Great Western Railway has announced a new timetable for South Wales which will come into effect from Sunday 15th December.
The new timetable will offer faster journey times along with more frequent services to key locations. Passengers are asked to check their new journey details ahead of the changes following the introduction of the Intercity Express Trains which will run a fully electric timetable from Cardiff to London for the first time.
The introduction of the IETs with their new technology and acceleration allows a typical journey between Cardiff and London to be 1 hour 53 minutes, some 14 minutes shorter.
Trains between Cardiff and Portsmouth will see five carriage Turbo trains replacing the current 3 carriage class 150 units. Services between Cardiff and Taunton/Exeter can expect to see Castle trains running at busy times of the day.
What did the officials say?
Emeritus Professor of Transport (Economics and Policy), University of South Wales, Stuart Cole CBE said:
“This is great news for the economy of South Wales and for cross border rail customers. These new trains will be a great support for visitors and commuters alike and there is more to come as work is completed on electrification to Newport and Cardiff.”
GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood said:
“It's a little over three months until Sunday December 15, and we have been working hard behind the scenes to prepare to implement the biggest timetable change on this network since 1976, enabling us to take advantage of the full benefits that new Intercity Express Trains are bringing.
“In providing more frequent and quicker journeys, our new timetable will for the vast majority of users quite literally mean ‘all change please' and we are looking forward to publishing further details soon.”
Mike Gallop, route managing director for Network Rail, said:
“The timetable change this December will be the biggest since 1976 and will mean faster journeys and more frequent services for passengers.
“It follows unprecedented investment in railway infrastructure including electrification, improved signalling, upgraded stations and much more which together with the introduction of new trains will transform rail travel.”
Alun Cairns, Secretary of State for Wales, said:
“This significant timetable change, which includes a super-fast Cardiff to London train, will make our capital city and the surrounding areas a highly-attractive tourist and commuter destination.
“Making these important changes will not only improve cross-border connectivity and deliver a boost to the economy of south Wales but will also provide rail passengers with the high-quality service they deserve.”
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Those old 150 workhorses have really had their day, It was time to provide passengers with something better, and 5-coach sets will ease regular overcrowding.
GWR are to be congratulated on the use of otherwise redundant HST mini-sets (Castles) on West Country trains, having used them recently find them much better than even the turbo units, they can certainly shift between stations!
Class 165 and Class 166 to be used on Cardiff Central-Portsmouth Harbour. That’s better than using Class 150s. When will GWR introduce the Class 769 to be operated on the North Downs Line as GWR have ordered 19 of them and are to replace the Class 165 & Class 166 so that these Networkers can be moved to other services.