Global Centre of Rail Excellence

[whole diary]

[grahame]

"Global Centre of Rail Excellence" - how on earth did I miss something with such a superlative and grand name?

[CyclingSid]

What, where, when??

[grahame]

What, where, when??

https://www.gov.wales/global-centre-rail-excellence-wales

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^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE")) infrastructure

The site is located at the Nant Helen surface mine and Onllwyn coal washery at the head of the Dulais and Tawe valleys.

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

[stuving]

Obviously "Global" is one of those new Welsh language place names - what was it in English?

[ellendune]

Obviously "Global" is one of those new Welsh language place names - what was it in English?

fyd-eang

[infoman]

would have thought it should be spelt

Glloball

[johnneyw]

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^▸ (United Kingdom) 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.

[Noggin]

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^▸ (United Kingdom) 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 ;-) 

[grahame]

More on this project at Wales Online

[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

[johnneyw]

.....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^▸ (United Kingdom) rail tour companies that, given the chance, would like to have this as a weekend destination sometime in the future.