Pontypridd Station

[Gareth Marston]

Found this CGI clip from NR on how Pontypridd station should look later this year thought I'd share it.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w8y_fw9UAB0

[youtube]w8y_fw9UAB0[/youtube]
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Found this CGI clip from NR on how Pontypridd station should look later this year thought I'd share it.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w8y_fw9UAB0

[youtube]w8y_fw9UAB0[/youtube]

Just watched it again struck by number of young professional types NR seem to think will use it. The Wetherspoons across the road certainly doesn't fit that profile!

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Are they really expecting drones with cameras to be flying through the station and across the lines? Looks a bit dangerous to me.

 

[herschell]

This what I would have wanted for the Cardiff Queen Street upgrade which is finished now

 

[krus_aragon]

This what I would have wanted for the Cardiff Queen Street upgrade which is finished now

As in you wanted a flythrough, or you wanted this style of architecture/renovation?

 

[herschell]

As in you wanted a flythrough, or you wanted this style of architecture/renovation?

I was meaning a flythrough.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Just watched it again struck by number of young professional types NR seem to think will use it. The Wetherspoons across the road certainly doesn't fit that profile!

I don't think they stock those kinds of CGI people

Looks all good and Pontypridd really does need any kind of investment so we shouldn't begrudge this at all.

I find it interesting that the reopened platform face is for terminating trains only and the line not continued through to the Rhondda part of the junction.

t.

Ian

 

[krus_aragon]

I find it interesting that the reopened platform face is for terminating trains only and the line not continued through to the Rhondda part of the junction.

t.

Ian

Sadly that's impossible to do with the narrower modern bridge over Sardis Road (north of the station): there's no bridge in front of the (until recently) disused side of the island platform. And there'd be the expense of a brand new junction layout as well.

 

[Gareth Marston]

I don't think they stock those kinds of CGI people

Looks all good and Pontypridd really does need any kind of investment so we shouldn't begrudge this at all.

I find it interesting that the reopened platform face is for terminating trains only and the line not continued through to the Rhondda part of the junction.

t.

Ian

The new bay is in fact the old UP platform for Cardiff trains the site was heavily rationalised but not demolished, you can see on the CGI the shape the Taff Railway had to uniquely build to accommodate 7 platforms. There were 4 north facing bays, 1 south and the 2 through platforms, the goods avoiding lines were on the west side where the 1990's northbound platform is.
Pontypridd was the capital of the Valleys 150,000 lived in the Rhondda Valleys before WW1 and went to Pontypridd to shop/ come a etc. The passenger services were operated as a Merthyr to Cardiff mainline with connecting branch trains to the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach northbound and Caerphilly and Cowbridge southbound. Well worth a visit as the station survived.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Thanks. The layout of Pontypridd has always been a little bit of a mystery to me. Rarely did I venture north of Trefforest as a child - actually even then a train trip to Cardiff was a rare and wonderful thing

Not that I was really old enough then to take an interest in these things beyond watching the DMUs and frequent coal trains. I do remember the new platform being build in the 80's (?!) and a few visits to Pontypridd and marvelling at the complex arrangements of bays, through tracks etc. As well as the sheer length of the platform...

t.

Ian

 

[Gareth Marston]

Thanks. The layout of Pontypridd has always been a little bit of a mystery to me. Rarely did I venture north of Trefforest as a child - actually even then a train trip to Cardiff was a rare and wonderful thing

Not that I was really old enough then to take an interest in these things beyond watching the DMUs and frequent coal trains. I do remember the new platform being build in the 80's (?!) and a few visits to Pontypridd and marvelling at the complex arrangements of bays, through tracks etc. As well as the sheer length of the platform...

t.

Ian

Imagine if Nottingham Victoria or the GWR Birmingham Snow Hill had survived with just a couple of platforms in operation.

