News & Press Reports

Aiming to bring sense and order to our train services

Updated 9th October 2011

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Racegoers leave XC train from Cardiff at 12.18. 8th Oct 2011

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Passengers awaiting ATW train to Cardiff at 11.27. 8th Oct 2011

Experiment to Stop CrossCountry Trains at Chepstow is a Great Success.

It is nearly 6 months since an extra 14 CrossCountry trains have been stopping at Chepstow providing the town with additional faster services to and from Cardiff, Newport, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Birmingham.

It is evident that these extra trains are being used by a steadily increasing number of people attracted to use the trains in preference to cars. In particular for journeys to and from Cardiff the primary destination for rail passengers from Chepstow.

At the start of the new services the predominant use was towards Cardiff but as the word has spread and publicity of the improvements and the advantages of using the trains have been promoted and advertised the numbers using the services to and from Birmingham has also substantially improved.

Another area where the benefits of the extra services are evident is in connection with large scale sporting and entertainment events in Cardiff and at Chepstow. Last Saturday, for instance, I was at Chepstow to see racegoers pouring off the trains from both directions. Many came early and spent time in the town before the afternoon meeting. A welcome boost for the town’s trade as well as cutting road congestion! A few weeks ago the demand to get to Cardiff for a rugby match was so great that prospective rail passengers could not get on the limited number of trains. Despite the welcome service improvement there remains a need to regularise services throughout the day and to adequately cover the morning peak.

The extra services are already benefitting the community and helping to alleviate road congestion and we believe that it is in the public interest to continue with this trial beyond the 12 months that was originally proposed. Furthermore we believe that it should be extended so that all these trains stop, it would cost no more. The experiment has already demonstrated that stopping the services at Chepstow is perfectly feasible and obviously attracting more people to use our rail services.

More Trains for Chepstow Chepstow Brochure

To see the Chepstow Brochure and to download a pdf click here.

Good News from CrossCountry.

More Trains for Chepstow and Lydney.

CrossCountry gave rail users at Chepstow and Lydney some good news in January 2011 when it announced that it will be increase the number of daily train services stopping at both stations from 24 May 2011.
From the May timetable change, a trial will be undertaken to measure customer demand for a more frequent service. The number of CrossCountry services on Mondays to Saturdays will increase to ten in each direction at Chepstow and six at Lydney. These extra trains, spread throughout the day, will offer new opportunities for customers to travel northbound to Gloucester, Cheltenham and Birmingham and southbound to Newport and Cardiff for business, leisure and commuting trips.
CrossCountry is only required to call two trains in each direction at these stations. However, at meetings with local stakeholders and during consultations on timetables, there have been many calls for extra trains to meet the demand which local people believe to be there. Following discussions with Passenger Focus and the Welsh Assembly Government, CrossCountry has agreed to provide a twelve-month trial to see whether people wish to take advantage of a more frequent service and so demonstrate they do bring a true benefit to the local area.
Andy Cooper, CrossCountry’s Managing Director, said: “We are pleased to be introducing these trial services from May. Over the coming months we will work with local stakeholders and rail user groups to raise peoples’ awareness of the new services at Chepstow and Lydney. We are told there is a pressing need for the more frequent service and we shall be delighted if this proves to be so. ”
Michael Greedy, Passenger Focus Link Manager, said: “We welcome this CrossCountry initiative to stop more services at Chepstow and Lydney. Passengers have been asking for more trains for a considerable period of time and it will now be up to them to prove that they will use the additional services on a regular basis. This is a trial period and it will very much be a case of ‘use it or lose it’. The future of a better rail service at these stations is firmly in passengers’ hands.”

ENDS

BT4C Comments on proposals to stop additional CrossCountry trains at Chepstow. (12th January 2011.)

We are very pleased that AXC have agreed to stop more of our trains at Chepstow. The announcement is good news and came as a great surprise for we knew that WAG were seeking improvements but after many years of trying we didn’t expect such success. The negotiations must have been difficult and we would like to pay tribute to those involved on all sides for coming to this arrangement.

Naturally we would like to have all the trains scheduled to stop at Chepstow to provide a regular and predictable pattern of service, our objective for the past 5 years. But we recognise that passenger growth at Lydney is as at least as great as Chepstow and by sharing the services as proposed the trial should provide valuable information to shape the services for the future. This is an example of the way that train service improvements are possible at little or no additional cost and makes refreshing news when all we hear about are “cuts”.

