South Wales in Transition

The speaker at the April meeting of the Solent Branch was Jeremy Segrott who gave a presentation on South Wales in Transition. This covered the period from 2016 to the present day.  In this period the franchise covering Wales changed from Arriva Trains Wales to Transport for Wales operated by Keolis to the nationalised company Transport for Wales.

A major change in infrastructure saw the Great Western Main Line from Paddington electrified as far as Cardiff. More recently the Core Valley Lines have been modernised with discontinuous electrification. Class 142 and 143 Pacer units have been replaced by Stadler Class 756 and Class 231 units and Class 398  tram trains. Class 175 units on services to Manchester have been replaced with Class 67s and Mk 4 stock taking over many services to Manchester, with Class197s used on other services. Class 769 bi-mode conversions from Class 319 units were not a success and they were quickly disposed of.

Following a general description of the changes we were taken on a journey from Newport to Carmarthen and along the Valley Lines to see what they mean for passengers.

Whilst the talk was primarily concerned with passenger operations, we were reminded of the loss of traditional freight traffic such as coal and steel. It is to be hoped that when electric arc steel making starts at Port Talbot trains of scrap steel will replace the old iron ore and coal trains.

We thank Jeremy for his informative presentation.