Cardiff Valleys Metrolisation - what

[stephebm]

I understand from the TV (Welsh news television) that the whole of the existing network plus some closed and new lines is proposed to form a mass metro set of tram tracks which as a result would have much greater capacity at Cardiff Queen Street with faster etc services from all over and linking to Newport in the East and Swansea in the West.

Is this real?

Regards

Basil

[Rhobat Bryn]

Well it's £600 million real, apparently. However this is a project that will be delivered in stages. And while Stage 2 has been announced, we don't know what the priorities for Stage 2 will be. The total bill for the entire system is estimated to be some £2 billion. The announcement is due to be made this autumn so watch this space.

[Rhobat Bryn]

Over the next 5 years and beyond, the National Transport Finance Plan for Wales (http://gov.wales/docs/det/policy/150722-ntfp15-en.pdf states that a set of assessment criteria will be developed relating to station openings and reopenings and they will be applied to draw up a list of rail improvement priorities. The stations that will be considered are:

South East

Roath Park/Wedal Road;
Crwys Road;
Gabalfa;
Ely Mill/Victoria Park;
Caerleon;
Llanwern;
Newport West (Ebbw Vale line);
Crumlin;
St Mellons;
Newport Road/Rover Way;
Brackla;
St Fagans;
Magor.

South West

Templeton;
St Clears;
Cockett;
Landore.

The Canolbarth

Bow Street;
Carno;
Howey;
Abermule.

The North

Broughton;
North Wrexham;
Deeside Industrial Park/Northern Gateway (an alternative to upgrading Hawarden Bridge);
South Wrexham;
Llangefni.

Unfortunately, Hopkinstown is not on the list.

[s.w.johnson]

The problem with opening new stations on existing lines is that line capacity goes down. The idea of a station on the Rhymney main line somewhere around Wedal Road has been around for a long time and always knocked back for this reason. The same goes for Magor.