HAVING OUR SAY?

The South East Wales Transport Alliance (SEWTA) is canvassing our opinions on its report (from March 2011) that looks at improvements to rail provision along the Abergavenny to Newport line. The report includes proposals for a new railway station at Caerleon and improvements to existing stations at Abergavenny, Pontypool and New Inn and Cwmbran, has been pout out for public consultation.

The 'Abergavenny to Newport Rail Corridor Option Development and Appraisal' report lists three distinct proposals for rail development:

• The basic option includes improving the interchange and parking facilities at stations in Abergavenny and Cwmbran, providing a disabled access bridge at Cwmbran along with basic improvements at Pontypool and New Inn station.
  
• The middle option adds to the basic proposals by developing Pontypool and New Inn station, and improving parking and access to the A4042, and adding an infill service going from Abergavenny to Cardiff.
  
  
• The enhanced or full option include all of the above with an additional hourly service between Cardiff and Abergavenny and creating a new station at Caerleon. 

The report, produced by Capita Symonds, recommends the medium option with the addition of the new Caerleon station. The report notes that the middle option would “results in over 168,000 new rail trips (105,000 from station improvements and 63,000 from frequency enhancements)”. The report anticipates that something like half of these rail journeys trips would be as a result of people choosing the train rather than the car to travel.

Interestingly enough a new Caerleon railway station is anticipated to add around 93,000 new rail journeys. The report estimates that there would be a increase in passenger numbers on the Abergavenny to Newport line of around thirty two percent when compared with whats happening at the moment.

SEWTA has asked members of the public to give their views of the plans. The consultation period closes on March 12th 2012.

Comments can be emailed to: sewtaconsultation@capita.co.uk or posted to:

Alison Walker
Ty Gwent
Lake View
Llantarnam Park
Cwmbran
NP44 3HR