LATEST NEWSLETTER
Aberystwyth
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 273,410, compared to 218,498 in 2002/2003.
Ceredigion County Council Environmental Health Department has expressed concern at
meals being served on the patio area of the Wetherspoon's pub due to problems with
pigeons - the area being the old station circulating area in front of the buffer stops.
Plans for Aberystwyth's Station improvement have been revealed by Arriva
Trains Wales at a recent ATW station adopters' meeting in Chester. The station name
will appear in large letters within the glass frontage, viewed from inside the station; from the outside it will be seen in reverse as shown in the artist's impression here. |
| |  |
The Student Union at the University has been campaigning for 4 car trains to
operate to the town at what it calls predictable times when students will travel.
According to new classification of stations, the terminus is a "Medium Staffed Station". Whether this
will allow things like an increase in booking office hours, allow enough staff to provide
revenue protection/platform customer service, prominently sign post the nearby bus
station, or provide new information screens remains to be seen.
The so called Masterplan, with its bonkers idea to relocate the station about 1/2 a mile further from the town centre appears to be dead in the water because of the
recession. In the meantime, a study carried out by the East Suffolk Travellers' Association with regard to a similar ill conceived scheme, has reached the conclusion that 21% of existing users of Lowestoft station would use the trains less often, if
at all. The proposals there are for the existing station to be closed and the track cut back by 450
metres.
Borth
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 50,508, compared to 37,040 in 2002/2003 and thats just the people who actually pay!. There are still chronic problems with revenue protection on the section between Borth and Aberystwyth..
No news on the repair of the station canopy.
The station adoption group have been working hard to acquire access to the remainder of the building, with the intention of opening a small railway heritage centre there. Because of the number of agencies involved on today's railway, the bureaucratic hurdles have been considerable.
Dovey Junction
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 1,494, compared to 804 in 2002/2003.
Surprisingly the Aberystwyth line platform, Numbered 2, has not been split into
a & b, given that it will be capable of holding two trains simultaneously.
Machynlleth
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 107,346 compared to 81,219 in 2002/2003.
We understand that proposals have been put forward by TraCC regarding improved car parking at the station. As far as we are aware, this involves a new site to the North of the railway, with access to the station via the Up platform or under the road bridge. The situation should be considerably improved if these plans come to fruition. |
| |  |
Talerddig
The high speed points have been constructed on site with concrete sleepers and
currently (still there in June) await installation.
Carno
Carno Station Action Group (CSAG) have found that making any progress on reopening Carno station
has first to overcome bureaucratic finger pointing. A year on from WAG's Enterprise and
learning Committees hearing in Carno, the group have discovered that TraCC have done
no work towards assessing the group's business plan, citing lack of money and
resources from WAG. WAG naturally of course expected TraCC to do all the work. CSAG
point out that they put together the business plan using voluntary time.
Caersws
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 33,950 compared to 23,648 in 2002/2003.
The justification for Network Rail's profligate spending here seems to be on "elf and safety" grounds. The metal stockade;
wildly inappropriate and no doubt installed at a lot greater cost than an ordinary builder
would do has been justified as stopping passengers crossing in front of
stationary trains, off the platform ramp. Between the station's opening in 1863 and the
installation of the fencing in 2009 there have been no recorded incidents of any accidents
involving passengers coming off the ramp and crossing in front of trains.
Newtown
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 110,034, compared to 80,540 in 2002/2003.
The town's Tesco store was finally opened in late February; it can be clearly
seen on the Welshpool side of the station. The associated roadworks and new traffic
lights have made life a nightmare according to some locals, including those trying to
access the station by car. The towns bypass has been scheduled to start by 2014. Support for the proposed new road has proved less universal than many local politicians
thought, with WAG's consultants only offering six choices of route to solve Newtown's
traffic problems, drawing heavy criticism as alternatives have not been explored.
Representations were made to the local AM, Mick Bates regarding the hourly service at a meeting with SARPA on 12th July. We pointed out that an enhanced timetable would enable some relief to people from Newtown who chose to use the train. This well in advance of the construction of the proposed bypass. Indeed, an hourly service Eastwards from Newtown would be a possibility without any infratsructure enhancements.
Another Cafe called Fiero's Cafe has sprung up on the station this time at the Caersws
end of the UP platform which was occupied by an IT firm. It can sell refreshments to
passengers. One hopes that the inspiration for the name was not a 1980s motor car!
The Somerfield opposite the station entrance has been converted into the
town's now only Co-Op and seen an upturn in usage. Newtown is of course the
hometown of the founder of the co-operative movement Robert Owen.
Under a Welsh Assembly (WAG) initiative to promote sustainable tourism, the middle section of the
station is being considered as a cycle hire centre to an accompaniment of upgraded
cycle routes in the area.
|
| | 
|
A solution to some of Newtown's traffic problems? Here we see the Wuppertal Monorail in action. The system is over 100 years old but uses trains built in the 1970s. Further modernisation has been carried out since 2004. Joking apart, the gantries appear to be relatively lightweight and being affixed to blocks in the ground, construction would surely create far less disturbance at street level than conventional light rail schemes. Maybe the concept is ripe for revisiting? Of course, in the rest of Europe, there is a much more enlightened attitude to public transport......
