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Title: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: grahame on October 15, 2023, 18:46:39 "Global Centre of Rail Excellence" - how on earth did I miss something with such a superlative and grand name?
Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: CyclingSid on October 16, 2023, 07:08:41 What, where, when??
Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: grahame on October 16, 2023, 07:23:28 What, where, when?? https://www.gov.wales/global-centre-rail-excellence-wales Quote The Global Centre for Rail Excellence (GCRE) will become Europe’s leading rail innovation centre, providing world class research, testing and certification of rolling stock, infrastructure and innovative new rail technologies. The facility will include: electrified high-speed outer rail testing track (6.9km) with testing speeds of potentially up to 125mph electrified low-speed infrastructure testing track (4km) allowing speeds of up to 40mph dual platform station environment 25kv overhead line equipment (OLE) infrastructure Quote The site is located at the Nant Helen surface mine and Onllwyn coal washery at the head of the Dulais and Tawe valleys. Quote Public consultation: summer 2019 and autumn 2020 Planning application submission: spring 2021 Planning approval: summer 2021 Construction begins: early 2023 First commercial facilities open: summer 2023 (storage facilities on site) Track construction begins: 2024 Fully operational: summer 2025 Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: stuving on October 16, 2023, 10:33:50 Obviously "Global" is one of those new Welsh language place names - what was it in English?
Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: ellendune on October 16, 2023, 11:37:09 Obviously "Global" is one of those new Welsh language place names - what was it in English? fyd-eang Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: infoman on October 16, 2023, 12:16:31 would have thought it should be spelt
Glloball Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: johnneyw on October 16, 2023, 13:32:27 I read about this place a while back. From what I can see online, work on the ground has already started.
It does seem to have its critics who question it's use to the rail industry in the UK as it isn't located particularly closely to any of the major rolling stock assembly centres. It does however have a link to the national rail network, is close to Swansea docks and will have viable road access through the upgrade of the Head of the Valleys A Road. They also seem to have European railway companies in their sights as potential customers. I think that I might try and follow this a bit more. Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: Noggin on October 16, 2023, 17:36:48 I read about this place a while back. From what I can see online, work on the ground has already started. It does seem to have its critics who question it's use to the rail industry in the UK as it isn't located particularly closely to any of the major rolling stock assembly centres. It does however have a link to the national rail network, is close to Swansea docks and will have viable road access through the upgrade of the Head of the Valleys A Road. They also seem to have European railway companies in their sights as potential customers. I think that I might try and follow this a bit more. Plenty of stuff gets lugged from all over Europe to Velim in the Czech Republic doesn't it? Can't be that much grief to stick it on a ship/low-loader, particularly if you can then run it 24/7/365 without annoying anyone other than a few sheep. Plenty of engineering expertise in that next of the woods, definitely good for testing waterproofing and winterisation, might not be so good for testing extreme heat though ;-) Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: grahame on March 16, 2024, 14:11:46 More on this project at Wales Online (https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/railway-lines-station-middle-nowhere-28828597)
Quote [b'The railway lines and station in the middle of nowhere no real passengers will probably ever travel on[/b] A £400m Global Centre of Rail Excellence facility is being built on an old opencast site, and it's pretty unique On the mountains of Neath Port Talbot there's a unique and large-scale development starting to take shape that could have a massive impact on the area. It will eventually feature miles of railway tracks and station platforms, but no real passengers will likely ever travel on it, or stand at the station platforms waiting for a train. Located on 700 hectares of land near the village of Onllwyn, 17 miles north of Neath, and straddling the neighbouring borough of Powys, a new £400 million rail testing centre named The Global Centre of Rail Excellence, is currently being developed. Edit to correct quoting Title: Re: Global Centre of Rail Excellence Post by: johnneyw on March 16, 2024, 18:19:58 .....but no real passengers will likely ever travel on it, or stand at the station platforms waiting for a train. I rather fancy that there would be a few UK rail tour companies that, given the chance, would like to have this as a weekend destination sometime in the future. This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |