01.12.16
New Cardiff Central station platform to open in New Year
A new platform at Cardiff Central station, designed to help ease congestion, will be unveiled in the New Year as part of Network Rail’s delayed railway upgrade in south Wales.
The brand new platform 8 will come into use on Tuesday 3 January 2017 and is part of the delayed £300m project to renew track and signalling in the Cardiff area as part of the modernisation of the Cardiff and Valleys network. The works will be completed over the festive period.
The track for the platform was installed earlier this year and will enable trains to depart from two platforms simultaneously, improving the line’s operational capacity and improving the reliability of Cardiff’s rail services.
Christian Irwin, programme manager for Network Rail Wales, said: “This brand new platform is designed to ease congestion and is just one of the many elements of this highly complex project to re-model and modernise the railway in South Wales as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan. It will allow the potential for more services to run in the Cardiff area, resulting in an increase in passenger capacity, particularly at peak times.
“We would like to thank the general public and rail passengers for their patience and understanding over the upcoming festive period while we complete this essential final phase of this major upgrade project which will deliver significant passenger benefits.”
Since the project began to modernise the Cardiff network in 2012, Network Rail has replaced ageing signalling equipment, enhanced track layouts, built new platforms and improved train stations.
Network Rail has advised passengers to plan their journey ahead of Christmas and New Year with work due to start on projects across the network on Christmas Eve.
Lee Paxton, head of projects interface at Arriva Trains Wales, said: “Arriva Trains Wales has worked in conjunction with Network Rail in order to deliver this new facility.
“The opening of platform 8 will not only introduce a new platform, waiting area and customer information desk but it will also allow the valley lines to operate more efficiently, easing congestion in and out of Cardiff Central.”
Passengers have been advised to find a breakdown of how their journeys may be affected over the festive period by visiting nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas and following #ChristmasWorks on Twitter.
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