(Maesteg
- Cheltenham) 2010 draft timetable from Arriva Trains Wales for consultation
*Please
click on the Consultations & New Timetables link above for more details
Another new service
starting 18th May from Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Tunnel Junction at
20:04 giving a ten minute connection into the 20:38 train from Severn Tunnel
Junction to Caldicot, Chepstow and Lydney. On Fridays the train leaves Bristol
ten minutes earlier at 19:54. Service starts from Portsmouth Harbour &
Bath.
STAG the Severn Tunnel
Action Group representing rail passengers using Severn Tunnel Junction station
announced the addition of a further mid evening service from Bristol starting
on 17th May.
Following a meeting
with cross party MPs at the House of Commons last year STAG and BT4C (Better
Trains for Chepstow the passenger users group representing Chepstow) met
with Tom Harris who at the time was the Parliamentary Under Secretary of
State for Railways at the Department for Transport.
The problems of the
loss of connections between the Bristol and Chepstow line services were
discussed."
The new Rail Franchise
arrangements have resulted in having to wait fifty minutes for a connection
between the two services at the Junction" said Phil Inskip Chairman
of the Technical Support Committee of STAG. Discussions were then held with
First Great Western the operator of the Bristol to South Wales Rail services.
"They listened
to our arguments about the loss of connections and offered to look at what
additional stops over and above the contract agreement with the Department
for Transport could be made.
They asked for our priorities.
As this is all to do with integration and connections with the Chepstow
line STAG consulted with Chepstow Town Council, Chamber of Commerce, Transition
Chepstow, County Council and representatives from the Lydney area in order
to identify priorities".
Transition Chepstow's
Transport Network Co-ordinator, Rosemary Parkhouse, commented "We asked
STAG to try for a mid evening connection to Chepstow because the last bus
from Bristol to Chepstow leaves at 18:40.
We now have an additional
connecting train service over an hour later.
We are delighted that
by working together local organisations can actually make real improvements.
Integrated public transport
is an important objective for Transition Chepstow, which works to find local
solutions to the global problems of climate change and declining oil supplies."
Phil Inskip went on
to say "This additional train fills the gap in the early evening services
and we will now have effectively a half hourly service from Bristol to Severn
Tunnel Junction from twenty past four in the afternoon until quarter past
eight in the evening.
Compared with the original
timetables that we first saw at the time of the cuts in the winter of 2006,
this will make the seventeenth additional service at Severn Tunnel Junction.
While we have the morning
and evening commuter services restored along with the late evening services
from Bristol we still have a lot more to do to improve connections through
the middle part of the day.
We will continue to
work with First Great Western and others to improve rail services in this
part of Monmouthshire".
Rail routes available
to passengers from South Monmouthshire
*Please
click on the image above to access a larger picture of an astonishing number
rail routes available to passengers from South Monmouthshire to rail stations
in the UK.
Many thanks to
Jim Jenkins BT4C for this permission to use the image
*Posted: 4th
February 2009 From Railnews Feb 2009 print edition
photo:
The disused platform to the right of the train in this view will be brought
back into
use for trains to Bristol
NEW crossovers, an improved layout and an additional station platform are
about to bring Severn Tunnel Junction into the 21st century, as Network
Rail continues its £400 million South Wales resignalling.
The junction, where the Birmingham-Cardiff line joins the South Wales main
line from Paddington, neatly illustrates recent changes in British rail
traffic. The marshalling yards have vanished but the station, once a sleepy
wayside halt, is now a popular park-and-ride facility for people working
in Cardiff and Bristol. It even has its own, vociferous, passenger action
group.
Two or three local trains call there each hour. Many others pass without
stopping, including freights and half-hourly London-South Wales HSTs.
To reflect its new lease of life, Severn Tunnel Junction will be remodelled
in the £150 million first phase of the Newport Area Signalling Renewal.
The current layout is a relic of an age when efficient reception and dispatch
of freights was an operating priority. Westbound trains from Bristol and
London cross the up Birmingham line on the flat between the tunnel and the
station.
The new layout will move the junction west of the station, where there is
more space for high-speed turnouts.
A now derelict platform will be restored for trains to Bristol, and the
station’s passenger facilities and parking will be brought up to current
standards.
“We’re bringing 198 metres of platform 4 into passenger service,”
says Andy Bateman, senior project manager for the South Wales resignalling
scheme.”
Most of the new layout will be installed during a Christmas 2009 blockade.
Both the South Wales main line and the diversionary route via Gloucester
will be unavailable for a period that coincides with the annual suspension
of services over Christmas.
Andy says: “We’re looking at 24 December to 4 January when installation
of the new layout and signalling system will take place.”
All of the gantries have already been installed for the first phase of resignalling.
Atkins is handling de-sign, installation, testing and commissioning of the
new signalling. Amey is providing its new power supplies.
New turnouts assemblies have been delivered to Severn Tunnel Junction. They
will all conform to the new in-bearer clamp-lock design, even where older
designs would suffice, because ‘human factors’ research has shown
it is easier for the local workforce to maintain a uniform design, and potential
con-fusion between different designs is eliminated.
