Anyone who has tried to cross Swansea Bay by rail, whether using local services or intercity, can confirm that it is a long and tortuous process. To be fair, the intercity service is reasonably good until Port Talbot, but after that the train slows to a crawl through Neath and down the Swansea Valley to the terminus in Swansea. Then a change of trains to continue westwards to Llanelli and beyond. It currently takes almost one hour to travel from Swansea to Cardiff, with Llanelli more than 1 hour and 20 minutes from Cardiff.
But it doesn’t have to be this way – Brunel built a much faster route across Swansea, closely following the M4 from Briton Ferry to Pontardulais, and if this route was adopted for intercity trains, with a new ‘parkway’* station built adjacent to junction 45 of the M4 to serve as Swansea’s main intercity railway station, then journey times from Swansea to Cardiff could be reduced by maybe 10 minutes, with journey times from Llanelli and all points west reduced by 20 minutes or more. At the same time I would divert the Heart of Wales service, which currently goes via Llanelli to terminate directly at the new station. This would bring places like Ammanford more than 60 minutes closer to Cardiff.
The Swansea High Street station would remain, but used as the terminus for South Wales line local services to Bridgend, which would travel via Neath. Neath would unfortunately lose its direct intercity connection but residents could either use the ‘New’ Swansea station, or use local train services to join the main line at Port Talbot.
Meanwhile, Swansea High Street would also be connected via two new tram lines – One line would follow the Tawe Valley from the New station to High Street and then continue on to the Marina and then west along the coast to Mumbles. A second line would follow the existing line from Llanelli to High Street and then continue east along Fabian Way. This line could possibly be extended to Port Talbot via the old Baglan bridge, and these new lines should serve as a stimulus for local investment, in particular around the new Swansea station.
(Click on diagram to view a better image)
*ps – I don’t like the Parkway name, and the new station needs a better name – Swansea Tawe? Swansea North?
Do you have any idea how congested J45 is now at peak times?
ReplyDeleteUsed to take me more than 20 minutes just to get from Ynystawe to Morriston every morning.
J42 would be a better option and far more convenient for the people of Neath who are hardly likely to take to kindly to losing their inter-city link.
A tram to Mumbles would be nice but it would need to connect to the bus station to be of any use to most.
Problem with J42 is that the railway line doesnt go near there. It does however pass J43 near Llandarcy, and I am sure that would satisfy the people of Neath - but it would need some more work to connect into the other transport links.
ReplyDeletePenddu
Years of neglect and bad management have made Swansea become an absolute dump, as is Llanelli. Down here people avoid the town centres like a plague and prefer to use the out of town retail parks.
ReplyDeleteMore buses and cheaper car parks are what is needed not empty trains going to the back and beyond.
Penddu, you say the railway line goes nowhere near J42, isn't there already a station in the vicinity at Baglan.
ReplyDeleteA major parkway station here could serve Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot equally.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.616044,-3.807545&spn=0.025,0.025&t=m&q=51.616044,-3.807545
ReplyDeleteYes there is a station there with plenty of land to the east that would be ideal for a park and ride, bus and train station.
Ideally this could be connected to the Mumbles tram line that is proposed in the map (instead of the blue line). What a scenic route that could be.
I'd rather have a 3rd lane on the M4 or buses that run through the night though.
Not quite J42 but I agree a station at Baglan could be an alternative location to serve the Swansea-Neath-Port Talbot area - The key points of my proposal were to avoid the shuffle through Neath and Swansea Valley, and to link a central station with better secondary links - local trains/trams/and I had not forgotten busses - only that they dont need much infrastructure so they can be slotted in later as part of an integrated plan.
ReplyDeletePenddu
How about retaining the current intercity service to Swansea High Street, and extending the current Paddington-Cardiff service which runs on the alternate half hour to Carmarthen via Swansea Parkway? That way Swansea and Neath retain the current intercity service, and Llanelli & Carmarthen gain one fast train an hour to Cardiff. This could also feed into other improvements to services to west Wales. Local services from Swansea to Pembroke Dock would continue from Swansea High Street, along with a new surburban service to Llanelli & Ammanford. The current Milford/Carmarthen to Manchester service would serve Swansea Parkway, and would be augmemented by a Cardiff - Fishguard/Aberystwyth service dividing at Carmarthen (the Carmarthen - Aberystwyth re-opening on a better alignment would be expensive, but essential to the economic development of the region and is certainly not out of the ball park when it comes to spending on roads...)
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see someone looking at this in depth and along similar lines to how I've been thinking.