TRACK TECHNOLOGY
Easing the
Mark Langman, Network Rail route managing director for Wales, spoke to RTM about the recent Loughor Viaduct replacement and track redoubling in south west Wales.
G
ood timetabling can only take services up to a certain rate; eventually track works are necessary to free up bottlenecks and increase capacity on the railway. RTM spoke to Network Rail’s route managing director for Wales, Mark Langman, about the newly- completed £48m South Wales upgrade to replace Loughor Viaduct and redouble a 5.25- mile stretch of track at Gowerton.
Jointly funded by Network Rail and the South West Wales Integrated Transport Consortium (SWWITCH), the Loughor Viaduct replacement was carried out by Carillion and the redoubling was undertaken by a Colas Rail/Morgan Sindall joint venture. The line reopened on April 8.
Langman said: “It’s a huge amount of work done over a 16-day closure: to remove the old viaduct, put in a new one and redouble fi ve and a half miles of track, build a new platform, a new footbridge, put in new signalling. And we managed to open it on time on Monday morning.”
Preparatory work included the installation of a new footbridge at Gowerton station towards the end of January and the upgrade of Duffryn level crossing to accommodate the additional line. Works at the station will also provide new lighting, signage and CCTV.
Doubling the line The
the line at maximum capacity and even limiting the number of stations services could stop at.
“We couldn’t run any more trains on there if we wanted to. In fact the space we had was so tight that at one station, Gowerton, we couldn’t actually stop trains because it would take too long. Effectively you would have trains waiting either side to go through it. It does absolutely transform that railway.”
Arriva Trains Wales has announced in its timetable changes that from May 14 more trains will be calling at Gowerton in each direction, which Langman described as “fairly amazing”.
redouble it.
“Where you’ve got similar sections of single line elsewhere in the country, I’m sure similar challenges could be faced. Certainly exploiting the timetable before you get to those options is the right thing to do. You’ve got to be cost effective but there really was no alternative in the position we found ourselves in down at Loughor and Gowerton.”
Intensive closures
“ This is just the start of the journey of investment for Wales and it’s really great news.”
A new ‘Swanline’ commuter service will also run from Cardiff to Swansea, and all single car trains on the Swansea – Cardiff – Pembroke route will be replaced by two-car
trains,
effectively doubling capacity. Exploiting the infrastructure
To make the most of the infrastructure in place, it was essential to carefully plan services before investing in upgrades such as the redoubling project. In this case, Langman said, there was simply no other option.
Gowerton redoubling “completely
alleviates” a critical bottleneck in South Wales, removing “pretty much the last single line of track between London all the way through to Carmarthen,” as Langman put it.
The single line was constraining services, with 162 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 13
“This redoubling was a great example of where you’ve absolutely exploited the infrastructure that you’ve got and you’ve timetabled it to the max. The only other solution when you get to that situation is to do something to the infrastructure itself. In this instance, it was to
Conducting intensive rail upgrades always presents the issue of balancing passenger disruption with the need to close the railway. Network Rail chose to close the line for a 16-day block, which it concluded was the least disruptive option.
Langman said the alternative would be to have a four-day closure at the start of January every weekend up until Easter and then the four days over Easter to complete the work.
“In the end we plumped for doing as much of the work as we could alongside the open railway throughout that period, and then closing it for 16 days and doing everything at once. We thought overall that was least disruptive, rather than closing it over a period of two or three months. You have to weigh up the options against putting passengers on buses.”
There was a diversionary route available, which allowed passengers to stay on trains for as long as possible. Services were diverted between Llanelli and Neath and only local journeys had to be replaced by buses during the closure.
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