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Tuesday 22 Mar 2016

Rail passengers in Wales reminded to check before travelling this Easter

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Rail passengers in Wales are being reminded to check before they travel this Easter as Network Rail embarks on one of the biggest Easter investment programmes ever carried out on Britain’s rail network.

Thousands of Network Rail’s orange army will be working across Britain over the Easter weekend to deliver £60m of the company’s £40bn Railway Upgrade Plan to provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers and businesses.

In Wales, the work will focus on the latest phase of the Cardiff Area Signalling Renewals project to modernise the Cardiff and Valleys network. The work includes upgrading track and signalling on the railway in and around Cardiff Central station, which will help to improve the reliability of the rail services in the area.

The improvement work will begin at 9pm on Easter Saturday to allow spectators and competitors in the World Half Marathon event in Cardiff to travel home and will continue into Tuesday, 29 March.

There will be no train services between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street throughout the duration of the work which will result in amended timetables on the Cardiff and Valleys network including the Vale of Glamorgan line. Passengers are advised to visit www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/Easter2016 to check their journey plans and to allow extra time for their journey.

Paul McMahon, route managing director for Network Rail Wales, said: “With more and more people travelling by rail in Wales, our work to modernise the railway is absolutely vital to provide better, more reliable journeys for our passengers and support economic growth.

 “This Easter we’re replacing ageing signalling equipment with more reliable modern technology, upgrading the track, and modifying sections of platforms 6 & 7 in Cardiff Central station.

“We’d like to thank the travelling public in advance for their patience and understanding as we deliver this vital work to improve their journeys.’’

Arriva Trains Wales will have extra staff on duty at key stations to provide travel advice to customers during the upgrade works.

Lynne Milligan, customer services director for Arriva Trains Wales said:  “The amended timetable over Easter, including Tuesday, is quite complex with different arrangements made for each day. There will be diversions via different routes, services starting and terminating from different Cardiff stations, service frequency reductions and replacement buses on some services.

“We are urging our Cardiff and Valleys network customers to check their journey plans -  especially customers with connections to and from mainline services at Cardiff Central -  as they will need to factor in extra journey time.  The timetable changes will also affect passengers visiting Barry Island over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

 “On the Tuesday, as it is a normal working day, we are asking customers to either make alternative travel arrangements where possible or to factor in any additional travel time that these changes will bring. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience our passengers  experience but look forward to the continuing improvement of the railway infrastructure that this work will bring.’’

Over 450 separate improvement projects will be carried out by Network Rail and its team of contractors across Britain over the period, the majority of which will have no impact on passengers.

The work is timed to take advantage of a relatively quieter time of the year when, on average, fewer than half the usual 4.5m people use the railway each day – enabling Network Rail and train operators to minimise disruption as much as possible.

ENDS

 

Notes to editors:

 

The Railway Upgrade Plan is Network Rail’s £40bn spending plan for Britain’s railways for the five year period up to 31 March 2019. The plan is designed to provide more capacity, relieve crowding and respond to tremendous growth the railways have seen – a doubling of passengers in the past twenty years. The plan will deliver a bigger, better railway with more trains, longer trains, faster trains with more infrastructure, more reliable infrastructure and better facilities for passengers, especially at stations.

Although most of Britain’s network will be unaffected by planned improvement work, some services on the South Wales mainline will be affected and passengers are advised to check their journeys if travelling over Easter at www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Crossrail and Western electrification work between Paddington and Reading will see reduced train services (two of four lines closed).

An overview of the amended timetables can be found at www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/easter2016