Great Western Coffee Shop

Whilst closing the tunnel over the christmas period will no doubt badly effect punters travelling to/from South Wales it has given a bonus to users of Bristol Temple Meads. There will be 3 trains an hour to Paddington with an extra xx46 (xx44 on Sun 27th Dec) departure via Bristol Parkway.

On 28th-31st December the first two departures from Hereford to Paddington are extended to start from Cardiff Central at 0428 and 0515. Can't quite see what benefit this offers passengers though, upwards of 5 hours to Paddington versus 3 hours by replacement bus then train. HSTs through Abergavenny will be a novel sight though!

At 0428?!  :o

Line to London going off track for Ten Days of Christmas for works

The direct rail link between South Wales and London will be severed for 10 days over the Christmas and New Year holiday, because of major engineering works.

Network Rail claims the closure from Christmas Eve to the early hours of 4 January is essential because of the volume of work involved, and Christmas is the quietest time of the year for it.

The work will hit the section of track between Newport and the stations at Bristol Parkway and Gloucester, with rail travellers being bussed across the border.

The engineering work will tackle the main line from eastern Newport to the outskirts of Bristol, with 81 new signals and 26 miles of power cables being put in place.

The diversion via Chepstow ^ traditionally used whenever the Severn Tunnel is closed ^ will not be available, and trains will not run from Cardiff to Birmingham.

Severn Tunnel Junction, where the London and Chepstow lines diverge, is being rebuilt, with a new platform for Bristol-bound passengers. As a result of the move signallers will move from a 1960s signal box in Newport to computerised facilities in Cardiff^s new ^17m South Wales Control Centre, where 11 jobs have been created with another six to follow next year. Over the past two years, engineers have installed equipment alongside the existing signals and tracks, often working at night or weekends. However, the new track at Severn Tunnel Junction will take days to install, and all new equipment must be rigorously tested for safety before the railway can reopen.

Engineers will work on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and around the clock to finish the work as quickly as possible.

Jenny Randerson AM, Welsh Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson, said: ^It^s probably better to do it in one long period than in lots of short periods, although it will be very disruptive. I welcome the investment to modernise the signalling, but their communication needs to improve.

^We have three sets of friends and relatives coming to visit who are railway-savvy. They looked on the website and bought their tickets well in advance because it^s Christmas. You have to, to ensure you get a seat. They weren^t told about the disruption. They should have been alerted to it when they bought their tickets.^

This week, the websites of National Rail Enquiries and First Great Western have been notifying passengers that buses will replace trains in the area. Over the coming weeks, Arriva Trains Wales will use on-train announcements to alert passengers.

^The information will also be available by December 1 on our website,^ said an ATW spokeswoman. ^There^s a comprehensive communications plan coming into play.^

Network Rail is spending ^150m on new signalling around Newport. Some of the programme was deferred until the end of next year, to avoid the risk of it affecting the Ryder Cup in October.

Network Rail was fined ^14m after a New Year shut-down at Rugby overran two years ago, preventing trains from Holyhead, Glasgow and Manchester reaching London Euston. An Easter 2007 shut-down while new signals were commissioned between Bridgend and Port Talbot overran by several days, when no trains ran between Swansea and Cardiff.

Network Rail has taken steps to avoid a repeat. Backup machinery will be stationed at worksites, in case of breakdowns. The work has been divided into four stages for clear management, and the entire plan of action has been ^risk assessed^ to spot potential banana skins. Chris Rayner, Network Rail^s western route director, said the scheme would reverse years of decline at Severn Tunnel Junction. ^While this work will significantly boost performance, it will also provide the potential for more trains to travel through in the future,^ he said.

Cardiff city centre manager Paul Williams voiced some concerns over the disruption, which comes when sales shoppers should be attracted to Cardiff. He said: ^A lot more people will be coming to Cardiff because of the new shopping centre but there are other options for travel. This kind of work has to be done and it^s never really convenient, but Network Rail believe this is the best time to do it.^

Start: 27/12/2009
End: 03/01/2010

Engineering work between Bristol Parkway / Gloucester and Newport (South Wales) between Sunday 27 December 2009 and Sunday 3 January 2010


Arriva Trains Wales

Buses replace trains between Gloucester and Newport with journey times extended by up to 60 minutes

Cross Country

Buses replace trains between Gloucester and Newport

First Great Western

London Paddington - Cardiff / Swansea

There are no through trains between London and South Wales during this period.

Trains will be diverted and start / terminate at Bristol Temple Meads

Buses replace trains between Bristol Parkway and Newport

A revised service will run between Newport, Cardiff Central, Swansea and Carmarthen

Journey times may be extended by up to 60 minutes

Portsmouth Harbour / Weston super Mare / Taunton - Cardiff

Trains will not run between Bristol Parkway and Cardiff.

Buses replace trains between:
Bristol Parkway and Newport
Bristol Parkway, Patchway and Severn Tunnel Junction

A revised service will run between Newport, Swansea and Carmarthen

Journey times may be extended by up to 60 minutes

Severn Tunnel Junction

During this work bus services will not stop at the station. The bus pick up/drop off point will be Rogiet Pool, Caldicot Road approximately half a mile from the station.

Some people are unable to be transported on coaches, or would just rather take a through train.

... how much (if any) of the Severn Tunnel is technically in Wales?

Passengers get a ticket to ride on a 21st century railway into South Wales

Today marks the successful completion of the first phase of improvement work for the huge rail investment scheme in the Newport area, which will enhance the reliability of the 3m rail journeys made each year via Severn Tunnel Junction.

The improvement work, carried out over the Christmas and new year holiday period, is part of the ^150m Newport area re-signalling scheme to usher in a 21st century railway to south Wales. More than 400 engineers worked round the clock every day, ploughing in nearly 100,000 manhours altogether to complete the work on time.

Chris Rayner, route director for Network Rail, said: ^Network Rail has delivered on the day we said we would for an extremely complex programme of work. This first phase of work alone took nearly four years to bring it from canvas to concrete and the result today is because of the hard work from our engineers and all our partners pulling in to make it possible.

^Severn Tunnel Junction is among the busiest railway junction in Wales and a key link to England, it is now even more robust to serve passengers in the many decades to come. We have made good on decades of underinvestment, and this effort in south Wales will continue to meet growing rail demand.^

The second phase of this scheme, which will include the re-signalling of Newport Station and re-modelling of the track layout at Maindee Junction, has already started and work is due to complete by the end of the year.

The majority of the work will be carried out overnight when trains are not running to minimise any passenger disruptions.

The railway at Severn Tunnel Junction is now completely revamped with a new layout that removes the bottleneck in the area, which will cut delays and promise the capability for more trains to run in the future.

For the first time in 25 years, passengers travelling to England will embark from the newly restored platform 4 that was abandoned during the 1980s.

The new signalling centre in Cardiff also swings into operation for the first time today as cutting-edge digital technology is used to manage train operations between East Usk (Newport) and Pilning (Bristol).

A total of 81 signals, 10 new signal gantries, 168 train detection counters and 39km of power cable have also been renewed between Pilning (Bristol) and East Usk. The upgrade will extend the lifespan of the rail infrastructure for at least another four decades.

Passengers will also benefit from new waiting shelters and digitised real-time information system at the station as part of a separate initiative, jointly funded by Network Rail, Arriva Train Wales, Welsh Assembly Government and SEWTA.

The railway around Severn Tunnel Junction suffered years of decline after it was bombed in World War II, this scheme has reversed the history of Severn Tunnel Junction.