Images show £140m revamp plan for Cardiff Central

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

New images for a proposed £140m revamp of Cardiff Central railway station have been released.

The photos from Transport for Wales (TfW) show a glimpse of how Wales' busiest station could look with the investment, including a new brick arch at the rear entrance and additional retail and cycle facilities.  The plans hope to alleviate overcrowding and improve accessibility for those with reduced mobility, TfW said.

Alexia Course, chief commercial officer, said the investment would "modernise the station, make it fit for a capital city and sustain future growth".



The train operator said plans include a larger concourse to increase capacity and improve passenger access through additional gate-lines.  The proposed improvements aim to modernise the station while still complimenting the history and heritage of the building, they added.

Planning documents will be submitted soon for the scheme, which is subject to planning and full business case approval.  Should the plans be approved, up to £140m funding for the enhancements will be provided by the Department for Transport, Cardiff Capital Region and the Welsh government.

TfW said the proposals for the station are part of wider investment into "transforming transport in central Cardiff" - including ambitious regeneration plans.



Work is currently ongoing to deliver the South Wales Metro service as part of plans to improve the network.  The first phase promises twice the number of services across the south Wales network by early 2026, a number of new stations proposed including Cardiff Parkway, Cardiff East, Newport West, halts at Somerton and Llanwern in Newport and a station at Magor and Undy in Monmouthshire.

Ms Course said: "We've submitted the full business case for the scheme and we'll soon be submitting the planning documents, and if this is approved, we can progress with the delivery of the enhancements."

A decision on the full business case is expected in autumn 2025.

[anthony215]

Not what I was hoping for could really have done with more especially the proposed bridgedeck like Readings at the western end of te statio  to cope with the crowds.

These proposals still see the bottlenecks caused by the two subways. No.idea too.if platform 0 is going to be extended like tfw and network rail want.

As well is this is do hope Cardiff West junction is sorted

[infoman]

Would the money be better spent on electrification from Cardiff to Swansea/Carmarthen

Not sure of the cost of Cardiff to Swansea electrification though

[grahame]

Would the money be better spent on electrification from Cardiff to Swansea/Carmarthen

Not sure of the cost of Cardiff to Swansea electrification though

The best I could find was at https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2017-10/great-western-main-line-electrification-cardiff-to-swansea-outline-business-case.pdf which is very old costings - my reading is that the cost of electrifying on current costs Cardiff to Swansea would be several/multiple times that of revamping Cardiff Central Station.

[Noggin]

Would the money be better spent on electrification from Cardiff to Swansea/Carmarthen

Not sure of the cost of Cardiff to Swansea electrification though

It seems likely that the effect of the Valley Lines electrification, new stations between Cardiff and Bristol, proposed extra services between Birmingham and Cardiff etc will push up numbers significantly.

Given that user numbers roughly doubled in the 20 years pre-COVID, it doesn't seem unreasonable that the user numbers could double in the next 20. That would bring the number of users to something like the same as that of Leeds (with half the number of platforms)