South Wales Mainline Electrification

i THINK you will find that cardiff will not be electrified until the end of 2019 and electrification to swansea has been put back to 2021.

I think your dreaming to think if any other lines out of wales would be improved. With the nationalisation of the franchise in Wales. 'Wales and Borders' franchise could lose economical routes in England. Lines to manchester and wolverhampton, and could be in a right state in a few years.

Will electrification ever happen?

With the nationalisation of the franchise in Wales. 'Wales and Borders' franchise could lose economical routes in England. Lines to manchester and wolverhampton, and could be in a right state in a few years.

Eh???

When the arriva franchise is up, and the Welsh Government resumes control, the UK government could strip the Welsh franchise of its most profitable routes, which are the english side of the border

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... se-8797611

I've often wondered about the responsibility for cross border services. To my mind it ought to remain at Westminster although if the majority of the route is in Wales there is a case for devolution. However given rail is run at a subsidy is runnning services to English cities a bit of charity? Or are we currently taking the ticket prices for English travel to spend in Wales?

Maybe Cardiff-Birmingham isn't on the cards but Bristol-Birmingham could be upgraded to high speed I'd have thought.

i THINK you will find that cardiff will not be electrified until the end of 2019 and electrification to swansea has been put back to 2021.

I think your dreaming to think if any other lines out of wales would be improved. With the nationalisation of the franchise in Wales. 'Wales and Borders' franchise could lose economical routes in England. Lines to manchester and wolverhampton, and could be in a right state in a few years.

Will electrification ever happen?

Cardiff will be done by the end of Network Rail's Control Period 5 which is Spring 2014-Spring 2019. There is a chance that it could be earlier if they get a spurt on. Obviously much later than 2017 as originally planned but it will happen.

Swansea has been pushed into Control Period 6 which is from 2019-2024, no specific date during that time but it would seem logical to keep going once the wiring to Cardiff is completed.

In before dave does a WalesOnline copy-and-paste post...

This one appears to have gone unnoticed -

Windsor Road Bridge will now not reopen until July - high winds have caused problems with cranes so the completion date has been put back 3 or 4 months (it was originally due to reopen the end of the month/early April).

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/windsor-road-bridge-cardiff-now-10985567

Flippant comment warning:

I have been looking for a train ticket from Cardiff to Oxford and have settled on some sort of off peak return for about £57. Expensive to my mind for a 40 year old diesel train but hey ho. I was more interested in the prices of other tickets offered. Now I know there may be a bit of clever marketing going on here - to make people think they are getting a bargain but I was rather astonished to find that a First Class anytime return ticket in the next month would cost the princely sum of £304. Are there really people out there mad enough to pay that kind of money to travel in the rush hour congestion with a bit of extra legroom and a paper sheet to protect one's hair from contamination? I wonder what a (less environmentally friendly?) chauffeur driven limo would cost instead? Everyone wonders about the productivity puzzle of the British economy. Are there really businesses signing off on these kind of expenses?

Meanwhile what's happening with electrification? Am I right in thinking we have somehow got priority over Bristol and Oxford and will be completed first?

Meanwhile what's happening with electrification? Am I right in thinking we have somehow got priority over Bristol and Oxford and will be completed first?

Good bloody question.

Right so as far as I know, rail electrification from the Great Western mainline to Cardiff on the South Wales mainline is on the go ahead at the moment. Work is being carried out at Newport.

After that, the Valleys (yes, you heard that right) and Swansea will receive electrification presumably in Control Period Six (2019-2024). Swansea was originally meant to be in the same phase as Cardiff but it's been hit by delays I think.

Although it was announced a couple weeks back that the Welsh Government may hand the contract to a private consortium for valleys electrification as it is specifically for the South Wales Metro. This is because the valleys would likely be at the back of a very long queue for electric rail if done by Network Rail (after all some major English cities are dying for it)

You are correct in saying that South Wales has been given priority on electrification over Bristol. Although Parkway will have electric rail (as it is on the way to Wales), Temple Meads will NOT, as it isnt on the South Wales line. I do feel for Bristol as their main train station probably wont be electrified until the 2030's now.

There is also work (that's not being discussed) on the line between Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff. They're working on some bridges and puting in a the same piles and steel frames (for the overhead lines) along this stretch that you're seeing up and down the main line from London.

I haven't been through Bath and Chippenham on the train for a while, so I don't know what's going on there at the moment.