South Wales 'Metro' updates

[MikePJ]

That entrance is still there, although I'm not sure how often it's used these days; it leads to several buildings which I think are used by Network Rail. However, when it gets to what is nearly platform level, it's towards the end of platform eight, so putting a new platform there could well be a bit difficult? I'm looking at it from a laymen's eye, though, so an engineer might say different!

I think you’d still have the tram platforms at street level (in the current car park) but provide a ramped connection up to join the main line at the end of platform 8. That would allow access to the City Line to Radyr, and any future line branching off it.

 

[sefyllian]

How would a separate platform and line fit in with the Cardiff/RCT/WG aspiration for a line from Beddau via Plasdwr connecting to the Central to Bay line?

Would provision be made to join these at a later date, if that should come to fruition?

There have been so many plans/aspirations/dreams that it’s hard to keep track!

I noticed the current TfW consulation on extending the other end of the line (Cardiff Bay–Newport Road) does imply the line to Central will not be connected to the mainline at that end. The proposed service is stated as just Cardiff Central–Newport Road (via the Bay).



Here’s a 1900 map of the station that shows the old Riverside platforms, for info. (Photo: Brian Mortimer / CC BY 2.0)

 

[PaulHarding150]

This press release from Cardif Council says that 'Phase 1' will continue to Pier Street:

Cardiff secures £50m from Levelling Up fund for the first phase of Cardiff Crossrail

Cardiff secures £50m from Levelling Up fund for the first phase of Cardiff Crossrail

www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk

• A regular tram service from Cardiff Central to a new platform at Cardiff Bay train station.
• Two new platforms at Cardiff Central Train Station
• Public realm improvements around the existing and new train platforms
• A new highway layout which allows safe transition for the public to use between road, rail, cycling and walking.

The first phase of the development will also extend to Pierhead Street and include the development of a new Transport Hub, linking in with the Atlantic Wharf masterplan.

That would imply new track at both ends.

Sadly no map, drawings or mainframe have been published yet.

Looking at this older map, it would seem the green and red (apologies if you're colour blind) sections are being funded.

 

[MikePJ]

This press release from Cardif Council says that 'Phase 1' will continue to Pier Street:

That sketch-map implies that the Pierhead Street station will be on the vacant piece of land between the Premier Inn and Caspian Point offices.

 

[Envoy]

Wales on Line have published a run down of the Metro project. Let's just hope that this does not get shifted off to ‘Speculative Ideas’.

Cardiff's transport network is on the verge of a total transformation. The announcement of UK Government Levelling Up funding for a tram-train line between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Bay might have sounded slightly arbitrary in isolation, but it's part of something much bigger

How Cardiff's first new tram line will work and transform public transport

The new line to Cardiff Bay is just the start of a mind-boggling, immense and very costly project

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

[MikePJ]

I happened to go down to Victoria Park today and there’s a pair of twin-track cantilevers visible on the bridge over Cowbridge Road East. They must be pretty close to the start of the wires at the boundary.

 

[Envoy]

Work has now started on a Transport Interchange at Barry Docks station.

Katie Burnell, Associate Director of Amey Consulting said: “We are delighted to have worked alongside the Vale of Glamorgan Council on the design of the Barry Docks Transport Interchange.

“Our industry leading consultancy and design capability has provided an ambitious and innovative design that will provide the people of Barry and South Wales with a sustainable and efficient transport interchange. That will improve quality of life, support the local economy and encourage the use of greener modes of transport.

Work on Barry Docks Transport Interchange begins

Once completed, this will become a meeting point for different modes of transport, creating a hub for sustainable forms of travel. Adjoining the Council’s Grade II listed Docks Office building, the project is being delivered in partnership with the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) and Welsh...

www.wales247.co.uk

This will be very helpful for the people of Barry.

 

[MikePJ]

Vegetation clearance work is continuing in the disused platform at Cardiff Bay station. Lots of orange people about!

Further up the line, on Lloyd George Ave near to Vellacott Close, the drilling rig has reappeared. I'm fairly sure that this is to do with the new Butetown station, which will be on this site.

 

[Richard Scott]

May have been reported earlier (apologies if that's the case) but caught the train from Llandaf today and Cardiff direction line has complete wiring by looks of it. Good to see progress. Masts stop abruptly by a bridge about 1/2 mile outside Cathays so assuming that's the wiring limit as bridge looks like it would need raising?

