MORE trains, better connections and improved reliability are at the heart of a wide-ranging strategy to develop passenger and freight services in Wales to meet an estimated increase in demand of 31 per cent in the next 10 years.

The aim of the Wales Route Utilisation Strategy is to develop services to meet rising demand. Taking a long-term approach and building on significant Welsh railway investment, the RUS analyses population, employment and housing forecasts.

It sets out the industry’s preferred strategy to further strengthen rail links, improve reliability and reduce journey times to meet the predicted increase in rail usage by 2019.

More than 30 million passengers travelled within Wales last year, with 62 per cent of all Welsh journeys starting or ending in South Wales.

Publication of the plan follows 12 weeks of consultation with interested parties and industry partners on the draft strategy launched last May.

These include The Welsh Assembly Government, Arriva Trains Wales, First Great Western, the Association of Train Operating Companies and freight operating companies, as well as local authorities and passenger groups.

The strategy covers more than 900 route miles of railway in Wales and part of the border region in England, some 15 per cent of which is heavily used and half of which is within 30 miles of Cardiff.

It centres on boosting links between North and South Wales and mid-Wales and the East Midlands, as well as in-creasing the number of trains able to run through Cardiff and south-east Wales.

Highlights include new platforms at Cardiff Queen Street, Pontypridd and Caerphilly, and increased capacity at Cardiff Central to allow an eventual 16 trains an hour to run through the Welsh Valleys. There are also plans to double passenger service frequency between Cardiff and Maesteg.

Planned upgrading of signalling at Abergavenny would improve frequency and journey times between North and South Wales, as well as providing more capacity for long-distance freight traffic. And possible redoubling of the line between Wrexham and Chester would help meet growing north-south passenger demand.

Network Rail route director David Ward said: “Rising demand is good news, but we need to meet the challenges of significant passenger and freight growth.”

But Professor Stuart Cole of the Wales Transport Research Centre has warned that Network Rail may have under-estimated future growth, rendering its investment plans inadequate. He said Department for Transport forecasts assumed rail passenger growth in proportion to the Gross Domestic Product, without taking into account factors such as rising petrol prices, road congestion and train service quality.

Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher said: “The context in which this RUS has been produced is one of growing demand for rail services. It is anticipated that this growth will continue, with a possible doubling of demand over the next 30 years.”


Re-signalling takes next leap forward
AS a mainplank of its proposed Wales Route Utilisation Strategy, Network Rail is to invest more than £150 million over the next two years on the next phase of the £400 million South Wales re-signalling scheme.

A massive programme of work is scheduled to start early next year to improve infrastructure reliability in the Newport area as the final construction phase of the South Wales control centre gets under way in Cardiff.

During the past three years, engineers have put in more than one million man-hours to deliver the early phases of the scheme, which has seen a 63 per cent reduction in delays following re-signalling at Port Talbot East.

Re-signalling in the Newport area began six months ago with installation of 12 signal gantries and a new construction work siding at Severn Tunnel Junction.

Core re-signalling work will be carried out between Patchway, Hereford and Park Junction (Newport) in two phases, with major track remodelling at Severn Tunnel Junction, East Usk and Maindee East Junction.

The new South Wales control centre will be ready for operation next spring.