South Wales 'Metro' updates

CapitalStar378 said:

That's nothing like the building shown in the original plans, more of a shed. I assume that it's been 'value engineered'!

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Very much the same order of staff buildings most new lines get now. Case in point - the Northumberland Line at Ashington. The conductor's facility there wasn't too different to this.

CapitalStar378 said:

That's nothing like the building shown in the original plans, more of a shed. I assume that it's been 'value engineered'!

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The bay station already has been they got rid of some gantry at the entrance to save money too.

cloakanddagger said:

Given the fact mainline electrification was meant to go as far as Swansea and only reached Cardiff, even that is doing some pretty heavy lifting.

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One could also argue that the Valley Lines electrification was meant to be completed in full, not el-cheapo discontinuous which causes all sorts of operational issues.

oglord said:

One could also argue that the Valley Lines electrification was meant to be completed in full, not el-cheapo discontinuous which causes all sorts of operational issues.

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My understanding is that the CVL could never be fully electrified. There are listed structures on the routes that cannot be altered like the Caerphilly Tunnel, and there are neighbouring Cardiff University buildings that contain extremely sensitive equipment that would be negatively affected by the installation of OHLE through the stretch of line beyond Cathays station.
Having said that, there are some sections of track without OHLE that should be covered in future, such as the VOG line.

cloakanddagger said:

My understanding is that the CVL could never be fully electrified. There are listed structures on the routes that cannot be altered like the Caerphilly Tunnel, and there are neighbouring Cardiff University buildings that contain extremely sensitive equipment that would be negatively affected by the installation of OHLE through the stretch of line beyond Cathays station.
Having said that, there are some sections of track without OHLE that should be covered in future, such as the VOG line.

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Well indeed. They *could* be electrified but it would cost a lot of money, just like the gold-plated mainline electrification did. That would then cause the whole project to run out of money and be cut back, just like the mainline electrification did. The point is that no matter who does electrification it always ends up either very expensive, or value engineered.

cloakanddagger said:

My understanding is that the CVL could never be fully electrified. There are listed structures on the routes that cannot be altered like the Caerphilly Tunnel, and there are neighbouring Cardiff University buildings that contain extremely sensitive equipment that would be negatively affected by the installation of OHLE through the stretch of line beyond Cathays station.

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And yet at one point "proper" electrification was being seriously considered, wasn't it?

I haven't seen the suggestion before that Caerphilly tunnel is legally unelectrifiable, just that it would a rather expensive undertaking.

And I find it difficult to believe that if full electrification were being planned the University would be able to stop it.

I think the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands did have a hand in delaying a tram extension to and through the campus on interference grounds, but that's a bit different.
(The problem was apparently solved by the physics department figuring out a way of doing the wiring to minimise electromagnetic interference, though what works on a relatively low voltage DC tramway might not be so suited to 25 kV trains).