Gareth Stevens

Great, second time this week ⁦@tfwrail⁩ How come the constant ‘good news’ stories don’t match operational reality?

⁦@tfwrail⁩ 0855 cancelled again from Ystrad Mynach? This one’s a regular cancellation.

Arrived in today’s post @WillHayCardiff

@tfwrail Solid 61 mins sat at Heath High Level in the end 👏

@tfwrail But we are stuck at Heath High Level. Is 0830 still the time this will be resolved by?

@tfwrail train arrived at Heath High Level at 07:47, still sat here at 08:02?

@tfwrail Would you recommend walking? It’s now been over 30 mins.

@GStevens01 Hi Gareth, I'm sorry to hear that. Due to a fault on a train at Cardiff Queen Street, services on that line have been disrupted. We expect the incident to last until 08:30, and disruption to services is expected until 09:30. ^Tudur

@tfwrail So do we just wait? Surely another example of no resilience for the real world!

@tfwrail platforms, and in particular steps, are very icy at Ystrad Mynach but no gritting has taken place?

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking cpt-uk.org/news/economic-…

@GStevens01 @ceritheviking Want to re visit that ,there’s no actual link to the report and it’s a picture of a train 🤔 no Mention at all of driving agglomeration effects in the summary.

I love the rail sector. But the fascination with rail over the past 15 years in wales at the expense of bus - bus does well over twice as many passenger journeys pa - has been a failure of transport policy. The two pound capped fare proposal should have come in years ago

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking And the approach of build it and they will come is misplaced. Especially when you factor in the geography and topography of everywhere north of Lisvane on the network! Planning needs to be done for the real world.

@GStevens01 @ceritheviking Capacity on hvy and light rail beats bus. Pontypridd to Cardiff metro would need a double decker bus at 60 second intervals to replicate. Try sending that down the A470 and North road and see what happens rail quicker as well.

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking Bus delivers for the economy - fact! mca.org.uk/consulting-cas…

@GStevens01 @ceritheviking "Hold the economy back with a bus" doesn't really sell does it though?

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking Assuming you have the demand to fill it. More appropriately a nice 10/12 min frequency with proper bus priority would be transformational. Frequency = choice. It would also be delivered without little to no revenue support!

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking And that is their only redeeming feature?!?! There is a lot more in the mix than that.

@GStevens01 @ceritheviking Well if you looked at the comparative GVA per head of city regions you would know the higher performing ones have light rail, underground and extensive heavy rail that do the heavy lifting buses feed into them and fill gaps between main arteries. You don’t get agglomeration…

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking Nonsense.

@GStevens01 @ceritheviking Effects with buses only they maybe cheaper but you also don’t get the same level of outputs. You pays your money etc

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking No idea. Not political. Live in the real world where a dependable and reliable public transport matters.

@ceritheviking @GStevens01 Any idea what Plaids transport policy’s will be beyond “were owed billions from HS2 and will do magic things when we get it”?

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking Different starting points. I’ll happily bookmark this.

@GStevens01 @ceritheviking International and U.K. experience is against you on the “use” front I’m afraid. Come back to us in 2029 after 3 years of full operation of metro and I’ll happily discuss the outstanding usage figures with you.

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking And lastly. The timetable on my line was more ‘customer’ focused under ATW. All that was needed was new rolling stock. We’ve missed a few steps!

@ceritheviking @GStevens01 …..…..black swan events was not ideal and exposed and made worse ssomeproblems mainly around aroundtrying to do too much nceat .

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking But are they *real* benefits?!? Or are we still building someone else’s dream.

@ceritheviking @GStevens01 TfW have not publicly articulated the full Cardiff Crossrail scheme admittedly but there does seem to be confusion as to whose running things …TfW or Cardiff CC…and also a turf war over whose in control…there shouldn’t Be competing bodies .

@MarstonGareth @ceritheviking My timeline reflects my experience in using it. I am constantly told it is better now. It’s not. Operational reality is very different to what the spin tells you. I’d rather people were honest. But then, if we were really honest does Wales want to build something it won’t use

@ceritheviking @GStevens01 Looking at @GStevens01 timeline he’s got an axe to grind on rail. given the rail network in the valleys has literally not had any investment in it for a century and severe rationalisation it was never going to be a 5minute job to update it, doing it concurrently with several…