Ebbw Vale could have train station

11:20am Tuesday 19th January 2010 in Back on Track Photograph of the Author By Alison Sanders

Ebbw Vale could have train station Ebbw Vale could have train station

A NEW £6.5 million train station in Ebbw Vale is being looked at in a bid to link the town centre to the new passenger rail line.

The Assembly commissioned Network Rail to develop an outline plan for a new station in the town centre, a mile north of the current Ebbw Vale parkway stop.

The idea would see a station built on The Works regeneration site next to the grade II listed former British Steel General Office, which is being turned into a genealogy centre and records office.

The line from the parkway station would follow an existing line through the steelworks, which once served the plant and a train station at Ebbw Vale's rugby ground Eugene Cross Park, which closed in the 1960s.

Economy and transport minister Ieuan Wyn Jones approved Network Rail’s report and is taking this idea to the next level and has now asked it to do further design and feasibility work which will take around a year to complete.

The £6.5 million would include the station and associated works.

The study will also consider the prospects for a Newport to Ebbw Vale line, which could be up and running by 2011.

Work at Gaer Junction to improve signalling to carry a passenger link is due to be commissioned in October and this needs to be completed before the line could open.

As well as the Gaer signalling work, a second £22.5 million track would need to be built that runs between Llanhilleth and Crosskeys to allow trains to pass each other on the line before a Newport service could start.

Passengers from the Ebbw Valley currently have to travel to Cardiff and change to get to Newport, or get a service bus from Rogerstone to the city centre, after the rail link buses that linked Rogerstone to Newport and Ebbw Vale parkway to the town centre were scrapped.

If the idea is taken up by the Assembly, the whole scheme could cost around £32.6 million, according to consultants Halcrow who were brought in to look at the cost of the proposal.

Comments(15)

Owain Vaughan says...
11:23am Tue 19 Jan 10

"The study will also consider the prospects for a Newport to Ebbw Vale line". The prospects are good. So good in fact that it already exists.

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golfer says...
12:43pm Tue 19 Jan 10

theres is no point in this waste of £6.5 million pounds rail extension...wot a total waste of money...use elsewhere..schools/r
oads....wot a total waste

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Owain Vaughan says...
2:13pm Tue 19 Jan 10

How is improving rail access a waste of money? This is exactly the sort of thing that governments should be spending their money on. It's a shame this couldn't have been incorporated into the original scheme as it would have been much cheaper then.

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_Jez_ says...
2:20pm Tue 19 Jan 10

golfer wrote:
theres is no point in this waste of £6.5 million pounds rail extension...wot a total waste of money...use elsewhere..schools/r

oads....wot a total waste
So don't waste money building a rail extension build roads instead?

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PontyPeter says...
2:49pm Tue 19 Jan 10

If this had all been factored into the original scheme it would have cost a fraction of the price.
Still, I'm all in favour of this, coupled to an alternating hourly service to Newport and further east, possibly Bristol TM.
And please Argus - it's called a RAILWAY STATION, not a train station. Quit the monosyllabic dumbing down or get yourself literate journalists.

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Owain Vaughan says...
3:43pm Tue 19 Jan 10

You're reading the wrong publication if you expect erudite articles or factual reporting.

The Argus is proud to be a propaganda-pushing tabloid.

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howarda says...
4:05pm Tue 19 Jan 10

Does Ebbw Vale need two stations, perhaps the money could be better spent elsewhere?
Money has recently been spent increasing parking spaces at the current station.

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beenabout the valley says...
4:12pm Tue 19 Jan 10

Rail link to Newport up and running in 2011 ???? Loads more shops will have closed by then, won't be worth going there. Only good thing would be the rail links to London etc.
Extending the line up to Ebbw Vale town centre, excelent idea. Current line is good for going to the garden festival site, but too far away from the centre.

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howarda says...
5:12pm Tue 19 Jan 10

A further thought. If such a large amount of money is available for the station, perhaps it would be better to give some to Arriva Trains. They could then buy some more carriages to put on the current trains and this would save a lot of standing and allow more people to travel

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pwharley says...
7:20pm Tue 19 Jan 10

It will be a RAILWAY station, not a train station! Has Alison Sanders got a GCSE in American rather than English?

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The Abrogator says...
11:15pm Tue 19 Jan 10

This should have been done at the start of the project, instead of being derailed by the usual bureaucratic fudge and prevaraction.
.
People, like my wife, who work in Newport, would benefit from being able to commute by train rather than the slow and unreliable bus services which crawl up and down the valley (snow allowing).
.
As for the rail/train station pedantry, as long as it gets built, who cares whether it's called a rain, train or bob station?

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The Abrogator says...
11:16pm Tue 19 Jan 10

or even "rail" station!

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gingertom says...
10:15pm Wed 20 Jan 10

In the snow it was the only transport that kept going. You couldn't get around your own village safely but you could get to cardiff.

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Newport Dave says...
1:56am Thu 21 Jan 10

I'm all for it. The sooner there is a train directly between Newport and Ebbw Vale the better (certainly for me).

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Mervyn James says...
9:29am Thu 21 Jan 10

_Jez_ wrote:
golfer wrote: theres is no point in this waste of £6.5 million pounds rail extension...wot a total waste of money...use elsewhere..schools/r oads....wot a total waste
So don't waste money building a rail extension build roads instead?
The one main advatage of the rail links/station is that the passengers can avoid coming to Newport and get straight to Cardiff, fair do's there is nothing in Newport for them to come here for, so why link to it ? We're 61st out of 64 of the worst...

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