Bridge problem cardiff Central 20/4/25 route blocked Newport Cardiff

[AdamWW]

Further hindered by signalling staff going sick so Vale of Glamorgan/Maesteg has only just opened this morning and also multiple track circuit failures between Newport and STJ.

Not good!

Meanwhile at Queen Street the only rail services appear to be to Coryton and the Bay, but with the latter not shown on screens.

I'm sure people are working very hard behind the scenes to set up replacement buses etc. and there isn't time to do everything, but it is a bit disappointing that having managed to provide trains to two destinations, you need to use third party tools to find out about one of them.

Still, it makes a change that in disruption Coryton is currently getting a far better service than Caerphilly!

Also, presumably once the Bay line goes over to line of sight operation turning Rhmyney line or Coryton trains at the Bay won't be possible unless they clear 398s for the routes and pinch them from their normal services.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

There is some interesting digging in this picture https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70zl6d5881o

A small scaffold tower isn't going to move a bridge back 2ft although until we get an official explanation who knows what the root cause and actual damage is

 

[didcot_watcher]

The picture has changed, I don't think the vertical props were in the previous version of the picture.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The picture has changed, I don't think the vertical props were in the previous version of the picture.

I suspect some form of subsidence; has anyone said if the alleged 2 foot movement of a girder is horizontal or vertical?

The 2 foot could even be an exaggeration?

Note in the picture there are at least three tie bars in the pillar to the left of the arch they are working on - are those new or have they been there for some time? That could be a relevant factor.

 

[vicbury]

The services allowed through to Cardiff from Newport during this seemed rather questionable yesterday.

TfW weren’t running the ex-Holyheads or the ex-Ebbw Vale services to Cardiff. Ex-Manchester and ex-Cheltenham services were still running.

GWR weren’t running the ex-Pompeys, ex-Penzance/Tauntons and the ex-Paddington (Cardiff terminators). Ex-Paddington services continuing beyond Cardiff were running.

XC were running everything through.

Bristol Temple Meads to/from Cardiff is a heavy flow, so to not offer any direct services and instead force a change at Newport onto already full (mainly 2-carriage) Turbostars was strange. Surely better to let GWR’s ex-Penzances through as most were formed of 5 carriage IETs and had more capacity, and terminate the XC at Newport?

I wonder if it was a nice way for GWR to hide staff shortages because they seem to be running all services from Temple Meads to Cardiff today.

 

[Mr_B]

Is that actually a structural girder, or just a cable tray hanging from the masonry viaduct that's come loose? That would fit the relatively quick estimated fix times, and the prop picture as I doubt you'd run under any part of a bridge after a 2ft movement of something structural.

 

[StripeyNick]

I suspect some form of subsidence; has anyone said if the alleged 2 foot movement of a girder is horizontal or vertical?

The 2 foot could even be an exaggeration?

Note in the picture there are at least three tie bars in the pillar to the left of the arch they are working on - are those new or have they been there for some time? That could be a relevant factor.

I originally mentioned a couple of feet but the message I had said they'd seen a photo and that the bridge has moved 'a few feet' so I posted a more conservative estimation.

Either way, moving a number of feet sounds bloomin' serious

 

[Benjwri]

I wonder if it was a nice way for GWR to hide staff shortages because they seem to be running all services from Temple Meads to Cardiff today.

I don’t see how that would hide a staff shortage, given all that it does is give staff a slightly longer turnaround at Newport compared to Cardiff…

 

[Clarence Yard]

I wonder if it was a nice way for GWR to hide staff shortages because they seem to be running all services from Temple Meads to Cardiff today.

Put the tin foil hat away. What went where was determined by NR. They instructed that particular service groups were spun at Temple Meads as there was no room at either Cardiff or Newport to accommodate them. It was only some of the class 2 trains from Taunton that were able to be spun at Newport yesterday.

And GWR did have the staff to run them too.

 

[Dai Corner]

At the time of writing there seems to be a near-normal service on the main line, albeit with delays, except that Cardiff-Ebbw Vale trains aren't running according to RTT. TfW Journeycheck makes no mention of this. GWR Journeycheck doesn't mention the incident at all.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Re posting link to news article here.

Picture here - pasted it here (I think) in case it changes again.

It looks like three props each resting on a base the size of half a sleeper - made of concrete ?. They appear to have a screw jack type adjuster at the foot of each one. There is a fourth base on the right edge of the picture (4th prop would be out of picture frame ?). Presumably taking the load off the brick arch.

Is that actually a structural girder, or just a cable tray hanging from the masonry viaduct that's come loose? That would fit the relatively quick estimated fix times, and the prop picture as I doubt you'd run under any part of a bridge after a 2ft movement of something structural.

You are right that a 2ft movement implies the whole bridge is compromised EXCEPT it might just be a sub member - for example one of several beams running from the large beam across to the arch.

Could also be part of the OHLE ?.

 

[MikePJ]

It does highlight how crucial that intersecting bridge (Queen St lines crossing main line, which in turn crosses the Dock Feeder Canal) is to Cardiff's rail transport. Let's hope it doesn't need a full replacement because that'll be a massive operation.