We have no doubt that the trial will prove very popular with the public and will confirm the demand for more through services to Birmingham and the need for more frequent trains to Cardiff (currently the destination for half our passengers). AXC should reap the benefit of filling more seats in the lightly loaded trains.

Chepstow businesses are already taking steps to publicise the improvement. We would hope that CrossCountry will also publicise the change and will make some special offers to bring attention to the new possibilities for people to attend events in Birmingham and to attract visitors and tourists to attractions in Chepstow, the Wye Valley and The Forest of Dean. These proposals are welcome and will benefit many people. We hope the trial will provide useful information to assess the shape of future services.

These improvements, good as they are, still leave the Chepstow Line with an irregular and haphazard service at variable frequencies. The worst is a two hour gap at Chepstow during the morning peak between 07.49 and 09.49 when no trains stop in the up direction. This will disappoint people without a car who need a public transport service to come to work at Chepstow or wish to travel to Gloucester and Cheltenham for work, school or college.

The service gaps and frequency irregularities in the Chepstow line stopping service require the renegotiation and amendment of the contract with Arriva Trains Wales. The stopping services need to be upgraded to hourly, with a regular clock-face schedule, matching the frequency of services to all destinations.

The Deputy First Minister is aware of this need and has recently answered questions about it in the Welsh Assembly. This alteration requires an extra train unit and crew and BT4C have suggested that WAG should consider utilising one of the spare units in the ATW fleet for this service.

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Click here to see how Chepstow Train Services will look from 24th May 2011

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Click here to see BT4C Letter to Philip Hammond MP, Transport Secretary July 2010

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Click "Why Arriva CrossCountry could call at Chepstow" to see a detailed explanation.

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South Wales Argus. Press Report

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/gwentnews/8894746.Call_to_use_Chepstow_s_new_rail_services/

BT4C Survey Figure 4

Passenger Concerns Graph

Passenger Survey at Chepstow Station.

5th July 2010.

The tremendous response to our questionnaire has provided a good insight of what passengers seek.

Their top priorities:- A regular service and no gaps, more car parking, stopping the fast trains to Cardiff, improved safety and security at the station.

Click here to see the full
BT4C 2010 Survey

For Previous Reports click one of the following:- BT4C 2009 Survey , BT4C 2008 Survey.

To see BT4C's brochure click:- BT4C's latest brochure.

The Chepstow Great Train Robbery.
How Chepstow has been robbed of its train services.

Lost in the Last Few Years.

During the last few years train services to Chepstow, S.E. Monmouthshire, the Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean have worsened with the appointment of each new train operator.

In 2003 we lost the hourly train service to Cardiff when Arriva Trains Wales took over the Cardiff to Gloucester local service.
Then in 2006 train connections at Severn Tunnel to Bristol were severed when the DfT removed the need for First Great Western to stop the Cardiff/Portsmouth trains at Severn Tunnel Junction. This effectively cut off train travel between Chepstow and Bristol.
In 2007 the DfT failed to specify that Arriva Cross Country should stop and serve Chepstow with its hourly service and these trains continue through the town without stopping.The waste over the past few years has been enormous. We calculate that at the end of 2010 more than 30,000 XC trains have spent time waiting at signals or standing in Gloucester station instead of serving Chepstow.
As announced above 14 more CrossCountry trains will, for a trial period of one year, stop at Chepstow. That's good but it is time the waste was stopped for ever.

Worse Trains for Chepstow.

Arriva Trains Wales cut train services affecting Chepstow, Lydney and Caldicot from Monday 14th December 2009.

BT4C wrote to the Transport Minister and the Deputy First Minister WAG proposing that the alterations should be postponed until better arrangements could be made.

The cuts took place but WAG have assured us that they are having discussions with the DfT in order to identify options to improve services.

Click "Worse Trains for Chepstow" to see the text of our protest.

Review of the Better Trains for Chepstow Campaign. January 2010.
Our three primary aims remain the same.

1.The Arriva TW train service frequency should be upgraded to hourly.

