That's not good to hear... I have to say I've never had a problem breaking my journey (London-Barry) at Central in 20 years of travelling that route, though I do always say the magic words "I'm breaking my journey to go to M&S/WHSmiths"...Came here to say just that! And Cardiff Central staff being Cardiff Central staff, showed one of them the other day and he said “This says Cardiff Bay to Newport. This is neither.”
Now we just need that annoying gap between Canton & the limit of wiring between Ninian Park & Waun-gron Park to be closed...
Some contractual gubbins probably.
They've really cracked on with the Merthyr branch then!
Yes they stop virtually opposite the northernmost house in Clare Street.
That's good progress! I still strongly suspect (and apologies for speculating!) that there will be political pressure to demonstrate an electric train running before December this year (as that was a previously-aimed-for completion date) - even if it's just a press run from Cardiff to Merthyr and back.
So, are we to assume that it was a like for like renewal at Xmas 22 rather than the red line highlighted ‘positron’ above that means we are to remain stuck at 2 trains per hour on the City Line?
Yup it's definitely still 'missing' unfortunately. It was planned as part of the Cardiff area resignalling but got dropped and Network rail somehow aren't willing to spend the 20m (a figure I read in some business case document) to fix it. I suspect the likely outcome will be Welsh government pay for it out of their pocket. Potentially as part of the trams to central infrastructure works. Its not been confirmed but if those trams are to continue up the ramp that capacity increase will be a requirement.
How on earth are you going to grade separate the City and Barry lines at Cardiff West ?!
Well it'd be the triangle (Penarth curve?) Bit where the separation actually happens. I think the idea was an underpass rather than flyover. But I don't know if anyone's ever properly appraised the idea beyond "we probably need this for the north west corridor route"
Agree that a lot of money was wasted on platform extensions a decade ago which were never used in a regular basis.
Interesting, yes a clearer map (tube style ?) would be helpful and also frequency. As I spend time in Penarth and also by the Taff on Grangetown side I see the generation below me using the car where I walk or go for the train (usually with granddaughter). That is unless I am travelling with them - but then I get to Cardiff from England most times by coach !.
It seems a no brainer to run 4tph each way over the City line through to the valleys, thus providing a good service to the line and having a decent passenger load on every train. I guess the only issue could be over capacity trains, but if there are 6 car 398s at peaks then this shouldn't happen.
Lots of things seem a no-brainer until you realise there is a large capital cost in terms of an infrastructure intervention to facilitate it.
Yes but whats £20m when you're already spending £1bn? Especially when the roads need the relief from a utilised rail service.
Working in that area of Cardiff at the time, the impression I had was that the plan was to remove the embankment and bring the railway down to street level, not to get rid of it altogether. However the developers of the posh, expensive new flats on the eastern side rather liked the idea of a physical barrier between them and Butetown itself, so the embankment was kept. Can't have ordinary folk just wandering across to our shiny new developments, can we?
I was involved in a feasibility study in around 1997 into lowering the route to ground level and running it as tram-train. As far as I recall it wasn't possible to cross Herbert Street on the level due to the proximity of the bridge over the line into Central, so it would have had to ramp down further south, and the ramp would have been inconveniently high for pedestrians to cross it at grade but also too low for an underpass.
