The Anonymous Widower

Comings And Goings At Cardiff Central Station

Cardiff Central station is a busy station, that is on the main line from London to Swansea and is also a hub for all the local services serving the valleys and other parts of South Wales.

A Platform 0 has been added, which I used to catch my train to Risca, but it is rather tacked on to the station.

A new Platform 8 is also being added, on the other side of the station.

There are plans to upgrade the station and the South Wales Main Line and the Cardiff Valley Lines will be electrified. I hope that when both projects are completed it becomes easy to change from say a train coming in from Ebbw Vale to a fast train for London.

It’s all a bit chaotic at present and I know it’s not politically correct to say so, but showing destination boards in two languages means that travellers like me, who are unfamiliar with the lines and the station find it difficult.

Some things must be done in my view.

1. Have a better Valley Line schedule, where perhaps all trains going one direction use Platform 0 and those going the other use Platform 8. One example of many, is that the Ebbw Vale line has only one train an hour. So supposing you are going to an important event on the line and you’re coming from London, it could be an hour waiting at Cardiff Central. As Network Rail said about East Anglia, all branch lines need at least two trains an hour.

2. Create a much better information system, that doesn’t confuse travellers. Incidentally, I wouldn’t mind if station names were only given in Welsh, as that would simplify things a lot. I would think that most Welsh would understand a visitor, who pronounced a Welsh town like Treorchy or Maesteg in an English manner. After all, Welsh uses just the Roman alphabet like say Italian or Dutch, and is not like Hungarian, Turkish or Greek.

3. Make the access from Platform 0 to the main platforms a lot better.

I think that it’ll all be better when work is completed, judging by the way station rebuilds in the UK have turned out.

December 3, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Cardiff Valley Lines, Stations, Trains