Long time since I had anything to do with this one, but I thought the service plan was hourly Cardiff - Maesteg and the infill being Bridgend only to the bay platform?. As previously said, if the Tondu - Maesteg run is 27-28 mins then it will never get approved, there no room at all for robustness in the timetable.
The problem with using the bay at Bridgend is that it is only long enough to hold a two car train and electrification will, I understand, bring three car trains as the standard minimum formation. As things stand, the bay would be difficult to lengthen although, I concede, that nothing is impossible given a will. It would, though, seem to be a waste of resources to lock a set into the branch when it could be picking up useful business elsewhere, at Pencoed; Llanharan and Pontyclun. It is also likely that an additional station at Brackla will be built, some time in the not too distant future, and it will need something better than an hourly service to attract new business. People from Brackla do
not travel into Bridgend to catch a train to Cardiff so we are looking at a completely new catchment. There is also continuing pressure for a new station at St Fagans. Although electrification is not the panacea that some people think it might be, the superior acceleration would make the additional stops a better proposition than at present.
Since I started this thread, it has been mentioned that the work at Tondu might have more to do with a turnback for trains diverted via Margam. That would seem to make more sense.
I have already mentioned that some thought was given to running a half hourly service, on Saturdays, when the branch re-opened to passengers. John Davies was keen to try it but wiser councils prevailed. It was simply too risky and the knock on consequences of even the slightest of delays would have caused chaos to other services using the SWML. As it was, we had enough trouble with the Freight Sector which was dead against
any service to Maesteg and did its best to strangle it at birth.
The outcome was that Saturday trains were
strengthened from 143s to 150/2s. The platforms on the branch weren't long enough for anything else and some reliefs were run, in spare paths, from Cardiff to Tondu. The problem with that
solution was that Maesteg passengers were left hanging about in the rain at Tondu with their increasingly fractious children; their bags from M&S and Debenhams and loudly voiced vows to never again travel by train. The general public just could not understand why the train that had dumped them there was just sitting idly for minutes on end instead of taking them home. A great deal of goodwill was lost in those early days.
Tondu Loop is in the wrong place and definitely
not the answer to half hourly services and I dread the outcome if that path is chosen.
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Bridgend - Maesteg can be done in 22 minutes but a problem is the trains have to stop to collect the token for the section between Tondu and Maesteg as well as slow to a crawl because of a couple of footcrossing etc.
If something can be done to raise the linspeed then that might help timekeeping.
I last read the crossing point was to be near the lynfi power station north of Tondu with the current lynfi goods loop at Tondu being upgraded to be used as a reversing loop for IEP's if they are diverted via the Tondu - Margam line.
There has been a good number of housing developments around the Bridgend area and many more are being built near Bettws etc which I think will help to increase demand for rail services
The present layout at Tondu is a legacy of the shoestring budget that enabled the service to get up and running and is far from ideal. The present loop was contrived to hold coal trains, clear of the passenger service, which lasted for a few years during the time that stocks were cleared from the Washery at St John's Colliery.
It requires a slow approach to Tondu from the Maesteg direction first because of the very poorly sited Tondu Outer Home* and then to come to a dead stand, outside the station to surrender the token, before restarting to enter the platform a few yards away. All of this eats into time as well as a couple of the foot crossings which are short cuts to a housing estate. The crossings didn't really matter when the line was freight only and I don't suppose that much thought was given to the possibility that passenger trains would return to the branch when the houses were built.
Despite the problems, traffic on the branch continues to grow in, what has now become, part of the Cardiff 'Travel To Work Area'. The Valleys, in general, have become attractive places to live with their lower property values and more 'laid back' lifestyle than the city.
My understanding also was that a new loop was to be installed on the site of the Llynfi Power Station sidings which would be just about the ideal site for such a facility. Time will tell.
* I think that it is the Outer Home. Signalling aficionados will, no doubt, correct me if I'm mistaken. This signal is very difficult to sight because of lineside tree growth and is almost impossible to sight in full leaf season until the train is almost on top of it.