 

[anthony263]

View attachment 127731View attachment 127732

Vegetation clearance work is continuing in the disused platform at Cardiff Bay station. Lots of orange people about!

Further up the line, on Lloyd George Ave near to Vellacott Close, the drilling rig has reappeared. I'm fairly sure that this is to do with the new Butetown station, which will be on this site.

View attachment 127733

Make use of the disused platform at Cardiff Bay.

 

[MikePJ]

Make use of the disused platform at Cardiff Bay.

Yes - the branch is being dualled all the way back to Queen Street, so the first stage of works is to clear all the vegetation!

 

[anthony263]

Yes - the branch is being dualled all the way back to Queen Street, so the first stage of works is to clear all the vegetation!

No i meant I hope theymake use of the disused platform at Cardiff Bay. A new station entrance would be ideal

 

[MikePJ]

No i meant I hope theymake use of the disused platform at Cardiff Bay. A new station entrance would be ideal

Oh sorry - yes, restoring the second platform is definitely going to happen: details are here on TfW's website. Also, with the on-street extension to Pierhead Street now being funded, I expect the station and its surrounding will be rearranged to allow the tram-trains to continue out onto Lloyd George Avenue, but it's not clear exactly how that will be routed yet. Academy Coffee (next to the original Victorian station building) may have to be relocated, but since it appears to be in a shipping container, that shouldn't be too hard!

 

[Techniquest]

I think you're right about that coffee place, it looks relatively easy to move. Certainly more so than the average coffee shop anyway!

All the new stuff coming to the Valleys should make things quite interesting to go and travel on, such a contrast to a solo 142 in the not-too-distant past!

 

[Bob Price]

Good coffee place and well used. But I am sure TfW will find somewhere for it to go. The original plan was this would be a terminus but with the extension happening who knows. I just hope they don't rip out what is a very old platform.

 

[CapitalStar378]

Good coffee place and well used. But I am sure TfW will find somewhere for it to go. The original plan was this would be a terminus but with the extension happening who knows. I just hope they don't rip out what is a very old platform.

View attachment Cardiff Bay Plans.jpg
From the plans it looks like the existing island platform will be used as 2 bays prior to the extended lines being added, whenever that happens.

Plans from Cardiff Council planning portal.

 

[anthony263]

Oh sorry - yes, restoring the second platform is definitely going to happen: details are here on TfW's website. Also, with the on-street extension to Pierhead Street now being funded, I expect the station and its surrounding will be rearranged to allow the tram-trains to continue out onto Lloyd George Avenue, but it's not clear exactly how that will be routed yet. Academy Coffee (next to the original Victorian station building) may have to be relocated, but since it appears to be in a shipping container, that shouldn't be too hard!

I think they were going to add a 3rd platform on the new link taking the extension towards pierhead Street etc

 

[Dr Day]

The tfW website link in post 4208 mentions 6 train per hour - isn't that roughly what the Bay gets at the moment so not particularly transformational? Apologies lost track of the latest service pattern proposals so would appreciate a link as I can't immediately see it on that website, but are all routes (ie both Rhymney side and Pontypridd side) still going to get a direct link to the Bay as as per the original brief to franchise bidders made public several years ago, or only the Pontypridd side? Latter would seem most likely given choice of rolling stock with tram-train features for that 'side', but that does differ from what was originally proposed (which no longer appears on line, at least not on the TfW website where it first appeared c 2017).

 

[CapitalStar378]

The tfW website link in post 4208 mentions 6 train per hour - isn't that roughly what the Bay gets at the moment so not particularly transformational? Apologies lost track of the latest service pattern proposals so would appreciate a link as I can't immediately see it on that website, but are all routes (ie both Rhymney side and Pontypridd side) still going to get a direct link to the Bay as as per the original brief to franchise bidders made public several years ago, or only the Pontypridd side? Latter would seem most likely given choice of rolling stock with tram-train features for that 'side', but that does differ from what was originally proposed (which no longer appears on line, at least not on the TfW website where it first appeared c 2017).

6tph planned prior to any extensions from Central to Pierhead Street, and it will just be Class 398s as TfW are currently consulting on the bay line being converted to a line of sight tramway, i.e. no signalling. FLIRTs will not be venturing into the Bay. Currently 5tph except Sundays (2tph) so not a massive jump in frequency. The trains will be a fair bit bigger than the current 153 shuttle though.

