Great Western Coffee Shop

From Heart (http://www.heart.co.uk/wales/news/traffic-and-travel/train-disruption-between-cardiff-and-newport/#g6XsipqD35agFJAZ.97):

This is for some stagework being carried out for the Cardiff Area Resignalling.

Trains running from Ebbw Vale Parkway (Sat) and Ebbw Vale Town (Sun) to Newport (and many to Gloucester / Cheltenham).

A rare chance to travel between Pye Corner and Newport, but at a fare of ^11.10 return for the 9 minute journey  :o

I was going to 'like' your post, Trowres - but, actually, I'd 'like' the option to 'dislike' the apparently inordinate cost of that rail journey.  :o

Frankly, I'd be tempted to walk instead, and save the money for a beer or two.  ::)

Made the journey with a Melksham - Ebbw Vale Town ticket (somewhat better value). Punctuality of all trains used was excellent. Newport Station was depressing. How could so many bad design points get into one project? Pity the station canopy on platform 1 wasn't extended to meet the new footbridge / entrance structure. Station exit leading to two-stage pedestrian crossing over Queensway into... a car park (I couldn't see any better way into the "city" than crossing this car park).

Train ride to Ebbw Vale was interesting. I nominate this route for the most in need of vegetation cut-back... it's a wonder there's any paint left on the trains. Progress evident on track doubling. Why, o why, did some GSM-R masts and equipment rooms get put on the formation of the second track???

Ebbw Vale Town... typically sterile modern one-platform station with unusual entrance structure and an abundance of CCTV. Planted on the former tinplate works site, it's exit now leads to wide footways, the county archives building and Gwent Coleg. The funicular thingy was closed and there was not a signpost to be seen on how to find an alternative route to the town centre.

Found it eventually. I didn't have high hopes for Ebbw Vale on a Sunday, but Morgan's Wine Bar was a splendid find. Smart surroundings but an excellent Sunday lunch and couple of coffees for a little over ^10. Friendly and attentive staff. It was well patronized by families.

Didn't have time to alight at Pye Corner this time. Its predecessor at Bassaleg Jn would have been my local station, had it not closed when I was about 2 years old.

I recall reading somewhere recently that the "funicular thingy" has been closed a couple of times since opening towards the end of June this year due to "user behaviour", including kicking the doors out of alignment and scaling safety fences, so it could be more of the same that spoilt your chance of a ride:

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/13341850.Vandals_force_Ebbw_Vale_cable_car_to_close_just_a_week_after_opening/ (http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/13341850.Vandals_force_Ebbw_Vale_cable_car_to_close_just_a_week_after_opening/)

User behaviour is the new politically correct name for vandalism.   Somebody who travelled on it last week told me that an attendant was travelling on it.

Indeed, the linked article stated that an "engineer" would be in attendance for the foreseeable future

As a past resident of Risca (which overlooked the line to Ebbw Vale on which I travelled a few months back) I found your comments interesting and found myself agreeing with most - if not all - of what you said. Some station transformation projects (IMHO) work well - such as Reading - but I really don't get what has been done to Newport. Maybe I am missing something


I agree with all of this and everything else from your OP which I have cut out to save a bit of space!


I used to work at the British Alcan Aluminium plant at Rogerstone which is near Bassaleg. I seem to remember at one time there was talk of extending the rail line into the plant to reduce the need for bring ingots in by road. Sadly those plans and the factory itself are a distant memory.

(My emphasis in italics)  Thank you!  ;D

I remember the plan reaching the stage of formal notice in the local rag. i believe that access would have been from the Brecon and Merthyr line, requiring a new bridge across the Ebbw river, although this is my assumption and I never saw any detail. The other route into the Alcan plant was from the Rogerstone marshalling yard via a very low bridge across what was then the main road. The whole area is vastly different now with the yard replaced by the A467 dual carriageway.

On a walk, I once noticed the remnants of a bridge pier in the Ebbw; I wondered whether there had been an earlier link to the works across the river, but I have never found this on any plans.


Edit to fix quoting - Grahame

It is decades since I worked there (it was between 1981 and 1989 if I remember correctly ) but I do recall being shown plans of the planned connection to the rail network and although fairly dim in my memory I thought it was from the Bassaleg side rather than the marshalling yard but could be wrong.

Because the Alcan plant in Rogerstone was in the middle of the process to produce an end product (it was in between smelting which was done in the north east and finished products done elsewhere) it was always squeezed for profit and industrial relations issues didn't help the future of the plant either.

If you travel north from Risca I seem to remember there are remains of an old rail viaduct which crossed from one side of the valley to the other which in it's heyday must have been impressive. My one regret about my time down there is that I didn't take more pictures of the coal mines (and some rail lines) which have long since gone.