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South Wales 'Metro' updates
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Trafnidiaeth Cymru Trenau Transport for Wales Rail (@tfwrail) on X
Service update: The half-hourly Pontypridd–Cardiff Bay service will be reinstated from Friday 24 April. ️They will appear in journey planners tomorrow Thank you for your continued patience.
Latest news from TfW: The half-hourly Pontypridd–Cardiff Bay service will be reinstated from Friday 24 April.
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CapitalStar378
Member
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- 22 Jun 2013
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- 603
This has all become a bit of a saga. Any news on the 398s expected start date?Trafnidiaeth Cymru Trenau Transport for Wales Rail (@tfwrail) on X
Service update: The half-hourly Pontypridd–Cardiff Bay service will be reinstated from Friday 24 April. ️They will appear in journey planners tomorrow Thank you for your continued patience.x.com
Latest news from TfW: The half-hourly Pontypridd–Cardiff Bay service will be reinstated from Friday 24 April.
Modern Railways May edition has just appeared online and contains a lot of articles about TfW, much of which is reportage arising from an event in Cardiff that the magazine organized on 26th March, so the information is around a month old. Pulling out a few Metro-related highlights:
- Theres a piece about the Queen St remodelling. Line speeds will be increased from 15mph to 25mph and parallel arrivals from Central into platform 5 and Cardiff Bay into platform 4 will be permitted with the new layout.
- "Crew training on the Stadler 398 tram-train is due to begin soon, with entry into service in late spring, potentially on the Pontypridd to Cardiff Bay line."
- There's a piece quoting Nathan Sealy from Amey defending the discontinuous electrification and saying that it was the right choice and that the "Sella Controls Tracklink III beacons are service proven"
- Network Rail are reported as planning to increase linespeed on the main line's relief lines to 100mph where feasible as part of the upgrade and new stations. Magor & Undy station is likely to open first as it involves the least disruption to the existing trackwork.
- A piece by Colin Boocock (pages 67-69) features him travelling around the Valley Lines reminiscing, but features an interesting little quote: "I used the rest of the day to nip up to Taff's Well in the hope of seeing a Class 398 on crew training, but I was told that the training was all done and the units were stored at the new depot ready to go." This seems to me like a misinterpretation given the earlier piece in the same magazine saying that crew training has yet to begin!
Tram Inn SB
Member
Modern Railways, just like Green Signals podcast are good news media they need to safeguard their access to the top teams and industry jollies.
What you read, hear in the industry media is often very different to what’s actually happening on the ground.
Cardiff123
Established Member
I've lost count of the articles I've read over the last 3 years, quoting TfW sources that 398 testing / crew training is due to start "this spring / summer / autumn / winter".
Whilst I hope the 398s are eventually a success, I don't see the benefit in just re-announcing every few months that testing / crew training is starting, when it isn't. Just be honest and admit the project has been beset by delay after delay. To anyone who passes Taffs Well on regular journeys, this is obvious anyway.
oglord
Member
What about the main lines? At this rate the reliefs will have a higher line speed than the mains!
He could just mean that training was finished for the day.
Tram Inn SB
Member
True, the only 100mph section is down port talbot way IIRC?
When the RL is upgraded to higher speeds, at what point are they just the other lines vice Relief ? lol
Interesting post from TfW on X stating that on Sunday 3 May, the half-hourly rail service between Pontypridd and Cardiff Bay will be reduced due to battery operation testing.
It doesn’t go into any detail as to what the scale of the service reduction will be!
It doesn’t go into any detail as to what the scale of the service reduction will be!
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Trafnidiaeth Cymru Trenau Transport for Wales Rail (@tfwrail) on X
⚠️ Service reduction Pontypridd – Cardiff Bay Sunday 3 May only The service will be reduced due to battery testing ️ Tickets valid at no extra cost on @Cardiffbus Baycar ⚠️ Check before you travel https://t.co/TJ394tFpnz https://t.co/VuqklCmKIF
Interesting post from TfW on X stating that on Sunday 3 May, the half-hourly rail service between Pontypridd and Cardiff Bay will be reduced due to battery operation testing.
It doesn’t go into any detail as to what the scale of the service reduction will be!
Does seem a bit vague, doesn't it? Perhaps the idea is that one consults the journey planner.
