CALLS for more double track, new services and extra stations have been made after the new Ebbw Vale rail service in South Wales raced past its three-year passenger predictions in just six months.

Back in 2002, officials predicted 22,000 passengers a month would use hourly trains to Cardiff from the restored Ebbw Vale branch line, rising to 33,000 after the third year of operation.

But in the six months since it started on 6 February, the Arriva Trains Wales service has carried 44,000 passengers a month – despite two of the six new stations opening late.

The trains’ popularity has delighted the Welsh Assembly Government, which funded the £30 million reopening, and the three councils that managed the rebuilding project. ATW is also proud of the service, which performed at over 96 per cent punctuality in the first six months.

But there are also regrets that officials underestimated how many residents of the Ebbw Valley would use the trains, which have been overcrowded at times.
ATW is providing four-car Sprinters on Saturdays and during holidays – the busiest times. Two-car Sprinters are used on weekdays, when commuting is gradually increasing.

However, increasing the frequency of services is impossible because the planned nine-mile section of double track was shortened to just three miles, to stop the reopening project going over budget. Adding the missing six miles will cost more now the railway is no longer closed to traffic.

Kirsty Williams AM, Welsh Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson, said: “The under- investment has meant that a real opportunity to extend the service has been missed, and will mean even greater expenditure in the future.”

Local residents, councillors and Assembly members are especially keen to see trains operate from the line to Newport, Wales’ third city. The Ebbw Vale trains already pass through the city’s suburbs, but the spur line leading towards Newport station is not cleared for passenger-carrying trains.

The branch line’s double track would also need extending, unless Newport trains operate as shuttles, connecting with Ebbw Vale services at the bottom end of the branch.

Mike German, AM, leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, is pressing for a new station at Bassaleg, south of Rogerstone station. “It is vital now that transport chiefs across Gwent work together if we are to join Bassaleg onto the new railway line from Cardiff to Ebbw Vale.

“Given the Government’s inability to bring the line into the centre of Newport, Bassa-leg station has the potential to open up the line to more of the people of Newport, and to the employment opportunities around the Tredegar Park area.”

Trish Law, independent AM for Blaenau Gwent, wants the planned extension of the branch to a new Ebbw Vale Town station to be finished by August 2010, when the National Eisteddfod of Wales is held on the site of a former steelworks.

More than 100,000 people will visit the festival, right next to the land earmarked for the new station.