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New station/bus interchange for Bow Street

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Bobdogs

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Today I passed the construction site of the new station. It is situated on the extreme south side of the village which itself is a ribbon development being approximately one mile long with a few offshoot estates.
My question is, is this a case of many of the population saying they want the station but when it comes down to it, very few will actually use it.
There are 18 bus services from the village to Aberystwyth per day and at present the first train leaves around 7am, the next service leaving around 9am, neither of which are convenient for either business people or school children
As for school children or those attending the university, why would they use the train which would lead to a mile treck up Penglais hill when the bus will drop them off at the top of the hill. Anyone with any sense who lives more than five minutes away will inevitably choose to take

one of the frequent buses rather than walk to the station and probably have to pay more to travel one stop.
As for the park and ride, if it is free, I can see motorists parking up and walking across the road to the bus stop.
As for north bound passengers, I don't think there will be many.
Am I being pessimistic or realistic?
Can this project justify the £8million cost?
I very much doubt it.
 
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Baxenden Bank

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Today I passed the construction site of the new station. It is situated on the extreme south side of the village which itself is a ribbon development being approximately one mile long with a few offshoot estates.
My question is, is this a case of many of the population saying they want the station but when it comes down to it, very few will actually use it.
There are 18 bus services from the village to Aberystwyth per day and at present the first train leaves around 7am, the next service leaving around 9am, neither of which are convenient for either business people or school children
As for school children or those attending the university, why would they use the train which would lead to a mile treck up Penglais hill when the bus will drop them off at the top of the hill. Anyone with any sense who lives more than five minutes away will inevitably choose to take

one of the frequent buses rather than walk to the station and probably have to pay more to travel one stop.
As for the park and ride, if it is free, I can see motorists parking up and walking across the road to the bus stop.
As for north bound passengers, I don't think there will be many.
Am I being pessimistic or realistic?
Can this project justify the £8million cost?
I very much doubt it.
When I saw the proposals, I was a little surprised that this was any kind of priority to getting built.

But I am not local and assumed 'the experts' had done their investigations and there was a real need for it.

Is there a hinterland population who could use Bow Street (for international travel to Shrewsbury and beyond) rather than driving through and parking in downtown Aberystwyth?
 

Parallel

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There is a university campus in Bow Street and most of the students live in/around Aberystwyth town centre so it may be reasonably popular with some students when the service goes hourly.

I believe Bow Street also had strong support from Ceredigion council.

I think it would have had moderate success before COVID but I imagine things will start off slow, but who knows?

Anyone know when the station is currently due to open?
 

Llandudno

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I think opening a station at Bow Street is a good idea, but £8million for a single platform and an hourly service, surely for this amount of money they could have built Carno station on the same line as well!
 

The Planner

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I think opening a station at Bow Street is a good idea, but £8million for a single platform and an hourly service, surely for this amount of money they could have built Carno station on the same line as well!
Carno would be incredibly difficult to timetable, Bow St was easy which is why its got somewhere.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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The "hoped-for" opening date has, it seems, fallen behind as a result of Covid-19. Has anyone local to the Aberystwyth area / North Wales region any news as to groundworks, etc, as they stand at present in terms of an opening date. This new station is said to be situated to the south of the site of the original Bow Street station which was closed in 1965.
 

tomwills98

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As of the 11th November, due to open early 2021. Still needs a safety assessment or two to make sure it's safe for people to use which should happen in December, and Network Rail have their regular checks to make sure construction is up to scratch. From the photos I've seen, it looks like the platform is done and just needs the car park tarmaced and furniture put in
 

Llandudno

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Bow Street Station Bus/rail interchange the £8,000,000 gift that keeps on giving!

I wonder how many people will catch a bus to/from this station, especially as TfW are seemingly incapable/unwilling to coordinate train and subsidised bus services!
 

PeterC

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The station looked fairly complete to me when I passed through on Saturday.
Google maps are showing the double arrow already.

As the railway parallels the bus bus routes through Bow Street there isn't an obvious market for a bus interchange. For anybody within walking distance of a stop both Aberystwyth and Machynlleth are more easlily reached by staying on the bus.
 

Parallel

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I think the station will be moderately used considering the size of the village and also not forgetting that Aberystwyth University also have a campus there so it will probably pick up some custom from students travelling, in addition to locals. However I can't see a bus interchange being hugely popular. There aren't many large settlements near Bow Street other than Aberystwyth, Borth and Machynlleth that all already have buses and train stations anyway. Bow Street is walking distance from Clarach along a minor road but I can't see huge numbers wanting to do that.