Welshpool
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 95,778, compared to 60,538 in 2002/2003.
Problems with misuse of the car park by non rail users persist, with the situation being particularly bad on Mondays. Things have improved slightly with the closure of the Smithfield Market in the town and its move to a new site at Buttington.
No progress has been made on repairing the station footbridge, although Arriva have informed us that the situation has been noted and that some attempt has been made to liaise with other stakeholders of the bridge..Further work on restoring the double track south of Welshpool has taken place, though completion is unlikely before the implementation of the new ERTMS signalling system.
Middletown
At the site of the former station at Middletown (Closed 1964) there is a lane which crosses the railway over a wooden decked bridge, with cast iron piers. There are now substantial saplings growing out of the wooden deck from the outside of the parapet. One wonders whether this state of affairs is either advisable or safe over the longer term.......
Shrewsbury
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 1,595,812, compared to 1,258,246 in 2002/2003.
Network Rail commissioned the new semaphore signal at the south end of platform 3 on
July 3rd: this allows passenger trains to depart southward towards Sutton Bridge
Junction enhancing the operational flexibility of the station. Passenger services have
been concentrated on the island platform since the end of the 1960's as well as
passenger facilities, the Island's two through and two bay platforms being deemed
sufficient for the traffic that remained. Recent increases in frequencies, new services and
longer formations combined with abortive attempts to make cross platform connections
have exposed the reduced layout's weaknesses and the re-use of Platform 3 is something of a cheap attempt to remedy this.
Platform 3 can only be accessed from the island platforms by traversing the
subway and going through the ticket barriers and out of the main entrance, turning left
and through a narrow door up a set of stairs. An elevator is also available but you have
to go right out of the entrance and through some not very obvious doors. Concerns have
been expressed about passengers having to make tight connections. The current ticket
office occupies what was the main staircase to the platform. Passengers for Aberystwyth
using Shrewsbury station need to be aware that trains can now (and have been seen to)
depart from Shrewsbury using Platforms 3,4,5 & 6. It's also possible to depart toward
Aberystwyth from Platform 7 but not if the train has come from the Wellington direction.
Until 1950 Shrewsbury had 9 platforms, and then they were renumbered and
reduced to 7. Until 1961 there was an overall roof and a footbridge at the south end of
the station connecting Platforms 4/5 to 1/2/3. The south facing bays Nos 1 & 2 were only
accessible from the Sutton Bridge Junction direction and were retained as sidings until
the mid 1980's, No.3 being used for occasional football and other specials. The now
unused bays mainly catered for local services to Welshpool, Minsterly, Hereford and the
Severn Valley line.
Telford
The new £8m International Railfreight Park at Telford is being used for.....parking trains. The level of revenue earning traffic has been spasmodic since opening in June 2009, with just 10 trains running to the terminal in 2010. Four of these were moves to place surplus roling stock into secure store and one was a railtour.
The trains sent for storage at Telford are SouthEastern Class 508 EMUs, which are surplus to requirements and have been hauled from Stewarts Lane by DB Schenker Class 67s. The trains themselves are owned by Angel Trains. Currently (Mid July) there are 5 units stored in the railfreight facility.
Birmingham New St
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 25,191,945.
Franchise changes
The takeover of ATW by Deutsche Bahn (DB) was announced on 22nd April and has since passed all hurdles with regard to monopolies and the EU. DB is paying
£1.59bn for the company. This should have many benefits for Mid Wales, if there is
integration of the Wales and Borders services with those of Wrexham and Shropshire
and Chiltern, providing a better service between Shrewsbury and Birmingham. The
prospect of a Von Cambrian Coast Express has been raised.
Rolling Stock News
There are now plans to refurbish the Class 158 Fleet used on the Cambrian. As we understand it this will involve new interiors and the removal of one table seating bay. As far as we believe, this is to allow the replacement of luggage space removed for the installation of the ERTMS equipment. An artists impression of the new interior was shown by Arriva at a station adopters meeting at Tywyn on 7th May.
|
| |  |
A delivery of new rolling stock for use on the West Midlands commuter lines out of
Birmingham Snow Hill will trigger a rolling stock cascade with Class 150 DMU's being
transferred elsewhere. This will allow First Great Western to give back 4 of this type of
unit to ATW which had lent them to FGW in 2007. This means that the Class 158's ATW
currently use between Cheltenham and Maesteg will be freed up. ATW planned to use
these for their proposed Marylebone service. There are currently no short term plans for
their redeployment, however ATW and WAG have confirmed a long due refurbishment
programme for the Class 158 and 153 fleets. Details are yet to be released but it seems
likely that the extra units released by the cascade will allow refurbishment to take place
without affecting current deployments.
Back to Top
|
Back to Top
| |  |
Steam is back again on the Cambrian this summer, with a Stanier Black Five. Here, 44871 runs through Morfa Maddwch with the service on 27th July. Photo by Kate Jones
Full details of all steam traction on the main line can be found at http://www.uksteam.info/tours/trs10.htm
|
Back to
Top
|
Newsletter 51 August 2010