Interesting that this suggests running 398s through to the Bay despite so far as I know the power still not being on.
Tram Inn SB
Member
The Bay OLE is still “live” but switched off.
Smwrff
Member
Schrodingers electrification...
Actually I think unlike the last time this happened, TfW have publicly said that the power didn't go on as planned.
Oh dear.
Do you know what you're supposed to do if you can't tap in?
In principle the answer is of course that you must buy a ticket if the vending machine is working to avoid committing a criminal offence.
But that's not very helpful if you were relying on fare capping.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Oh and I see there's also cancellations on the Coryton line.
For quite a few months they actually managed to run a service but I wonder if it's going back to normal now?
I’ve bought a ticket on the app and have requested a refund from TfW support. I already have a case open as the validator at Coryton was down on two separate evenings.
They helpfully suggested that I used the validator on the opposite platform.
Is that the platform for trains to the new cancer centre at Velindre? Oh wait….
Officially if the PAYG machine is broken you're meant to buy a ticket else you get a £20 penalty fare if it's checked onboard, + perhaps a £10 tap out failure if you tap out to exit (say in Cardiff Central).
They said somewhere they aim to have 2 available at every station but idk if that's the case at 1 platform stations. Coryton does have two entrances so perhaps there is a second one.
They said somewhere they aim to have 2 available at every station but idk if that's the case at 1 platform stations. Coryton does have two entrances so perhaps there is a second one.
There isn’t a second one at Coryton unfortunately. I do keep meaning to suggest it. I always get on the back of the train when getting off at Coryton so I can pass the validator on my way to the exit up the steps.
I presume if you would have otherwise hit a daily or weekly cap they'll refund appropriately.
What is also annoying is when the reader isn't broken but just stays off-line for several days. The screens do say if they're on-line or not but it's subtle.
I don't know if you get your £20 automatically refunded eventually if that results in a tap-in not being uploaded by the time they work out the day's charges. I sorted it out with customer service when it happened to me but maybe it would have been OK in the end if I'd just sat tight.
(Edited to attempt to improve clarity)
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Philip Roberts
Member
I've used the service to reclaim the cost and its pretty seamless so I'd expect they'd refund you pretty quickly if your journey ended at Coryton. My local station (Pye Corner) only has one tap machine too so may be something I have to experience for myself!
Day before yesterday, I was surprised to see a young woman with no ticket allowed to pay on the train for a ticket from CDF (Cardiff Central) to LLS (Llanishen) with no questions asked. Paid with a tenner and got change. I thought that buying on the train was no longer a thing.
Plus she didn't actually get on at CDF (Cardiff Central), she was already on the train when it came in from BGD (Bridgend).
Plus when she got off at LLS she just sat there and waited for the next train!
Edited because mods don't like us using codes like 'CDF' for Cardiff Central.
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Markdvdman
Member
The problem is stations like Troedyrhiw have no way to buy tickets other thsn payg. Until that changes.....
Very much a thing in the Valleys.
I've heard guards encourage people to buy on the train many times.
One said something along the lines that the signs about having to buy before boarding were just there to deter ne'er do wells and wouldn't be enforced for anyone respectable.
And as you discovered, sometimes they will even sell tickets from a barriered station without asking questions.
That doesn't prevent them from penalising people who have boarded at the majority of stations that do have ticket machines. More of a problem I'd say is that most stations have a machine that doesn't take cash.
(Though TfW attempt to deal with this by putting up signs which misrepresent the NRCoT by claiming that you must have a ticket before boarding without mentioning this exemption).
Tram Inn SB
Member
A shadow 398 Pontypridd to Cardiff Bay to Queen Street to Cardiff Bay to Pontypridd diagram is taking place today.
398024 being the unit, running under the normal B, S & J headcodes with Class 3 classification.
398024 being the unit, running under the normal B, S & J headcodes with Class 3 classification.
Which if it's correct that the Bay line electrification is not operational is managing to work without running out of juice. That must be around the same mileage as a unit will cover if continuing down from Cathays onto the City Line before it finds some juice again, suggesting that the comments by a regular poster that they won't be able to cover that journey are somewhat pessimistic?
Or does it mean the Bay line is now live and operational?
Edit to add in a fairly important”not” before operational.
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