Welcome progress in the Valleys

 

More passenger services and new rolling stock operating on newly electrified routes is offering plenty of positives for rail travel in South Wales - but not everything is rosy, with controversy over a proposed new station in Cardiff. ANDREW MOURANT reports.

Here is the tale of two contrasting rail projects in South Wales.

One - the Metro, a £1 billion project to electrify the Valleys Lines and double passenger services - continues to gather momentum. New trains have arrived, more are on the way, and there’s been a big shake-up of the timetable.

But the other - plans to build a privately funded four-platform station (Cardiff Parkway) on the eastern outskirts of the city - is stuck in the planning mud, with no date in sight for matters to be resolved.

It’s the sort of infrastructure impasse that the UK Labour government has vowed to cut through. But in Wales, where planning policy is devolved, the Cardiff Parkway saga must be determined without Westminster’s involvement.  

In Cardiff and beyond, travellers are acclimatising themselves to the new timetable as, stage by stage, Metro takes shape. Transport for Wales (TfW) has fully electrified the Merthyr, Aberdare and Treherbert lines through to Cardiff via the City Line and Llandaf. The remainder will be electrified throughout 2025 and 2026.

TfW wants to change the mindset of travellers, so that using reliable new trains will become more attractive than sitting in rush hour traffic getting into Cardiff… quicker and “more like using the London Underground”.

That sounds fine for areas of the city such as Radyr, Llandaff, Cathays, and the valleys hub at Cardiff Queen Street, which will get more trains. But it rings hollow for residents of Birchgrove, Fairwater, Ninian Park and Rhiwbina, who will still only get two services an hour.

Track electrification work is due to finish this year, with 36 new tram-trains to operate on the 105-mile network. Built by Stadler, these are expected to be in service by the end of this year.

By the start of 2026, all TfW routes on what used to be known as the Valley Lines will see twice as many (larger) trains per hour, all with step-free boarding.

Another key project in the pipeline is Cardiff’s new £100 million on-street tram service, on which construction work is due to begin next summer.

For starters, it will link Cardiff Central with Cardiff Bay, including a new station in Butetown. Longer term is a plan for the trams (three carriages, with capacity to carry 256 people) to connect the city centre with an indoor arena planned for the bay and Cardiff Parkway east of the city.

Construction of a new £100m Metro depot and control centre at Taff’s Well is nearly complete.

The depot, formerly the Garth Works industrial estate almost six miles north-west of Cardiff Central station, will be home to the tram-trains and more than 400 staff.

It is also the site of a new control centre where around 50 people will manage the signalling system across the Core Valleys Lines.

“We’ll start moving crews there later in the autumn and ramp up testing of tram-trains,” says TfW Planning and Performance Director Colin Lea.

“These will enter service from summer next year, initially on the Pontypridd to Cardiff Bay services.”

The long-awaited four trains hourly service to the top of each individual Valley line (Treherbert, Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) remains some way off.

New signalling work is still being carried out, much of it focused on Cardiff Queen Street station, where operations are due to last for the rest of this year. Running later Valleys trains on weekdays and at weekends remains on hold for much the same reason, as engineering teams need to access the lines at night.

That said, TfW felt the time was ripe for substantial timetable changes “to give some benefits of Metro transformation as early as possible”.  

The former timetable was designed around old diesel trains. It didn’t allow TfW to match capacity to current demand or to increase the frequency of many routes.

The new one allows for the introduction of electric trains where overhead lines have power. Some routes are already benefiting from more frequent trains.

But not everyone’s happy, as TfW knew would be the case. “Some will experience unwelcome change, but many others will find their travel now easier,” it says.

Among the inconvenienced are residents of Aberdare. If they wish to travel direct to Cardiff stations such as Llandaf, Cathays or Queen Street, they must now go via the City Line through Cardiff Central because of Queen Street’s current capacity constraints.

Their other option is a change at Pontypridd onto the new Pontypridd to Cardiff Bay service, which means a five-minute wait for services running via Llandaf, Cathays and Queen Street.

But things could have been worse.

“At one time, we were worried we might have to reduce services to make room for training runs,” says Lea.  

“However, we’re using the new double track (long loop) which runs from Aberdare to just north of Cwmbach. This is to allow service trains to pass the training unit and avoid any cancellations.”  

Crew training was due to start in earnest after the National Eisteddfod, being held in Pontypridd from August 3-10.

The upheaval won’t last forever. When signalling and track upgrades at Queen Street interchange are completed, this should allow almost a train a minute to safely pass through Wales’s second busiest station, while Pontypridd should (on average) have a train running every three minutes to the Welsh capital.

TfW’s new Stadler FLIRT 231 four-carriage trains began running to Barry and Barry Island in June, having first arrived on the Rhymney to Penarth line in 2023 as replacements for the older Class 769s.