This improvement will have the greatest impact. It will improve services and connections for all current and potential passengers using all the stations between Newport and Cheltenham. We believe that attaining a basic hourly service will have the added advantage of making objectives 2 & 3 more attractive to FGW and AXC.

One extra train unit is needed to fill in the service gaps. The current cost of leasing a train unit from a Rolling Stock Company (ROSCO) may be as much as £500,000 a year! A more economic solution would be to use a spare unit from the existing ATW fleet or to re-allocate under utilized units within the fleet to make one available to serve the Chepstow line.

The Sewta Draft Regional Transport Plan, July 2008 proposed to upgrade the Arriva TW Chepstow line service to hourly in 2010 and half hourly in 2014. These improvements await authorization by WAG.

2. Arriva CrossCountry should stop their trains at Chepstow instead of slowly passing through the town.

This is the improvement that will cost the least and could be implemented without further delay.

It is time the Government, WAG and Monmouthshire County Council accepted that there is no reason why these trains could not serve Chepstow. The DfT should be urged to amend the contract since AXC have demonstrated a reluctance to serve Chepstow beyond the minimum specified in their contract.

The cost to AXC for stopping the trains that often pass through with no more than 20-30 passengers will be minimal but the value to the community, businesses and the local environment will be incalculable. It is a scandal that since AXC took over this franchise they have passed through Chepstow more than 30,000 times without stopping.

Serving Chepstow with this service would fulfill, at practically no cost, one of the transport requirements set out in the Wales Spacial Plan. Chepstow a key settlement in the Capital Region should, according to the plan, have access to the capital with a high speed transport link.

3. FGW should reinstate Cardiff / Portsmouth train stops at Severn Tunnel Junction and reconnect the Chepstow line services with Bristol.

As reported above FGW have already restored many of the services that were removed by the DfT when the franchise was renewed in 2005. The action by FGW is commendable and hopefully their co-operation will continue but the DfT should be prevailed upon to amend the contract and make these important connections secure for the future.

Passenger Surveys at Chepstow have consistently shown that as few as 5 people a day now attempt to travel by train between Chepstow and Bristol because the present service is so bad. Chepstow Chamber of Commerce and Tourism were appalled by this revelation.

Bishton Retained

A Lost Opportunity.

Newport Area Resignalling.
Track Alterations at
Severn Tunnel Junction. December 2009.

The Newport Area Resignalling Scheme (NARS) will bring improvements at Severn Tunnel Junction, most importantly the reinstatement of platform 4. However it is hard to understand why the redundant Bishton Flyover nearly halfway between Newport and Severn Tunnel Junction was not removed by Network Rail as this could have brought much greater long term benefits.

The removal of the flyover, as the attached sketches show, would allow the main and relief lines to remain continuous and parallel throughout the 10 miles between Newport and Severn Tunnel and increase the speed and capacity of the four running lines. This parallel running, cutting out the criss-crossing of routes and the sharing of paths at Severn Tunnel Junction, would have enabled line speeds to be increased, improved timetabling and reliability of services through this important point of entry to Wales.

Bishton Removed

A Lost Opportunity.

Network Rail’s recently published Wales Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for Wales also appears to have overlooked the possible advantages arising from the removal of Bishton Flyover structure. I was unable to find any reference to it.

Click here for list of advantages for removing Bishton flyover and re-designating the running lines as proposed.

BT4C Paper on Sustainable Tourism.

BT4C proposed that stopping AXC trains at Chepstow would greatly benefit business and tourism in the Wye Valley and was a measure that could quickly and cheaply promote sustainable tourism.

Click "BT4C Sustainable Tourism and Transport Response"

BT4C's response to Wales National Transport Plan consultation. 5th October 2009.

BT4C expressed disappointment that the plan contained no proposals for upgrading the frequency of services on the Chepstow line or for making better use of the under utilised track and trains.

Sewta Draft Regional Transport Plan July 2008.

Contained a proposal to upgrade the Arriva TW Chepstow Line service to hourly in 2010 and to half hourly in 2014 that BT4C supported.
It was hoped that these improvements would be endorsed and authorised by WAG but it is now more than a year since the Draft Regional Transport Plan was produced in July 2008 but the National Transport Plan (NTP) published in July 2009 made no reference to the service improvement.

To see our response please click. "BT4C Response to Sewta RTP"

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