 

[Brissle Girl]

6 tph instead of 5 (+20% - much more in terms of passenger carrying capacity) with them all coming down from Pontypridd rather than everyone from north of Queen St needing to change feels a decent improvement.

 

[Envoy]

The FLIRT’S will have to continue from the Rumney valley down to Penarth and presumably Barry and the coast line via Rhoose to Bridgend. All people coming down the Taff Valley and wishing to proceed to the coast will need to change in Cardiff.

The Red Dragon Centre is going to be demolished and a new Arena built on the site. That being so, surely it would be best to take the extension eastward from the Bay station across Lloyd George Avenue and then on to land currently occupied by the Red Dragon Centre as taking to longer stretches of road will leave the whole system prone to delays? If services are delayed by going on street in the Bay area, it is the upper valleys that will suffer most as it is vital that trains can pass at the passing loops. That would not be for the greater good of the system. In addition, we have the problem of getting from Central across Callaghan Square to the Bay Line at the top of Bute Street.

I also wonder how the tram-trains would cope with sudden surges of people leaving events at the proposed arena? When loads of people leave the stadium in the city, they have a short walk to the Central station where they join queues for all the trains going off in different directions. That won’t be the case with the single route from the Bay to the city centre - apart from those that divide for Queen Street and northwards v those for the Central station.

 

[MikePJ]

The FLIRT’S will have to continue from the Rumney valley down to Penarth and presumably Barry and the coast line via Rhoose to Bridgend. All people coming down the Taff Valley and wishing to proceed to the coast will need to change in Cardiff.

The Red Dragon Centre is going to be demolished and a new Arena built on the site. That being so, surely it would be best to take the extension eastward from the Bay station across Lloyd George Avenue and then on to land currently occupied by the Red Dragon Centre as taking to longer stretches of road will leave the whole system prone to delays? If services are delayed by going on street in the Bay area, it is the upper valleys that will suffer most as it is vital that trains can pass at the passing loops. That would not be for the greater good of the system. In addition, we have the problem of getting from Central across Callaghan Square to the Bay Line at the top of Bute Street.

I also wonder how the tram-trains would cope with sudden surges of people leaving events at the proposed arena? When loads of people leave the stadium in the city, they have a short walk to the Central station where they join queues for all the trains going off in different directions. That won’t be the case with the single route from the Bay to the city centre - apart from those that divide for Queen Street and northwards v those for the Central station.

My suspicion is that there'll be very little "street running" where the trams mix with traffic, as the engineers know that's not good for either tram reliability or safety.

My money would be on the Lloyd George Avenue carriageway on the east side of the The Flourish becoming tram lines and closed to road traffic, with two-way traffic on the west side carriageway. Then the signalised junction at Hemingway Road would be adapted to allow trams to cross diagonally to and from Cardiff Bay station whilst road traffic is stopped at the lights. A similar treatment then gets applied to Bute Place - the current city-bound carriageway becomes two-way traffic between The Flourish and Pierhead Street, and the other carriageway becoms tram tracks, which then squeeze onto the strip of land between the QPark multistory and the link road tunnel portal to terminate on the rough land adjoining Caspian Point. A footbridge across the link road cutting would provide access to the Red Dragon/Arena site.

 

[anthony263]

I think they keeping the Cardiff Bay station for use by some terminating services from the valleys. I think the extension will be worked by trains from Cardiff central and future extension from Beddau

 

[Envoy]

Good to see that things are now moving ahead to extend from Aberdare to Hirwaun & maybe the old Tower Colliery site.

Councillor Andrew Morgan OBE, Leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Investment, said: “I’m pleased the Council has successfully secured £239,633 funding for the next stage of development towards this Metro Plus project, which is a major extension of rail services from Aberdare to Hirwaun. It is an exciting project that is supported by the Cardiff Capital Region to complement delivery of the South Wales Metro – and is being progressed by the Council and Transport for Wales.