Initially, these will work alongside Class 150 diesel trains that are due to be phased out next year.

Journey times won’t speed up for as long as the Class 150s soldier on. But when they’re all gone, TfW will revise the timetable again, taking advantage of the new trains’ increased acceleration speed. That, in theory, should result in slightly quicker journeys.

New electric trains are due to appear on the south-east Wales network later this year. These will initially be Stadler FLIRT tri-mode (Class 756) trains, which will run on the Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil lines. Class 398 tram-trains will be introduced in 2025 to replace these, with the ‘756s’ moved onto the Rhymney and Coryton lines, travelling to Barry and Bridgend.

Meanwhile, around 40 stations on the Metro network have been renovated, while another strand of TfW’s drive to modernise is the introduction of pay as you go (PAYG) tap-in, tap-out - currently available between Cardiff Central, Newport, Pontyclun and stations up to Ebbw Vale.

The entire Metro area will have PAYG by the autumn. The next phase will be the line to Maesteg, with gates being replaced at Bridgend to make it possible. Further gate replacements will be needed at Cathays, Pontypridd and Cardiff Queen Street, ahead of rollout to the Valley lines north of Cardiff.

Electrifying such a sprawling and diverse network has sometimes thrown up the unexpected.

“Close to Queen Street is the University of Cardiff physics and chemistry department, where they have a very powerful MRI scanner,” says Lea.

“We weren’t able to electrify past that building as it would have caused interference, so have had to put batteries on the tram-trains and tri-modes.”

However, turning to battery-powered units also solves the problem of otherwise complex electrification through the Caerphilly tunnel, Cardiff Central and Pontypridd station.

It’s turned out to be an unexpected bonus - “an area where we can save on capital costs”, says Lea.

While the extra weight of carrying a battery is a downside (“though these are improving all the time”), for the Valleys it is “definitely the right solution… and we hope that in future it will reduce the cost of electrification around the country”.

The need for new stations east of Cardiff, where the M4 between the Welsh capital and Newport is most overloaded, has long been on the agenda. Perhaps the most striking plan is to build Cardiff Parkway, in the suburb of St Mellons, using private money.

It’s caught the eye for two reasons. Firstly, a grinding planning process which means that matters remain up in the air more than a decade after the station was first mooted.

Secondly, the controversy about its location (200 acres of former farmland, near/on the ecologically rich Gwent Levels wetlands), and the scale of development (the proposed 90,000m sq business park required to support it).

The Welsh government is in the curious position of having a financial stake in the enterprise, yet it is also the planning authority holding things up. Its change of rules last year includes greater emphasis on protecting green spaces, biodiversity, and sites of special scientific interest.

The developer, Cardiff Parkway Development Limited (CPDL), plans to mitigate the impact of its business park, but not everyone is convinced.

Nor is this the first time that the integrity of the Gwent Levels has been fought for. Campaigners previously rallied against plans to build a new stretch of M4, a relief road to take the strain away from Newport. The plan was eventually dropped by former first minister Mark Drakeford as the potential cost soared. 

Privately funded stations are few and far between in the UK. This project, driven by CPDL, is a joint venture between financial services giant Investec, the Welsh government (which has a 15% stake), and local entrepreneurs Nigel and Andrew Roberts. CPDL originally applied for financial backing in 2016 under the previous UK government’s New Stations Fund scheme, but it was unsuccessful.

Cardiff Parkway is being designed as a four-platform station, with two relief lines skewed south to allow an island platform (with platforms on either side) to be built between the tracks. The idea is to offer rail passengers journey times of just seven minutes to Cardiff Central and Newport.

There would be a park and ride with spaces for 600 cars, and it would slot into the South Wales Metro scheme.

Building it is also a key recommendation of the South East Wales Transport Commission, as it would serve local routes and direct main line services to London, North Wales, Manchester, Bristol and England’s South West.

The area hasn’t had a railway station since Marshfield (west of Newport, which opened as part of the South Wales main line in 1860) closed to passengers in 1959 and to goods trains in 1965.

Plans for Parkway and the Hendre Lakes business park were approved by Cardiff Council in April 2022 but put on hold when, six months later, the Welsh government (WG) called in the application, deeming it of more than local importance.

This led to a public hearing, overseen by a planning inspector in summer 2023. Then, in October, WG changed its planning rules and once more things were up in the air.

A second hearing was required, which took place in January this year. Its focus was to consider if the scheme complies with Wales’ national and local development plan, and its impact on the Rumney and Peterstone site of special scientific interest (SSSI). This includes reens (waterways) and field ditches that are home to a wide range of plants and wildlife, including some rare species.