 

[Towers]

We can see there is assorted vegetation growing through the masonry, even in the above image of a very short section of the whole structure it is clear to see that greenery has taken hold in at least two places, with what looks to be a substantial sized bush growing out of the brickwork on the right. That’s unlikely to be helping the integrity of the structure.

 

[mcmad]

Looking at the picture above, it looks more like the props are supporting the girder rather than the arches

 

[Markdvdman]

Well looking at tfw website this is continuing all day tomorrow too. I would not be surprised if this was all week as it does not look a 5 minute job!

 

[Cardiff123]

Well looking at tfw website this is continuing all day tomorrow too. I would not be surprised if this was all week as it does not look a 5 minute job!

TfW journey check states that disruption to Valley Lines is expected until Sunday.

What's not mentioned on Journeycheck is that the service to Barry Island has also been thinned out and Penarth services dropped from 4tph to just 1tph.

 

[AdamWW]

Well looking at tfw website this is continuing all day tomorrow too. I would not be surprised if this was all week as it does not look a 5 minute job!

TfW now saying:

Mainline services into and out of Cardiff have largely returned to normal following a structural issue with a bridge, however disruption to services on the Valley Lines will continue until Monday morning.

A routine inspection of the intersection bridge between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street at the weekend revealed some structural problems. The bridge connects Cardiff Central to Queen Street, running over the lines linking Cardiff Central to Newport and beyond. Safety is our first priority, so services were immediately suspended and engineers sent to site.

Extensive repair works have enabled mainline services between Newport and Cardiff to largely reopen with the exception of local services to Ebbw Vale which will only run between Ebbw Vale and Newport for the remainder of this week, with connections at Newport for Cardiff.

Work on the bridge will continue this week with service amendments expected until Sunday. Bus replacements are in place for the Caerphilly and Coryton lines, and other services are diverting via the City line. Additional train services will be added as phases of the work complete this week.

There is also ticket acceptance on Cardiff Bus and Stagecoach. Passengers are advised to check Journeycheck.com/tfwrail or Transport for Wales social media for the latest travel updates.

We apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.

An hour or so ago they were saying Sunday morning.

A concise and clear description though if I were awarding points I'd mark them down for saying that bus replacements are in place for the Coryton line but failing to mention that they are also running a normal service between Coryton and Queen Street. Or were until yet another 150 failed.

TfW journey check states that disruption to Valley Lines is expected until Sunday.

What's not mentioned on Journeycheck is that the service to Barry Island has also been thinned out and Penarth services dropped from 4tph to just 1tph.

Not the first time they've failed to mention Penarth services being reduced to 1 tph though last time it was for planned work.

(As in my previous post, they've now changed that to Monday though they appear to have forgotten to edit the but about service amendments continuing until Sunday)

They’re not auto-generated, they are input from a member of staff using Tyrell, the problem is the choice of wording is pre-defined.

The first will be the reason, so you select that from hundreds of reasons

Second you choose the location and time expected until the disruption ends and what lines are affected.

What is the impact? You can select from cancelled/delayed/revised/terminate at/start at etc.

Then there is ticket acceptance info and rail replacement info which you can freeform in the Customer Advice or Additional Info box, sometimes I prefer freeform here as it makes more sense.

Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t read great and that’s a limitation of the system.

I do not think that Journeycheck has excelled itself today.

Quite possibly garbage in garbage out, but...

The Coryton line has been running today as a shuttle to the Bay with a full half hourly service.

Realtimetrains shows the appropriate diagrams, and Traksy shows the trains merrily running up and down. So the new pattern has been loaded into something.

But meanwhile none of the text I've seen from TfW has mentioned this (no line updates on Journeycheck). For northbound journeys Journeycheck is showing the normal service but with trains cancelled between Penarth and Queen Street (nothing about running from the Bay).

Southbound it's showing all journeys as cancelled throughout (even though they're not) and fictitious additional journeys shown as running from Coryton to Queen Street.

I'm sure there's a good reason that Journeycheck is showing bogus information when realtimetrains has access to what's actually happening, but it's not particularly helpful.

Will they run the Coryton to the Bay shuttle tomorrow? Will Caerphilly get a go instead? Who knows!

 

[Cardiff123]

Not the first time they've failed to mention Penarth services being reduced to 1 tph though last time it was for planned work.

Penarth is served by such frequent buses, the 92/93/94 run every 10 minutes between the bus interchange and Penarth town centre, it's easy for TfW to junk Penarth services without worrying about leaving people stranded. That's if ticket acceptance is agreed obviously.

 

[AdamWW]

Penarth is served by such frequent buses, the 92/93/94 run every 10 minutes between the bus interchange and Penarth town centre, it's easy for TfW to junk Penarth services without worrying about leaving people stranded. That's if ticket acceptance is agreed obviously.

Still disruptive though and it doesn't count for PAYG capping, so it would be quite nice if they mentioned it.

 

[father_jack]

Looking at the picture above, it looks more like the props are supporting the girder rather than the arches

My memory may recall about 10 years ago an incident with those arches under the "Valley" lines where there was a closure. You could see the patch up for a while until it weathered the same colour as the rest of the bricks.