 

[Greenback]

Thanks. The layout of Pontypridd has always been a little bit of a mystery to me. Rarely did I venture north of Trefforest as a child - actually even then a train trip to Cardiff was a rare and wonderful thing

Not that I was really old enough then to take an interest in these things beyond watching the DMUs and frequent coal trains. I do remember the new platform being build in the 80's (?!) and a few visits to Pontypridd and marvelling at the complex arrangements of bays, through tracks etc. As well as the sheer length of the platform...

t.

Ian

I might be wrong, but I think the new platform built by BR opened in 1991. I remember reading about it when I was doing a particular role which dates it to either 1990 or 1991.

 

[HowardGWR]

I see the bus station is a fair way away from the station. Is that not a drawback?

 

[Greenback]

I see the bus station is a fair way away from the station. Is that not a drawback?

It's a fair walk, but not as bad as here in Llanelli. It didn't seem like it anyway!
I just hope more buses stop outside Pontypridd station than stop at Llanelli station!

 

[paulravuslante]

From previously living in Ponty a long time ago, I seem to remember that some local buses pulled into the stops right outside the station. Some interurban routes stopped just around the corner outside Sardis Chapel so not too bad.

 

[anthony263]

Pontypridd also has the frequent town centre circular bus service which provides a direct link between the Bus and Railway stn

 

[rf_ioliver]

I remember reading about it when I was doing a particular role which dates it to either 1990 or 1991.

Just checked, it was 90-91 indeed.

Ian

 

[Greenback]

Good to know my memory hasn't gone completely!

At the time I wasn't totally familiar with Pontypridd station, and the photo I saw in modern Railways or Rail was intriguing to me. I couldn't see why they had chosen to build the new platform on the other side of the tracks when there seemed to be such a massive old platform already there!

 

[L&Y Robert]

I see from yhe 'Fly-through' that there are to be ticket gates actually ON the platform, and a railing along the edge of the platform on the 'outside' of the gates. I've never seen this arrangement before, have you?

 

[Gareth Marston]

I see from yhe 'Fly-through' that there are to be ticket gates actually ON the platform, and a railing along the edge of the platform on the 'outside' of the gates. I've never seen this arrangement before, have you?

Already the arrangement I think?

 

[krus_aragon]

Already the arrangement I think?

Indeed. It's long been possible to walk up the stairs, turn right, and go over the enormous footbridge without passing through the ticket line.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Good to know my memory hasn't gone completely!

At the time I wasn't totally familiar with Pontypridd station, and the photo I saw in modern Railways or Rail was intriguing to me. I couldn't see why they had chosen to build the new platform on the other side of the tracks when there seemed to be such a massive old platform already there!

I was more worried about my memory And same sentiments about the use of the closed platform side too.

Just dug out my copy of Pontypridd to Port Talbot (Mitchell and Smith) where the date of opening of the new platform on the up relief line is given as 16th September 1991.

Looking at the pictures and diagrams in the book, you have two main lines up and down, an up relief and then to the right (looking north) the now platform 2. The junction to the north looks like a spaghetti with trains coming down the valley able to access all routes through Pontypridd.

Surprising to think that Pontypridd operated as a single platform station for so many years - testament to the amount of coal versus passenger traffic.

t.

Ian

 

[Greenback]

Looking at the pictures and diagrams in the book, you have two main lines up and down, an up relief and then to the right (looking north) the now platform 2. The junction to the north looks like a spaghetti with trains coming down the valley able to access all routes through Pontypridd.

That's right, only I didn't know the layout at the time, and photo in the magazine was designed to show the new platform more than anything else, and not the full layout of the lines. I had assumed, naively, that the extra platform would have been built on the site of a former platform that had been closed and demolished, such was my lack of knowledge of the station!

Surprising to think that Pontypridd operated as a single platform station for so many years - testament to the amount of coal versus passenger traffic

I was also amazed when I'd found out a few years earlier (through a book about Railways in Wales that I've long since lost) that Pontypridd was only served by one platform. But as you say, coal was still king in the 60's when some of the local services were cut, and as the passenger service at the time could be catered for with only one platform, why not?!