I went out this morning for a look at progress on some of the infastructure projects around Cardiff.
Coryton branch line
I wanted to see if there was any evidence of the electrification having been completed. It was supposed to have gone live during the blockade in October but a few press reports have come out which talk about electrification being completed in February. My suspicion was that there was some confusion on the part of the journalists between "electrification completed" and "electric trains in service", but I didn't have any evidence for this! So I went over to Coryton and as was on the lookout for any indications that it might not be completed and live - like temporary earthing straps attached to the overhead line or construction materials waiting at the lineside. I'm pleased to say that I found nothing suspicious - the work appears to be completed, with all the construction compounds taken down and no evidence of any outstanding works. So my assumption is that everything is completed and live.
I started at Coryton station (having walked from Radyr):
I then took a train to Heath Low Level. En route, I noticed that there's a large area of hardstanding between Birchgrove and Ty Glas that appears to have been used as a construction compound.
In the first picture, the wire rising from the conductor wire (in front of the bridge) goes to a surge arrestor on the cantilever above - it's not an earthing strap.
Heath High Level:
I walked across the road to Heath High Level to get a train back to Queen St. Here the overhead line also appears to be complete and live.
Cardiff Bay branch line
At Butetown station, there's clear evidence of the construction work for the second platform. The site has been cleared and there's an access track allowing machinery to be driven alongside the railway. Some sheet piling has been done, with heaps of sheet pile lying to one side waiting to be installed. I also saw several circular pile caps which will eventually be for overhead line masts.
Cleared site
Sheet pile installed
Sheet pile awaiting isntallation
Access track
A little new trackwork - I think that the track further from the camera has been laid to provide a position reference for the other works. This is just on the approach to Cardiff Bay, so it's likely that pointwork will be installed somewhere here to allow trams to access both platforms.
Here's the current state of the first platform at Butetown:
The main construction work has been casting concrete steps and ramps at both ends of the platform.
At Cardiff Bay there's also been a certain amount of concrete casting going on for the last few weeks. In particular, steps and a ramp have been built at the corner of Hemingway Road and Lloyd George Avenue to provide a broad exit from the station towards the Millennium Centre. Some of the solid compound fence has been taken down and replaced with mesh fencing so we can see into the site a lot better now.
It looks like passengers will go down the steps or ramp to track level, walk across what will eventually be the track heading onwards to Pierhead Street, and then climb back up again to platform height. This is definitely a tramway-style station.
On the existing platform, a peek through into the construction site:
Note the very broad steps down from the platform, designed to handle a large crowd. It looks like there will be quite a lot of circulating space provided - presumably so that during major events there's enough space to marshal a crowd and perhaps even put up temporary queuing areas as is done at Central on event days.
The ticket machine visible was powered up and working - presumably it was moved so as to be ready for the platform changeover, but then that was postponed.
Here's a view across (taken from the train window) into the new platform area. There are still various foundation structures visible that are waiting for something to be fitted on top of them.
Finally, the tramway-style foot crossing at the north end of the station - this will eventually let passengers out into Lloyd George Avenue.