CPDL’s pitch is for Parkway to become part of a business district that could support up to 6,000 jobs. The station would, it claims, make “a significant contribution” to regenerating east Cardiff and the city’s growth ambitions.

Chairman Nigel Roberts claims it would be “a sustainable, well-connected garden business district… that will bring investment to an area that has long suffered from under-investment”.

However, reported costings (and what exactly they apply to) remain opaque. In 2017, the BBC reported that the station would cost £17m and the car park £12m. 

More recently, in 2020, local news reports referred to “a new £120m main line train station”.

RAIL approached CPDL seeking clarity on costs and what they covered, but was referred to a PR company whose spokesman said: “I don’t know where those figures came from. They aren’t necessarily accurate or up to date. The planning process has been so protracted that any cost assumptions will have to be looked at once planning permission has been secured.” 

Meanwhile, the Welsh government told RAIL that the total value of its 15% equity stake is just £121,000.

Writing on CPDL’s website in January, Roberts said: “This additional hearing has added further delay, which will frustrate many local people. But we know how important Cardiff Parkway is and understand that the Welsh government wish to consider the project carefully before taking a decision.”

Some locals are horrified at aspects of the plan, not least the prospect of a 15-storey office block at its heart.

CPDL says its intention is “to provide taller buildings around the station as this is the most accessible part of the site, thus encouraging people”. Moreover, high buildings would provide “important wayfinding markers”.

The rest of the site will be “medium density and lower building heights”. The impact has been “comprehensively assessed”.

Friends of the Gwent Levels say building on the SSSI could be avoided. CPDL has offered land in compensation for any SSSI loss, but Friends group member Dr Diana Callaghan doesn’t think this will safeguard the site. 

“CPDL’s approach is to focus on species listed as endangered or threatened, but this whole site is an ecosystem,” she says.

“We don’t see how the compensation scheme ensures its resilience. There’s going to be a lot of human activity where there isn’t at the moment.”

CPDL says terrestrial and aquatic habitats, the SSSI and protected species were assessed between 2017 and 2019, with the aim of ensuring that key features such as reens could be “avoided and enhanced where possible”, and other biodiversity features and ecological constraints “adequately mitigated”.

It says the fields “are generally of poor ecological value”, being mostly arable and improved grasslands, and the many reens are “of poor quality, seasonally dry and have limited aquatic diversity”. However, all reens across the proposed development have been retained.

Following feedback from Natural Resources Wales, CPDL also says it would create 5,621 metres of field ditches across the site to replace those lost, and that its strategy would deliver “a net gain of more diverse and ecologically rich” woodland and hedgerow habitats.

CPDL claims “no significant objections” were raised in pre-application consultations, during which it negotiated with Cardiff Council planning, ecology and highways teams for two years.

However, despite holding two one-day public events in November 2019, the developer was criticised by one objector for a “clear lack of community engagement”.

CDPL insists it had “clear support” shown from a large proportion of respondents. But there’s no doubting the anxiety and anger of some locals - and chief among their concerns is the scale of commercial development.

“There’s no need when so many people are working from home, and so much space sits empty,” one objector says.

“St Mellons is a peaceful semi-rural, largely residential area. It is totally inappropriate to build anything above two or three storeys, let alone to destroy the SSSI.”

Critics condemn the scale of the proposed park and ride, and fear that the “vast” amount of construction traffic will be present for many years.

Most support the concept of a station, but not the scale and height of “excessive and intrusive” buildings likely to go with it. They question the business case for extra office space, given the rise of home working.

Now everyone must pick the bones out of WG’s new planning guidance. A 23-page annexe, wordy and in places indigestible, appears to frame the argument firmly on the side of nature.

It notes: “Policies and development proposals should look to the long-term protection and enhancement of the special characteristics and intrinsic qualities of places, be these of natural, historic or built environments, ensuring their longevity in the face of change. This means both protecting and enhancing landscapes, habitats, biodiversity, geodiversity.”

It says they must encourage “appropriate management” of landscape features of major importance for wild flora and fauna - those which, because of their linear and continuous structure, function as “stepping stones” or “wildlife corridors”.

There’s plenty more in this vein, all adding hoops for developers to leap through. For instance, in terms of site mitigation, they “should seek to restore in excess of like for like, accounting for disturbance and time lags for the recovery of habitat and species”.

Given the tone appears skewed towards nature conservation, does CPDL remain optimistic for its project?

“We’re not in a position to comment and under strict instructions not to say anything. We can’t be seen to be doing anything to influence the process,” its spokesman said. 

RAIL asked WG when things might finally be resolved, only to be told: “A decision will be communicated in due course. As the application is live, it would not be appropriate for anyone at the Welsh government to comment.”