It's also too far North to pick up the bus routes that go east from Aberstwyth towards Llangurig along the A44 - And as for the T2, you could just get that at Aberystwyth or Machynlleth anyway. Pushing it as a 'bus interchange' is bizarre.

Nevertheless, I hope the station is used well.
 

Ianno87

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Will parking etc at Bow Street be any easier than at Aberystwyth?. If it is kind of "Aberystwyth Parkway" it might have more of a logic behind it.
 

PeterC

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Will parking etc at Bow Street be any easier than at Aberystwyth?. If it is kind of "Aberystwyth Parkway" it might have more of a logic behind it.
Looking at Google and seeing how Aberystwyth's suburbs have expanded since my student days in the early 70s I suspect that abstraction by park and ride from Aberysywyth station will be a significant part of the traffic.

The Gogerddan campus will still be easier to reach from Aberystwyth itself with an hourly-ish bus 6 days a week via Capel Dewi unless there is a decent taxi service from Bow Street.

It was a mistake following this thread, seeing how the area has changed on StreetView is bringing my age home to me.
 

Parallel

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I think a parkway station with an hourly or two hourly train service isn’t going to be enough to encourage car users to use the station, especially given the proximity to Aberystwyth - they may as well drive the last bit. If there was a train service every 15 minutes then it might do more to tempt people to the station but that won’t happen with the current infrastructure.
 

Ianno87

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I think a parkway station with an hourly or two hourly train service isn’t going to be enough to encourage car users to use the station, especially given the proximity to Aberystwyth - they may as well drive the last bit. If there was a train service every 15 minutes then it might do more to tempt people to the station but that won’t happen with the current infrastructure.

I was thinking anybody who lives on the outskirts of Aberyswyth for whom accessing the current station is a faff (to get a train to Shrewsbury or somewhere)
 

Llandudno

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I think a parkway station with an hourly or two hourly train service isn’t going to be enough to encourage car users to use the station, especially given the proximity to Aberystwyth - they may as well drive the last bit. If there was a train service every 15 minutes then it might do more to tempt people to the station but that won’t happen with the current infrastructure.
I don’t think it is intended as a park and ride station for journeys into Aberystwyth, more for eastbound travel, however, I doubt Bow Street will generate that many new rail journeys but just abstract Aberystwyth traffic.

I am not against the new station, but did it need such a grandiose design, surely for £8m the WAG could have opened both Bow Street AND Carno stations and generated more custom?
 

The Planner

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Carno cannot be done cheaply due to where all the loops are and how the timetable is built around them. Bow St was easy as you just eat into the turnround at the end.
 

adamedwards

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Is there potential for a shuttle? Train arrives from Birmingham, runs to Bow St and back and then departs Aber back to Birmingham?
 

Llandudno

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Is there potential for a shuttle? Train arrives from Birmingham, runs to Bow St and back and then departs Aber back to Birmingham?
Love it!
Sadly this is rural West Wales not Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town!
 

PeterC

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Is there potential for a shuttle? Train arrives from Birmingham, runs to Bow St and back and then departs Aber back to Birmingham?
Its a pretty tight turn round at Aber. I doubt if there is slack elsewhere in the timetable to fit in an extra local trip without seriously impacting the rest of the service.

A quick glance at StreetView shows the station car park almost full, I don't know how much parking is planned for Bow Street but it should be a far more attractive railhead for park and ride traffic than the town centre.
 

Llanigraham

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Its a pretty tight turn round at Aber. I doubt if there is slack elsewhere in the timetable to fit in an extra local trip without seriously impacting the rest of the service.

A quick glance at StreetView shows the station car park almost full, I don't know how much parking is planned for Bow Street but it should be a far more attractive railhead for park and ride traffic than the town centre.

Speaking to those in the know there would be no possibility of running a shuttle as suggested above without a major resetting of the timetable, and it would impact on the whole service.

There is no station car park at Aberystwyth, other than a few drop-off points immediately outside the side entrance.
The nearest car parking area is beyond the Vale of Rheidol Station in Boulevard de Saint Brieuc, or at Maes y Afon opposite there. Part of the former is designated coach parking in the summer months. There is parking at the Tesco/M&S site but this is for shoppers only.
 

PeterC

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Speaking to those in the know there would be no possibility of running a shuttle as suggested above without a major resetting of the timetable, and it would impact on the whole service.

There is no station car park at Aberystwyth, other than a few drop-off points immediately outside the side entrance.
The nearest car parking area is beyond the Vale of Rheidol Station in Boulevard de Saint Brieuc, or at Maes y Afon opposite there. Part of the former is designated coach parking in the summer months. There is parking at the Tesco/M&S site but this is for shoppers only.
The National Rail website says 15 places and these were signed as parking spaces last time the StreetView car went past.
 
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