Call to reopen railway station at St Clears, Carmarthenshire

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Carmarthen Journal:

Fresh political backing for the re-opening of St Clears' railway station has been welcomed by the town's council.

The town lost its station in June 1964 as part of the rail rationalisation programme.

Calls for its reopening have been made for more than 20 years.

The town council has also been backing calls to reopen the station, with support from a Facebook campaign orchestrated by a then 15-year-old student Lloyd Rees.

The calls have now been backed by Mid and West Wales Assembly Member William Powell, who has called on the Welsh Government to investigate funding sources from the European Union.

St Clears councillor Selwyn Runnett, chair of the planning committee, said: "A number of us, both councillors and key supporters in the community, have been working hard to see how we can get the funding for a new station. We have had support for the campaign from Angela Burns AM and I am very pleased that William Powell is also putting his weight behind the campaign."

[Rhydgaled]

I used to think opening a station at St Clears would be a good idea, now I'm not so sure.

The area's railways look to be in a tight spot to me. Cardiff generally seems to be a more important destonation than Swansea now, yet it is the line to Swansea they are improving (Gowerton redoubling, which in itself is great news) with no indication on whether the line to Cardiff (the Swansea district line) will retain it's full capability so services can be introduced in future. Any loss of the potential of the Swansea district line would just be part of a tripple-whammy (maybe even quadrupal), hitting the competitiveness of rail in the area very hard.

As SWWITCH says here: http://www.assemblywales.org/calendar-document-content?id=58373 "A comparison of journey times between rail and road shows that rail continues to be competitive on the main east-west rail route from Swansea to Haverfordwest. It is likely that the rail route between St Clears and Haverfordwest will become increasingly less competitive when the recently announced improvements to the A40 trunk road at Llanddewi Velfrey and Robeston Wathen are completed".

The A40 Llanddewi Velfrey works would make the double-whammy, the tripple-whammy being diversion of the main road to Pembroke and Tenby between St. Clears - Red Roses onto a faster alignment. And quadrupal? Loss of the Intercity services due to IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) not being able to fit through Narberth tunnel.

I don't know about the Pembroke branch (it might not be competitive anyway, but the new road certainly won't help either way) but I think there are two options to keep rail time competitive on the Milford - Swansea route.

1. Restrict Clunderwen and Clarbeston Road to a 2-hourly stopping service from Milford Haven to Swansea alongside 2-hourly services to both Milford and Fishguard which don^t call at Clunderwen and Clarbeston Road. This would give an hourly service non-stop from Whitland to Haverfordwest / Fishguard & Goodwick, allowing for trains to reach 90mph between Whitland and Clarbeston road (with a linespeed upgrade required of course).
2. Don^t build the A40 bypass, which saves the cost of upgrading the railway to 90mph and the cost of the bypass. Much the better option in my opinion, since it means the money can be used to improve public transport in another way (St. Clears station perhaps, or a waiting room at Whitland).

Anyway, that was a bit off-topic but my point is we are going to have enough problems keeping the route competive without introducing extra stations. I think St. Clears has more justification for a station than Clunderwen though, why did they close the one but not the other? Both should still be open.

If you can sort the time problem (knock 10mph off the road speed limit perhaps, hint-hint) then I'd very much like to see Pembroke Dock/Milford Haven - Swansea stoppers calling at St. Clears, alongside faster trains from Milford and Fishguard to further afield that don't call.

[anthony215]

I am not too sure if there is any need for a station at St Clears.

I wouldnt stop the Pembroke Dock trains there as they do sometimes struggle for time now.

[Btline]

Why would you not make road improvements and lower speed limits? If you asked the local people whether they'd prefer a bypass or a rail improvements with a slower road, I'd imagine they'd pick the bypass!

We need to get people moving, and this means making infrastructure improvements on both road and rail.

I've always thought it strange that there is no station at St Clears. Would make sense to slap one there.

[Rhydgaled]

Sorry Btline, sounds like I didn't make myself totally clear.

If bypass is built then, for rail (the more enviromentally friendly mode) to remain competitive against the car, very expensive improvments would be needed on the railway to improve linespeeds. If you don't build the bypass, you don't need to throw lots of money at the railway to keep it competitive.

In other words:
Road journey time improvement without rail journey time improvement = bad, so unless you can afford to improve both do neither and save your money.

I would suggest instead saftey improvements in the villages that would otherwise have been bypassed, for example wider pavements and at least one light signal-operated crossing (puffin or pelican?) in each village. Much cheaper than building a bypass and upgrading the railway to allow it to compete.

If St. Clears station is opened (which as you say would be nice), then improvements would be needed to rail linespeed for rail to remain competitive (unless you reduce the road speed limit).

I hope my point is clear now.

[Btline]

Sorry Btline, sounds like I didn't make myself totally clear.

If bypass is built then, for rail (the more enviromentally friendly mode) to remain competitive against the car, very expensive improvments would be needed on the railway to improve linespeeds. If you don't build the bypass, you don't need to throw lots of money at the railway to keep it competitive.

In other words:
Road journey time improvement without rail journey time improvement = bad, so unless you can afford to improve both do neither and save your money.

I would suggest instead saftey improvements in the villages that would otherwise have been bypassed, for example wider pavements and at least one light signal-operated crossing (puffin or pelican?) in each village. Much cheaper than building a bypass and upgrading the railway to allow it to compete.

If St. Clears station is opened (which as you say would be nice), then improvements would be needed to rail linespeed for rail to remain competitive (unless you reduce the road speed limit).

I hope my point is clear now.

Yes, I can see where you're coming from. Hopefully both will be improved!