A few weeks ago,
Network Rail unveiled their Strategic Business Plan for 2014-2019.
The overall aim of the strategic plan is to improve capacity (i.e.
more carriages, longer platforms) and help meet UK Government targets
to mitigate climate change and CO2 emissions.
They've already committed £874million towards Great Western Line electrification, and there's at least a further ~£350million in the pipeline for Valley Lines electrification.
The Great Western Line to Swansea will be electrified by 2018 and the Valley Lines by 2024 at the latest (it's likely to be sooner than that). A Welsh Government funded £45million improvement to North-South services should be completed by 2015.
The idea is that electrification will reduce maintenance costs (as the trains are lighter) and would enable current diesel trains to be replaced by "refurbished" electric ones, which have faster acceleration and would hopefully shave journey times.
The fact it takes so long to get from the heads of the valleys into Cardiff – a journey of 30 miles tops - is ludicrous and has been for decades. It takes an hour to get from Merthyr, Ebbw Vale and Rhymney to Cardiff Central, just over an hour from Treherbert and around 50 minutes from Maesteg. And that's before you factor in any possible delays.
Additional platforms are being provided at Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street (the latter is currently under construction) which will enable more trains to and from the Valleys per hour. There's also new platforms planned/under construction at Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Barry. A passing loop will be constructed at Tir Phil on the Rhymney line, which will enable a half-hourly services to/from Rhymney itself.
I don't think there are any new stations planned over the next few years (by Network Rail or the Welsh Government) other than Energlyn (Caerphilly), Caerleon and Brackla (Bridgend). There's much more commentary on that at Plaid Monmouth.
There are also other strategic priorities:
They've already committed £874million towards Great Western Line electrification, and there's at least a further ~£350million in the pipeline for Valley Lines electrification.
The Great Western Line to Swansea will be electrified by 2018 and the Valley Lines by 2024 at the latest (it's likely to be sooner than that). A Welsh Government funded £45million improvement to North-South services should be completed by 2015.
The idea is that electrification will reduce maintenance costs (as the trains are lighter) and would enable current diesel trains to be replaced by "refurbished" electric ones, which have faster acceleration and would hopefully shave journey times.
The fact it takes so long to get from the heads of the valleys into Cardiff – a journey of 30 miles tops - is ludicrous and has been for decades. It takes an hour to get from Merthyr, Ebbw Vale and Rhymney to Cardiff Central, just over an hour from Treherbert and around 50 minutes from Maesteg. And that's before you factor in any possible delays.
Additional platforms are being provided at Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street (the latter is currently under construction) which will enable more trains to and from the Valleys per hour. There's also new platforms planned/under construction at Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Barry. A passing loop will be constructed at Tir Phil on the Rhymney line, which will enable a half-hourly services to/from Rhymney itself.
I don't think there are any new stations planned over the next few years (by Network Rail or the Welsh Government) other than Energlyn (Caerphilly), Caerleon and Brackla (Bridgend). There's much more commentary on that at Plaid Monmouth.
There are also other strategic priorities:
- Various resignaling projects across Wales, all delivered by 2017. North Wales resignalling should be completed by 2020.
- Making the Welsh Marches Line (Newport-Shrewsbury) a "strategic freight route".
- "Improving" services between Shewsbury-Aberystwyth, Cardiff-Manchester and along the north Wales coast.
- Improving the track to allow heavier freight trains to use docks and freight terminals in south Wales (Cardiff, Barry, Wentloog)
- Improve platform safety for vulnerable users (i.e. Elderly, disabled)
- Develop an annual route vegetation clearance plan (i.e. prevent leaves on the line)
- Reduce railway crime through improved fencing, public information, removing scrap and identifying "high risk level crossings".
The Assembly's Enterprise and Business Committee are currently undertaking an inquiry into integrated public transport. Obviously, as I said further up, electrification may improve journey times slightly as well as service reliability, helping the Welsh Government meet their own targets. Obviously I'll cover any committee report once it's produced, presumably sometime later this year.
They recently released a video of Nick Ramsey AM (Con, Monmouth) using buses and trains between Cardiff and Swansea to promote the inquiry. I found it funny for reasons I can't quite explain, I guess it's just my sense of humour.
"An epic journey of self-discovery. An exceptional piece of minimalist Welsh cinema. ****" - Oggy Bloggy Ogwr
As always though, Wales is a "special case" or "basket case".
As rail infrastructure funding isn't devolved, ours is on an EnglandandWales basis. Scotland's is separate. There is, however, a separate route plan for Wales which outlines Network Rail's plans here in more detail. Network Rail devolved itself - operationally - to Wales back in 2011.
So, the Welsh Government could fund a station, or a re-opened line out of their own pocket, but wouldn't have been able to carry out something as large or "new" as electrification. Devolution in action, everybody.
Scotland is planning to spend just over £4billion. Wales' proportional share of Network Rail's £37.5billion spend should be £1.87billion. Discounting the stretch of Great Western Line that's in England, and not including the resignalling works, I think it's safe to say it falls several hundred million pounds short of that.
If funding were devolved along the same lines as Scotland, and if the Welsh Government wanted to do it, I doubt Wales would be waiting so long for Valley Lines electrification to be completed. It probably would've been done years ago.
