web site if you go looking for it that makes a big point of improved frequences, but doesn't explicitly mention the fact that many people that currently have through journeys will have to change.

They do offer a map for the new arrangements (with nice colours for the different lines)...but it's bizarrely chopped off just below Cardiff Central (including losing the label for Central) and doesn't show what trains do south of there. Though if you look carefully you can just see that it can only be the Coryton and Rhymney lines that do go to Barry and Penarth.

Or am I missing something?

I don't follow them on Facebook - is all the information there perhaps?

Ah there is some information on Twitter, including a map that isn't chopped off.

Though it might be nice if as well as trumpeting the improvements they also explicitly mentioned the various journeys which will be made less convenient in the new timetable - and the introduction of a reduced and irregular service to the Bay (two gaps of 18 minutes per hour between trains rather than every 12 minutes as at present).

I realise that this is an interim timetable with more trains planned in the future and I don't see what they would have to lose by pointing this out, rather than just making it seem at first glance as if things are only getting better.

I don't think that a policy of only announcing good news and leaving people to work out the bad news for themselves gives the best impression of an organisation.

I'd also have thought that posters at stations giving at least the same information as on Twitter would be a good idea but maybe they just haven't got round to that yet.

Ah - there's also a link on Twitter to a good description of the changes (and what they mean for people making various journeys) on the TfW web site at https://tfw.wales/projects/metro/south-wales-metro/june-2024
(Too complex to quote here).

Maybe I'm being thick but I went looking for something like this on the TfW web site and failed miserably.

 

[Brissle Girl]

Though it might be nice if as well as trumpeting the improvements they also explicitly mentioned the various journeys which will be made less convenient in the new timetable

I don't think that a policy of only announcing good news and leaving people to work out the bad news for themselves gives the best impression of an organisation.

I’m not sure you’re suited for a role in Public Relations…

 

[AdamWW]

I’m not sure you’re suited for a role in Public Relations…

Perhaps not, but it's not as if people won't notice that their journey has got 20 minutes longer once the new timetable comes in, at which point they might feel it would have been better if more had been done to warn them about it beforehand.

Anyway it turns out that they have given a pretty honest comparison of travel times before and after but haven't, aso far as I can see, made it very easy to find.

 

[Western 52]

TfW's journey check is reporting cancelled services this morning on the Treherbert line due to theft of electrification cables. I thought they were live now though?

 

[Dai Corner]

TfW's journey check is reporting cancelled services this morning on the Treherbert line due to theft of electrification cables. I thought they were live now though?

Some sections of the overhead are earthed with bypass cables carrying the current. Apparently there is signage indicating where they are which is no doubt of considerable assistance to thieves as well as railway staff.

 

[AdamWW]

Some sections of the overhead are earthed with bypass cables carrying the current. Apparently there is signage indicating where they are which is no doubt of considerable assistance to thieves as well as railway staff.

That's one problem with intermittent electrification I didn't think of.

Maybe instead of permanently earthed sections they should have had permanently not enough voltage to arc to bridges and things but enough to give someone a nasty shock sections?

 

[Krokodil]

Maybe instead of permanently earthed sections they should have had permanently not enough voltage to arc to bridges and things but enough to give someone a nasty shock sections?

I'm sure that some lawyer would have a field day with the concept of specifically making something live in order to shock trespassers.

 

[56xx]

I'm sure that some lawyer would have a field day with the concept of specifically making something live in order to shock trespassers.

Farmers have been doing it for years!!!

 

[edwin_m]

Farmers have been doing it for years!!!

If you're referring to electric fences, these won't do any more than give someone a minor shock.

 

[ajay1071]

Seems the trash in our society are at it again pity they didn't spend as much time on getting a legal job in so much as they do in causing disruption and delays to those that have. I like the idea of some sort of equipment similar to the farmers electric fence but alas these vermin will work around it.

I'm sure that some lawyer would have a field day with the concept of specifically making something live in order to shock trespassers.

Not to mention the barristers laughable attempt to excuse their clients actions, troubled upbringing, recent loss in the family, did not know what they were doing as they were under the influence of drink and/or drugs. If I was a fiddle player I could earn a fortune at the defence summing up.

 

[Zoomer]

Having waited so long for the return of services on the Treherbert line, it's depressing to think that we could see an increase in cancellations because of theft of cables. Leaving aside the broader culpability and societal issues, are there measures that can be taken to deter this? Or is this going to become an ongoing problem?

 

[Tumbleweed]

It was inevitable that some drongos would do this. So depressing.