Cardiff Parkway Business Park - and new St Mellons Station

Anyone else not quite getting this. It looks like it will go ahead but at the cost is the benefit really there? I suppose it would be good for St Mellons and the road between Cardiff and Newport is, well you know.

But doesn't a parkway station need to be by a main road. Who exactly would drive there to get a train to London/Bristol? Or maybe they expect the traffic to be coming the other way.

There's a report about a new rail franchise (?) doing a service to London through Parkway but with fewer stops so cutting the journey time to London. How many people are likely to use it?

There are a few main uses for the station; it will serve east Cardiff which has no stations and west Newport, provide a park and ride facility where the existing mainline stations have limited parking options, reduce congestion by offering an alternative route into Cardiff city centre and provide public transport to the business park.

GWR won't stop during the current contract but the proposed Grand Union trains will. This may strengthen their case for the new service (and it's a lot faster than GWR which is a win for south Wales).

Not sure why they want to call it Parkway - Cardiff East would be better..or St Mellons.

It will be a commuter station for South Wales Metro services ( ie Maesteg line and Ebbw Vale line) stopping there and that in itself will make the development viable.

Maybe the Cardiff to Bristol TM services or the Marches line services might stop there once it is established.....but not the GWR mainline service.

On the subject of the metro, did anyone see this ?
https://www.tfw.gov.wales/sites/default ... iefing.pdf

Some interesting information about service patterns and new stations including Cardiff Parkway

Oh....and the stupidly named 'The Flourish' will be now called 'Cardiff Bay' - ie not a new station - just reloacted the old one.

Who on earth came up with the name 'The Flourish' anyway....sounds like something a junior marketing assistant would dream up!

http://www.granduniontrains.co.uk/cardiff-to-london/

Hypothetically, how long would the journey be if it was purely between Cardiff Central and London Paddington, without any stops?

Oh....and the stupidly named 'The Flourish' will be now called 'Cardiff Bay' - ie not a new station - just reloacted the old one.

Who on earth came up with the name 'The Flourish' anyway....sounds like something a junior marketing assistant would dream up!

The Flourish is apparently the name of that little triangle island with a cafe/arts thing and a fountain in it. No idea how long it's been called that, but the station was going to be named after it. Cardiff Bay is definitly a better name!

On the subject of the metro, did anyone see this ?
https://www.tfw.gov.wales/sites/default ... iefing.pdf

Some interesting information about service patterns and new stations including Cardiff Parkway

I hadn't seen before that KeolisAmey are contributing £15m towards Cardiff Central redevelopment!

I have no doubt that Cardiff East station will be very successful; it has a big catchment area, and congestion on Newport Road makes bus journeys into the city quite slow. Two trains per hour is a good start, but to reach its full potential we should aim for 4 - this would give it a "turn up and go" service.

This could be:
1 tph to Ebbw
1 tph to Cheltenham
1 tph to Bristol (GWR)
And 1 tph from either the proposed Grand Union service to London, or something from the Marches line.

There are supposed to be 2tph from Ebbw Vale and 2tph from Abergavenny so there should be minimum 4tph through Cardiff Parkway and probably 6.

As a piece of marketing, why not call these services Gwent Metro - in same way as Core Valley lines are to be called Central Metro. Then roll in Newport Bus..

That just leaves Maesteg line..