The first phase of Newport Area resignalling extends from Patchway, in England,
to Marshfield, between Newport and Cardiff. It is due to finish by the end
of 2010.
Work in Newport itself will include single-tracking Maindee East Curve,
where freights from the Bristol direction can access the line to Hereford.
Signal sighting will be improved there, enabling line speed to increase.
Improved entry and exit to East Usk Yard (east Newport) will ease congestion.
Network Rail is establishing an improved distribution centre west of Newport
for works trains, spoil, track, sleepers and ballast.
At Newport station, the western throat has been simplified, with a redundant
parcels siding removed. The new platform 4 is currently used by some local
trains, but Network Rail plans to make it the platform for departures to
London. That requires construction of a new entrance facility beside the
car park at the station’s west end.
The Welsh Assembly Government pledged £8 million towards the planned
£22 million Newport station improvement and work is due to begin this
month, once designs are confirmed.
The WAG is also providing £2.6 million for a new crossover at Gaer
Junction, to be used by future passenger services to Newport from the reopened
Ebbw Vale branch.
Resignalling around Newport is the second stage of the overall South Wales
project. The first, between Port Talbot and Bridgend, finished in spring
2007. Andy Bateman says some members of his Newport team have been involved
in both stages, bringing a wealth of experience.
“We have a multi-disciplined team which is delivering Newport Area
resignalling and will then go on to deliver Cardiff Area. They are dedicated
to the resignalling of South Wales for the next control period, over the
next five to six years.”
Before and after the Cardiff re-signalling, there will be two further phases
of work around Newport, tackling the area’s secondary routes.
Signals included in Phase 1 of the Newport scheme will be the first to migrate
into the South Wales Control Centre, due to open this spring near Cardiff
Central. Newport signalbox will close when Phase 2 finishes in late 2011.
The new control centre is built on a strip of railway land near the eastern
end of Canton depot, on the opposite side of the main line. It took seven
months to clear old buildings from the site and to eradicate the scourge
of Japanese knotweed, a plant that is so invasive it can grow through concrete.
Once up and running, the centre will house signallers and controllers from
Network Rail and Arriva Trains Wales under one roof.
Other sections of the South Wales region network will transfer to the new
centre at Cardiff as resignalling progresses.
Check
out!!
Extract by STAG from
the DfT Consultation on proposed new categories for Minor Modifications
under the Railways Act 2005
*please
click on the Consultations and New Timetables link above to access info!!
The Severn Tunnel
Action Group (STAG) has teamed-up with First Great Western trains to help
promote Severn Tunnel Junction Station.
*please click
the image below to access a larger photograph
Photo: Jessica
Morden MP with members of STAG (Severn Tunnel Action Group) at
Caldicot Library distributing Your Guide to Great Days Out leaflet produced
by STAG in partnership with First Great Western
Working
with STAG, the rail operator designed and printed the leaflets to promote
the station to local residents, and the use of First Great Western trains
for a great day out!
The agreement
struck by STAG and First Great Western left STAG with the prospect of
distributing ten thousand leaflets to homes and businesses in the South
East Wales area.
With
little in the way of financial or physical resources, STAG called on local
politicians and councillors to help! The result was that members of all
four political parties - Conservatives, Labour, Liberals and Plaid Cymru
- helped in the distribution, with a leading role for Jessica Morden,
MP for Newport East.
The area
covered by the distribution has included Caldicot, Rogiet, Sudbrook, Portskewett,
Undy and Magor. Copies are also available in Caldicot and Chepstow Libraries,
Caerwent Post Office and from STAG's website at www.saveseverntunnel.co.uk.
The leaflet
contains not only ideas for great places to visit by train, but also gives
examples as to how low the prices of family days out can be! In addition
the leaflet gives details about how to get to the station and the station
facilities.
Commenting
on the campaign, STAG's Promotions Officer, Colin James, said "We
have been trying to encourage First Great Western to stop more trains
at Severn Tunnel Station, and are very grateful to Anne-Marie Delrosa,
Senior Marketing Manager at First Great Western, for her support in putting
the leaflet together and for printing it!
"First
Great Western needs more users catching the trains outside of core commuter
times in order to fund the extra trains! Hopefully this will help encourage
the public. It's a fantastic response!"
Jessica
Morden MP continued "Well done to STAG and First Great Western in
promoting Severn Tunnel Junction and to simultaneously deliver useful
information to local people. Given all their hard work, I am very happy
to support them by helping to delivery the leaflets."
*please click on the
links below to access Responses to
Wales RUS Consultation in
micosoft word format
*please click
on the links below to access Responses to
Timetable Consultation in
micosoft word format
Results
from the latest wave of Passenger Focus’ National Passenger Survey
(NPS) were released yesterday 12.07.08. Attached are summaries of the
results of the three main operators serving Wales (ATW, FGW and Virgin),
*please
click above links to download surveys in Microsoft Word format
Full survey
results are available from the PF website at:
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