South East Wales Transport Commission recommends major improvements for transport in the region

The commission was established to recommend ways to reduce congestion on the M4 motorway without building a new relief road around Newport.

Their main proposal is for a 'network of alternatives', providing a comprehensive and coordinated public transport alternative to the M4. The network is designed to give people and businesses new transport options that do not use the motorway ? or indeed a car.

This centres on improving rail provision between Cardiff, Newport and Bristol by upgrading the existing four tracks of the South Wales Main Line, so that these tracks can be used by more trains with more flexibility. For the first time, this would allow for local, commuting services to run frequently without disrupting express rail services. They also suggest an ambitious rail station building programme, which would add six new rail stations between Cardiff and the River Severn.

To complement existing stations at Cardiff Central, Newport and Severn Tunnel Junction, the proposed new stations would be: Newport Road (Cardiff), Cardiff Parkway (St Mellons), Newport West, Newport East (Somerton), Llanwern and Magor.

The rail backbone would be supported by new rapid bus and cycle corridors across the region, especially within Newport. Taken together, over 90 percent of Cardiff and Newport?s population would live within a mile of a rail station or rapid bus corridor if the proposals are taken forward. Many of these recommendations can be delivered through upgrades to the existing rail and road network. 

Commission Chairman Lord Burns says:

The area around the M4 is a very important economic corridor for Wales. It is expanding and becoming an attractive place for people to work and live. Just like similar regions in the UK and other European countries, it needs a range of attractive, affordable and coordinated transport options to fulfil its potential.

It is clear that people in South East Wales do not have good alternatives to the M4. Many people have little choice but to use the motorway, given the lack of public transport options. We believe that a competitively priced, efficient and reliable public transport network could become the first choice for many travellers.

Even a moderate reduction in the number of cars travelling on the M4 could result in a significant improvement to the travel flow. The changes we are suggesting would generate considerable extra capacity in our region?s transport system. This shift to public and active transport would have many wider benefits beyond relieving congestion, including cutting air pollution, improving public health, and providing better access to jobs and services for everyone.
Beyond infrastructure, the report recommends:

new ways to organise transport services, speeding up interchange, coordinating timetables and integrating ticketing
a new governance model so there is a 'single guiding mind' to organise the whole public transport network
* measures to reduce the need to travel, including superfast broadband-enabled remote working sites so people can work closer to home
* local authorities consider introducing a workplace parking levy to influence travel choices, once public transport improvements have been made
* a transport-focused approach to planning, ensuring developments are built around the public transport network rather than the motorway
The commission?s final recommendations follow their earlier fast-track recommendations relating to M4 traffic management, which included replacing the current variable speed limit with a new average 50mph speed control and measures to improve lane discipline on the approach to the Brynglas tunnels.

Just occasionally I wonder if Pilning would be better off if it was in Wales?...

Just occasionally I wonder if Pilning would be better off if it was in Wales?...

You mean it isn't?

We now appear to have a very unbalanced proposal for the Cardiff - Bristol line; utterly logical to have a local shuttle of between 2 and 4 trains an hour all stations ... and with stations every few miles. The Welsh study has done a good job of this, but then you have a gap of one station that needs serving (Pilning) and one that needs building (Aztec West) ... a couple more stations that are in place then one or two more suburban ones needed on Filton Bank.  What you have prior to those fill-ins is to some extent what has got left by accidents of history; what you would have as suggested is a proper modern mass transit system. 

Need to revive http://www.sewweb.info which has been on something of a campaign rest, with a look to more clearly retaining the character of the residential areas near to the first station on the England side while at the same time connecting the trains into central Bristol to a park and ride from the motorway junction already built but not yet connected.

Good gag but to go into pedant made...

Pilning Low Level, or Isaf if you like, closed in November 1964. It had trains to and from Severn Beach.

I suppose you could say there was once a New Passage Station, and New Passage New Halt came along later

I have taken official station names in English and Welsh where I have them - done my best on the others but am very open for better translations.  In practise, I suspect that some of the English names would be used in Welsh, like Llanwern and Magor are in the other direction.

Ah, my rail history was wrong, sorry. I tried to look it up on an old map but didn't get anywhere. I thought Pilning Low Level was the present station and Pilning High Level was the one on the line to the ferry that ran before the Tunnel opened.

New stations between Bristol and Cardiff?



The South East Wales Transport Commission recommends that six new train stations should be opened between Cardiff and Severn Tunnel Junction. Meanwhile, the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) plans to open one new station at its end of the Cardiff to Bristol route, and will consider the possibility of rebuilding the footbridge at Pilning some time in the next ten to twenty-five years. Is this a balanced approach to cross-border connectivity?

...continues

Bit slow to come to this thread, but I see grahame was in naughty schoolboy mode when he translated Horfield as 'Maes Butain'...

I'm reminded of Adge Cutler's 'Bristol Song', with its line 'All the girls in Horfield, are quite respectable really'. This kind of thing was considered amusing in the 1970s.

Anyway, from my researches, and oddly enough all things considered, a better translation would be 'Tir Agored Budr', though FoSBR would have it as 'Ffordd Gwnstabl'

Transport for Wales (TfW) is now looking for feedback on the designs of the potential stations at Cardiff East, Newport West, Somerton, Llanwern and Magor & Undy.

Passengers are also being asked for their views on new train services between Cardiff, Bristol and Cheltenham Spa that could provide the new stations with up to four trains per hour and increase frequencies at existing local stations on the route.

Reminds me of a request received by the management of our bakery in Cardiff that all signage should be bilingual. A quick look round the bakery showed that all important signage was already bilingual - English and Urdu.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her spending review on Wednesday to announce £445m over 10 years for new rail projects in north and south Wales.

The Treasury has backed plans for five new stations in Cardiff, Newport and Monmouthshire, as well as upgrades in north Wales, with £348m to be spent between 2026 and 2030.

It follows years of complaints of underinvestment in the Welsh railway network.

Hmm. 

While I do fully support that 'commitment' to invest substantially in the railway infrastructure in South Wales, it's not all guaranteed.

Rachel Reeves has proposed spending that budget until 2030.  However, Parliaments are limited to five years - so, 5 years on from 4 July 2024, her Government could be out of office by 4 July 2029 (or possibly earlier, depending on developments).

Just saying.