Next stage of process to extend passenger rail services to Hirwaun

Further development work towards extending rail services from Aberdare to Hirwaun is underway, after the Council secured important Welsh Government funding through the Cardiff Capital Region Transport Authority. The Council has secured £239,633 to fund further studies towards delivering the...

www.wales247.co.uk

 

[Bob Price]

Hoping I have the link copied correctly. Ariel images taken by John Bulpin showing more progress at Taffs Well. Lines and overhead masts clearly in view

John Bulpin

Explore John Bulpin’s 2,522 photos on Flickr!

flickr.com

 

[geoffk]

Oh sorry - yes, restoring the second platform is definitely going to happen: details are here on TfW's website. Also, with the on-street extension to Pierhead Street now being funded, I expect the station and its surrounding will be rearranged to allow the tram-trains to continue out onto Lloyd George Avenue, but it's not clear exactly how that will be routed yet. Academy Coffee (next to the original Victorian station building) may have to be relocated, but since it appears to be in a shipping container, that shouldn't be too hard!

Not been to Cardiff for some years so am not up fully to date with this. Am I right in thinking the tram-trains will run off 25kV AC only? If so surely they can't run on-street, as is suggested here, or will they be on batteries? Sorry I've not read all 141 pages of this thread. Must get to Cardiff soon.

 

[Dai Corner]

Not been to Cardiff for some years so am not up fully to date with this. Am I right in thinking the tram-trains will run off 25kV AC only? If so surely they can't run on-street, as is suggested here, or will they be on batteries? Sorry I've not read all 141 pages of this thread. Must get to Cardiff soon.

They'll have batteries, and will use them from day one as the electrification is discontinuous.

 

[PaulHarding150]

Good to see that things are now moving ahead to extend from Aberdare to Hirwaun & maybe the old Tower Colliery site.

Next stage of process to extend passenger rail services to Hirwaun

Further development work towards extending rail services from Aberdare to Hirwaun is underway, after the Council secured important Welsh Government funding through the Cardiff Capital Region Transport Authority. The Council has secured £239,633 to fund further studies towards delivering the...

www.wales247.co.uk

Fingers crossed this actually happens, here's a story from ten years ago next month....

Aberdare-to-Hirwaun rail line set to reopen

IT’S full steam ahead for the reopening of the railway passenger line between Aberdare and Hirwaun.

www.walesonline.co.uk

IT’S full steam ahead for the reopening of the railway passenger line between Aberdare and Hirwaun.

The Cynon Valley scheme has been included in the Welsh Assembly Government’s 2011-12 capital programme.

Across the Valleys rail network, £2.96m will be spent on enhancements to the Cardiff Valleys rail infrastructure.

At present, Aberdare High Level Station is literally the “end of the line” for passengers travelling from Cardiff and through the Cynon Valley.

Passenger rail services between Hirwaun and Aberdare officially ended in 1964, but the rail network continued to be used in recent years by the now-closed Tower Colliery for transporting coal to Cardiff.

The reopening of the line will be one of 26 projects given priority over the coming year to improve the rail and road network.

The news has been welcomed by Cynon Valley AM Christine Chapman and Assembly candidate Dafydd Trystan Davies.

Mrs Chapman said: “I have been pushing for the reintroduction of passenger rail services between Aberdare and Hirwaun for some time.

“This is a logical and sensible way forward to reduce our reliance on cars, and the track is already in place.

Dr Davies said: “This will come as a huge boost to people in the Cynon Valley.

“It is a much-needed service and will really help in terms of cutting travel times and increasing job opportunities. It is a boost not only for transport links, but also for the economy of the area.

“I am very pleased that Ieuan Wyn Jones, as the Plaid Cymru transport minister, has recognised how important this is for the Hirwaun area and is going to make funding available.”

The irony is when I click on the story from ten years ago, the banner at the top is promoting today's story.

 

[Dai Corner]

Fingers crossed this actually happens, here's a story from ten years ago next month....

Aberdare-to-Hirwaun rail line set to reopen

IT’S full steam ahead for the reopening of the railway passenger line between Aberdare and Hirwaun.

www.walesonline.co.uk

The irony is when I click on the story from ten years ago, the banner at the top is promoting today's story.

I can't help feeling that this extension will be / would have been cheaper and more useful than the £100m one mile one to Cardiff Bay.

 

[Meerkat]

The bit I don't get is spending so much money on an extension to the Cardiff Bay line that doesn't provide a station nearer to Cardiff Bay? The Pierhead St Station seems to be just as far away from the waterfront by The Senedd, and still the wrong side of the busy roads - what am I missing?