Cardiff and Wales improvements DfT announcement 21Aug

[anthony263]

I do think electrification to swansea is a good idea. One of the maps from network rail ive seen shows them proposing the wires to carmarthen but also show the tondu to margam line as proposed for electrification

 

[Paul Dancey]

I guess the 'ensuring platforms are suited for longer trains' refers to Network Rail's long-standing aspiration to make platform 0 the main platform for services to London (with platform 2 becoming the main platform for services from London and platform 3 being for services off the relief lines east of Cardiff), meaning that platform 0 would potentially need to be 260m long to accommodate a pair of 5-car IET sets. Unfortunately, this appears to be completely unachievable without wrecking the listed building, since there is no space for a 260m platform 0 without demolishing most of the main building. I think the station clock is also missing from the image posted earlier, the people on the roof are probably on the extended platform 0. I'm dead against the idea; with the measure tool on Google Maps I think you could extend platform 0 to 161m (7x23) without having to demolish anything, which could accommodate most non-London services, but IETs are out. If you extended the platform out over the Taff (which would mean having to move pointwork) you could even do 240m (20x12) which could even take a 9-car IET potentially but 10-car is still a no-no without destroying one of the best pieces of railway architecture in Wales.

A while back I seem to remember there was a proposal to jack up the clock tower and move it forward into central square. But I could never understand how that was going to make the difference, unless you can then demolish part of the existing building at track level, or somehow open it up below roof level to provide the space for platform extension. Is it just the frontage that's listed, or is it the booking hall as well?

 

[Rhydgaled]

A while back I seem to remember there was a proposal to jack up the clock tower and move it forward into central square. But I could never understand how that was going to make the difference, unless you can then demolish part of the existing building at track level, or somehow open it up below roof level to provide the space for platform extension. Is it just the frontage that's listed, or is it the booking hall as well?

The entire station is listed (expect, I think, platform 8 and the new southern enterance). Apparently, the reason for the listing was "most complete example of GWR major city railway station of the period following the regrouping of the railway system". Network Rail don't seem to get this, ANY demolition would fundamentally impact the importance of the station because you are making it less complete (the coucil don't seem to get it either, as they allowed the old southern entrance to disappear although maybe that wasn't included in the listing).

The first proposal I saw from Network Rail, a Reading-style transfer deck, would have swept away the platform buildings too and left virtually nothing standing except the frontage (and the clock which somehow survived in that version).

 

[Tomos y Tanc]

The entire station is listed (expect, I think, platform 8 and the new southern enterance). Apparently, the reason for the listing was "most complete example of GWR major city railway station of the period following the regrouping of the railway system". Network Rail don't seem to get this, ANY demolition would fundamentally impact the importance of the station because you are making it less complete (the coucil don't seem to get it either, as they allowed the old southern entrance to disappear although maybe that wasn't included in the listing).

Wasn't the old southern entrance originally the seperate Cardiff Riverside station?

As I remember it, it was a simple red brick structure that seemed to predate the current station and was totally out of keeping with the rest of Central. That's not an argument for demolition, of course, but it may well have been excluded from the listing for that reason.