NETWORK RAIL TO RESTORE VALE OF GLAMORGAN PASSENGER SERVICE

Friday 30 Apr 2004

NETWORK RAIL TO RESTORE VALE OF GLAMORGAN PASSENGER SERVICE

Region & Route:: | Wales & Western: Wales & Borders; | Wales & Western

Work is to begin this summer on the Barry Town to Bridgend railway line, restoring passenger train services to the Vale of Glamorgan for the first time since the early 1960s. Network Rail, the infrastructure operator, today announced that contracts are in place for scheme, which includes building new stations at Llantwit Major and Rhoose together with a new bay platform at Bridgend. Additional signalling will be provided to increase the capacity of the route and the track will be upgraded to allow trains to travel at higher speeds than the existing track allows. Work project – costing in the region of £17 million - begins June and it is anticipated the new passenger service – to be operated by Arriva Trains Wales - will commence in spring 2005. The work has been funded by the National Assembly for Wales and the contracts will be managed by Network Rail. - more – Passenger service – 2 “We are delighted to be able to make this announcement this week,” said David Mather, Commercial Sponsor for Network Rail. “Awarding the contracts brings this important project to its final stage. The next step will be starting the work and we look forward to seeing the first services running next year.”

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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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