 

[Dai Corner]

For the record, here's the statement from TfW on the Journeycheck website at the time of posting

Mainline services into and out of Cardiff have largely returned to normal following a structural issue with a bridge, however disruption to services on the Valley Lines will continue until Sunday morning.

A routine inspection of the intersection bridge between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street at the weekend revealed some structural problems. The bridge connects Cardiff Central to Queen Street, running over the lines linking Cardiff Central to Newport and beyond. Safety is our first priority, so services were immediately suspended and engineers sent to site.

Extensive repair works have enabled mainline services between Newport and Cardiff to largely reopen with the exception of local services to Ebbw Vale which will only run between Ebbw Vale and Newport for the remainder of this week, with connections at Newport for Cardiff.

Work on the bridge will continue this week with service amendments expected until Sunday. Bus replacements are in place for the Caerphilly and Coryton lines, and other services are diverting via the City line. Additional train services will be added as phases of the work complete this week.

There is also ticket acceptance on Cardiff Bus and Stagecoach. Passengers are advised to check Journeycheck.com/tfwrail or Transport for Wales social media for the latest travel updates.

We apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.

 

[AdamWW]

For the record, here's the statement from TfW on the Journeycheck website at the time of posting

I am seeing (big yellow banner at the top of the Journeycheck page):
"disruption to services on the Valley Lines will continue until Monday morning." (my bold).

 

[Dai Corner]

I am seeing (big yellow banner at the top of the Journeycheck page):
"disruption to services on the Valley Lines will continue until Monday morning." (my bold).

It must have been updated since I posted. I wonder if anybody actually knows how long it will be yet?

 

[AdamWW]

It must have been updated since I posted.

It was saying Monday for me a while back (see post 77).

 

[Cardiff123]

My memory may recall about 10 years ago an incident with those arches under the "Valley" lines where there was a closure. You could see the patch up for a while until it weathered the same colour as the rest of the bricks.

As I said on page 1, it was in August 2012 due to a landslip and the closure back then was for 2 weeks

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Re posting link to news article here.

Picture here - pasted it here (I think) in case it changes again.

It looks like three props each resting on a base the size of half a sleeper - made of concrete ?. They appear to have a screw jack type adjuster at the foot of each one. There is a fourth base on the right edge of the picture (4th prop would be out of picture frame ?). Presumably taking the load off the brick arch.

You are right that a 2ft movement implies the whole bridge is compromised EXCEPT it might just be a sub member - for example one of several beams running from the large beam across to the arch.

Could also be part of the OHLE ?.

This another pic which gives an overview of the structure before propping https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y62kpxp96o

Looks like the steelworks is cantilevered off the viaduct to allow transition onto the main overbridge as they couldn't build the arches any closer to the adjacent line. See below a screen shot from a cab ride

 

[Peter Mugridge]

We can see there is assorted vegetation growing through the masonry, even in the above image of a very short section of the whole structure it is clear to see that greenery has taken hold in at least two places, with what looks to be a substantial sized bush growing out of the brickwork on the right. That’s unlikely to be helping the integrity of the structure.

That appears to be a buddleia. For reference to the damage the roots can do - I recently posted a thread with a photograph of the rootstock from a buddleia that was only about six feet in height:

Buddleia roots and the damage they cause.

We have mentioned on this forum many times before about the damage that buddleia roots can do, but so far we haven't actually illustrated it. This picture is of the root stock of a single buddleia bush just seven feet high which was removed from a raised flowerbed in my garden on Monday; the...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Horizon22]

NRES has updated now, also saying disruption expected until 27th.

Incident: Cardiff Central | National Rail

Major disruption: reduced Transport for Wales service to / from Cardiff Central expected until the end of the day on Sunday 27 April. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Urgent repairs to a bridge in the Cardiff Central area are required. Whilst repairs are being carried out, some lines are closed. As a result of this, a reduced service is running to / from Cardiff Central today and trains may be revised or cancelled.
Major disruption is expected until the end of the day on Sunday 27 April.

 

[Envoy]

It appears that Network Rail can’t be bothered to spray the buddleia that is growing out of their structures. (You can't rip it out because the roots will have penetrated deep so spraying the leaves with poison is the only way to knock them out).

All around the Cardiff area are buddleia bushes and they just leave the mauve flowers to go to seed which then create new plants the following summer. I am not saying that buddleia is the cause of the present problem but it is certainly is an issue that needs addressing - along with the dreaded Japanese Knotweed.

 

[AdamWW]

Looks as if today is getting the same service pattern through Queen Street, i.e. half hourly between the Bay and Coryton and nothing else.

Southbound, Journeycheck is showing departures to Penarth running as normal (all the way to Penarth) with additional services leaving at exactly the same time running just to Queen Street (not the Bay) and also running.

Perhaps I'm just hopelessly optimistic but I'd have thought that by now things would have settled down enough that there would be the resources to start giving out correct information on the current service patterns.

If I wanted to head towards Central I'd find it a bit annoying to be told that the train was running as normal only to be chucked out at Queen Street (or even worse, find myself at the Bay).